The 2025 MLB regular season has been nothing short of brutal for the Colorado Rockies and their fans. But how historically bad could it get by the end of September?
Once Colorado officially registered the fewest wins through 70 games last month, ESPN put together two lists of MLB team futility: one with the worst records ever and another with the most losses in one season. With their .229 winning percentage through 96 games, the Rockies are in the conversation with legendary disasters like the 1899 Cleveland Spiders and the 2024 Chicago White Sox – teams that redefined what it means to lose at the highest level.
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ESPN’s Historical Breakdown: MLB’s Team Hall of Shame
According to ESPN, here are the six worst team records in MLB history. Squads had to play in at least 150 games and were ranked by winning percentage (worst is first, because duh):
- 1899 Cleveland Spiders: 20-134, .130 winning percentage
- 1916 Philadelphia Athletics: 36-117, .235 winning percentage
- 1935 Boston Braves: 38-115, .248 winning percentage
- 1962 New York Mets: 40-120, .250 winning percentage
- 1904 Washington Senators: 38-113, .252 winning percentage
- 2024 Chicago White Sox: 41-121, .253 winning percentage
The Spiders’ unsightly .130 winning percentage has stood untouched for over a century, representing the absolute floor of professional baseball performance. You’d have to hope that record is unbreakable.
The other list detailing the most losses in a season tells a similarly grim story:
- 1899 Cleveland Spiders: 134 losses
- 2024 Chicago White Sox: 121 losses
- 1962 New York Mets: 120 losses
- 2003 Detroit Tigers: 119 losses
- 1916 Philadelphia Athletics: 117 losses
Where the Rockies Currently Stand
The coLLorado #Rockies are 22-74
What went wrong: offense bad, defense bad
What went right: umm Moniak 2 RBIs? Doyle sick play in center
Exciting Losses: 11
Infuriating Losses: 19The Rox scored 8 runs in a 3 game series at GABP. There are no words
Thank you GOD for this…
— Spencer Smith (@BDSpenc) July 13, 2025
We’ve reached MLB’s unofficial halfway point of the regular season with the arrival of the All-Star break. And for Rockies fans, they can finally take a quick breath. Through their first 96 games, Colorado has gone 22-74 and is already 35.5 games out of first place in the National League West.
If their current .229 winning percentage holds the remainder of the season, the Rockies would finish with about 37 wins. That’d put them right in the thick of the above very sad lists. And if they finish with fewer than 40 victories, they would overtake the 2024 Chicago White Sox in the loss column.
A Brief June Respite
The Rockies’ monthly performance shows a season that began spectacularly bad — and then somehow got worse — before starting to show some signs of life. Here’s Colorado’s record by month so far in 2025:
- March: 1-3
- April: 4-22
- May: 4-24
- June: 10-16
- July (so far): 3-9
Starting slow in March isn’t that crazy since there’s only a limited opportunity. But that span between April and May was especially brutal. I mean, when it takes you until June to reach double-digit victories, something terrible is going on.
But then came June, and a glimmer of hope. No, not a winning month, but your more “standard” losing month. Their 10 June wins were more than what the Rockies produced through the season’s first three months. It’s still early in July, but if they can keep some semblance of that pace from last month, they can avoid making sad history by the end of September.
Comparing the 2025 Rockies to the 2024 White Sox
When the White Sox were going through their own bout of historic futility in 2024, we kept on having to refer back to the 1962 Mets (mostly because it was their modern-day loss record they eventually surpassed). Little did we know that the same conversations would be happening again the following year.
When we look at Chicago’s monthly results from last season, they went on a different route toward setting a new modern record for most losses in a season. Here’s a look at the breakdown:
- March: 0-3
- April: 6-21
- May: 9-19
- June: 9-19
- July: 3-22
- August: 4-22
- September: 10-15
The start of their campaign was certainly terrible, but the wheels didn’t really start to fall off until July and August, when the White Sox went a combined 7-44. That is tough, folks. So, heading into September, it seemed like they would easily break the Mets’ record of 120 losses.
But that’s when they woke up a bit. Sure, Chicago still broke the record, but at least they just barely did it, right? Going 41-121 has to be better than the alternative of it being worse. Or, does it even matter at that point? That’s up for debate.
Either way, that performance over the season’s final month helped distance the White Sox from some of the absolute worst team records in MLB history. The Rockies could do the same if they can avoid a second-half swoon. Whether they can actually make that happen or not remains to be seen.
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