Today’s story doesn’t feature the current versions of the Oakland Athletics and Kansas City Royals, but that’s only because the 2023 season still has a week to run.
I’ve devoted the past three months to an analysis of the worst ballclubs in baseball’s Modern Era, a span that dates back to 1961. Successive Monday installments have focused on five-year intervals, beginning with 1961-1965.
We’ve now arrived at the final half-decade, which really doesn’t fit the definition at all. It encompasses only the two seasons that were most recently completed, 2021 and 2022. That’s good news for Oakland and Kansas City, whose 2023 clubs are so terrible that they would undoubtedly be spotlighted here if the current season had been included in the rankings.
Their absence opens the door for the Baltimore Orioles, whose 2021 squad has the unhappy distinction of being the worst over the period of 2021-2022.
Today’s rankings are powered by my calculations of team scores, which are plotted on an equalized 100-point scale. (Click here to learn how TS is figured.)
The 2021 versions of the Orioles and the Arizona Diamondbacks suffered 110 defeats apiece, the most losses for any club during the two-year period. The TS formula considers Baltimore (11.059 points) to have been considerably worse than Arizona (16.829), based on their offensive and pitching performances.
Rounding out the bottom five in today’s rankings are the 2022 Oakland Athletics, 2022 Washington Nationals, and 2021 Pittsburgh Pirates.
Look below for a list of 2021-2022’s 10 worst teams. Each is shown with its win-loss record and the percentage of Modern Era clubs that it outperformed. (A total of 1,656 big-league clubs played between 1961 and 2022.) Team scores and additional information are provided for the five squads that were the very worst.
You can find the full set of rankings in this series by following these links: 1961-1965, 1966-1970, 1971-1975, 1976-1980, 1981-1985, 1986-1990, 1991-1995, 1996-2000, 2001-2005, 2006-2010, 2011-2015, and 2016-2020.
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1. Baltimore Orioles (2021)
Record: 52-110
Team score: 11.059 points
Modern Era percentile: 1.0%
Manager: Brandon Hyde
Stars: Center fielder Cedric Mullins finished ninth in the race for the American League’s Most Valuable Player Award. He batted .291 with 30 home runs. First baseman Ryan Mountcastle led the club with 33 homers. John Means posted the starting rotation’s best ERA (3.62).
Bottom line: The Orioles had suffered 108 defeats in 2019 — the last full season before the Covid pandemic — so it seemed perfectly normal for them to lose 110 games in 2021. They endured streaks of 14 consecutive defeats in May and 19 straight in August.
2. Arizona Diamondbacks (2021)
Record: 52-110
Team score: 16.829 points
Modern Era percentile: 2.9%
Manager: Torey Lovullo
Stars: Center fielder Ketel Marte topped the Diamondbacks with a .318 batting average. Third baseman Eduardo Escobar was the team leader in homers (22) and runs batted in (65). Zac Gallen, a 25-year-old pitcher, registered 139 strikeouts, the most on Arizona’s staff.
Bottom line: San Francisco (107-55) and Los Angeles (106-56) set a torrid pace in the National League West, while the Diamondbacks finished 55 games off the pace. Arizona played its worst ball in May and June, winning only eight of 56 games.
3. Oakland Athletics (2022)
Record: 60-102
Team score: 18.351 points
Modern Era percentile: 4.0%
Manager: Mark Kotsay
Stars: First baseman Seth Brown hit more homers (25) and drove home more runs (73) than anybody else on Oakland’s roster. Catcher Sean Murphy led the club with 67 runs scored and a .332 on-base percentage. Cole Irvin won nine games, outperforming all other A’s pitchers.
Bottom line: The Athletics made three straight playoff appearances from 2018 to 2020 and stayed above .500 in 2021. But they plummeted badly in 2022. A 10-game losing streak in June sent them to the bottom of the American League West, where they remained the rest of the year.
4. Washington Nationals (2022)
Record: 55-107
Team score: 19.213 points
Modern Era percentile: 4.5%
Manager: Dave Martinez
Stars: Right fielder Juan Soto launched 21 homers before being traded to San Diego in early August. His total remained Washington’s highest at the end of the season. Designated hitter Nelson Cruz drove home 64 runs at age 42. Starting pitcher Josiah Gray finished with a 7-10 record.
Bottom line: The Nationals were just three years removed from their 2019 world championship when they plunged 52 games below .500 in 2022. A midsummer drought (15-37 in July and August) cemented their hold on last place in the National League East.
5. Pittsburgh Pirates (2021)
Record: 61-101
Team score: 21.054 points
Modern Era percentile: 6.1%
Manager: Derek Shelton
Stars: Second baseman Adam Frazier batted .324 in 98 games before being traded to the San Diego Padres. Center fielder Bryan Reynolds hit .302 with 24 homers and 90 runs batted in. Chris Stratton went 7-1 with eight saves in 68 relief appearances.
Bottom line: Pittsburgh finished last in the National League Central in 2021, just as it had in 2019 and 2020. The ’21 squad split its first 24 games, then spiraled out of control. The Pirates won only 49 of their final 138 games.
Next five
6. Texas Rangers (2021), 60-102, 6.2%
7. Kansas City Royals (2022), 65-97, 9.6%
8. Pittsburgh Pirates (2022), 62-100, 10.0%
9. Cincinnati Reds (2022), 62-100, 10.2%
10. Detroit Tigers (2022), 66-96, 10.6%