White Sox Cash a 16-1 Playoff Bet After 121 Losses

The Chicago White Sox clinched a playoff berth Thursday with a 9-1 win in Kansas City, cashing a 16-1 preseason ticket after three 100-loss years. They are in at 82-77, no worse than an American League wild card, and they still sit one game behind Cleveland.

Across town the Cubs beat Miami 2-1 and clinched too, the first time both Chicago clubs punched October tickets on the same day. The last times both reached the postseason were 1906, 2008 and 2020.

They Saved the Party for the Clubhouse

Nobody poured onto the Kauffman Stadium grass. The White Sox formed a handshake line as if the 9-1 rout were a June matinee, then hid the bottles behind plastic in the visiting room.

It was 6-0 after two innings and 8-0 after four. Catcher Kyle Teel homered, reached base five times and scored three runs. Third baseman Miguel Vargas, who has drawn some MVP talk, started the scoring with an RBI single and added another in the second. Manager Will Venable’s club had been expected to finish last in the AL Central. The room did not look like a last-place club.

This means a lot for us. We’ve been chasing this moment for a long time. It’s special for us. It’s special for the whole organization. This is a special group of guys, and this is the most fun we can have.

Miguel Vargas, White Sox third baseman, in the clubhouse

The club said the quiet part on its own account, in all caps.

YOUR 2026 CHICAGO WHITE SOX ARE HEADING TO THE POSTSEASON! pic.twitter.com/2ndXpkoqwU

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) September 24, 2026

Munetaka Murakami, soaked and grinning, was asked to score his first big-league clinch party on a 1-to-10 scale and skipped the scale. He went to 100. Shortstop Colson Montgomery, champagne running off his goggles, put it in fewer words.

W’s are all that matters. You see this? This is all that matters. Whatever I can do to help the team, that’s all I care about.

Colson Montgomery, White Sox shortstop, in the clubhouse

Venable already had the plane ride on his mind. “They know what this is about,” he said. “This comes with the expectation that this was going to happen, which is really cool. They’re definitely letting loose right now. We’ll have a fun plane ride, but then back to business tomorrow.”

A 16-1 Ticket Comes Due in Kansas City

DraftKings listed the White Sox at 16-1 to make the playoffs before the season, tied for the second-longest price on the board behind Colorado at 35-1. That number looked generous in April, when Chicago started 6-13 and resembled the club that had just lost 102 games.

THE PRESEASON PRICE

• The ticket: 16-1 on DraftKings to reach the postseason, with Colorado out at 35-1.
• The hole: A 6-13 start in April that matched the three-year losing streak.
• The climb: From 41 wins in 2024 and 60 in 2025 to 82 with three games left.
• The record: First club to follow at least two straight 100-loss seasons with a playoff berth.

The price was a March artifact by August. Chicago led the Central for much of the year and by as many as 5 1/2 games in mid-August, then watched Cleveland take first in mid-September and keep it. The ticket still had to be punched. Thursday’s 9-1 win punched it.

This is the club’s 12th postseason trip. An 82-77 team is in. A 77-82 Toronto club is out. That gap is the expanded wild card in one line, and it is why a 16-1 number from March still stings people who bought the other side.

What Chicago Got Back for Crochet

The bet that actually built this roster was placed on Dec. 11, 2024, when general manager Chris Getz sent left-hander Garrett Crochet to Boston. Crochet had just struck out 209 batters in 146 innings over 32 starts, with a 3.58 ERA, on a 41-121 team. Getz wanted a rebuild in a hurry. He took four players from Boston’s top prospects: catcher Kyle Teel (then MLB’s No. 25 overall prospect), outfielder Braden Montgomery (No. 54, the 12th pick in the 2024 draft), infielder Chase Meidroth and right-hander Wikelman Gonzalez.

“Talk about accelerating a rebuild,” Getz said that week. “This was a deal that we feel like can do that.” He also said the package cleared the bar Chicago had set at the 2024 trade deadline, which is why he waited until winter to move the ace.

WHAT BOSTON SENT TO CHICAGO

• Kyle Teel: Homers, reaches base five times and scores three runs in the clincher.
• Chase Meidroth: Collects a couple of hits and runs his on-base streak to 15 games.
• Braden Montgomery: Batting last, he singles and scores in a three-run second inning.
• Wikelman Gonzalez: The fourth piece in the deal, a right-hander, was not in Thursday’s lineup.

Teel, Meidroth and Braden Montgomery were all in the batting order that finished Kansas City. Two winters after the trade, the return was not a future core. It was the present.

Three Teammates All Cleared 30 Homers

The other half of the wager arrived on Dec. 21, 2025, when Murakami left the Tokyo Yakult Swallows on a two-year, $34 million contract. Chicago paid Yakult a $6,575,000 posting fee. Murakami gets a $1 million signing bonus, $16 million in 2026 and $17 million in 2027. He is 26. He hit 56 homers in Japan in 2022. He opened this season by homering in each of his first three big-league games, then spent a month on the injured list with a hamstring strain and still finished Thursday with 33 homers.

THREE 30-HOMER BATS

Vargas is the cleanest of the three, a.252 hitter with 21 stolen bases who drove in two runs Thursday and has been on base in 12 of his last 13 games. Murakami is a.204 hitter who still reached at a.348 clip because he walked 92 times against 192 strikeouts. Colson Montgomery is the loudest tradeoff on the roster, a.200 hitter who has 223 strikeouts this season, tying Mark Reynolds’ single-season record, and 31 homers beside them.

The last White Sox club with three 30-homer bats was 2008, when Carlos Quentin, Jermaine Dye and Jim Thome did it and that team made the playoffs too. Murakami, speaking through the mess in the clubhouse, did not treat Thursday as a finish line. “This is what the White Sox is. We come together,” he said, “and this is not the end. We’re going to start from here.”

No Team Had Done This After Two 100-Loss Years

The 2017 Twins and the 2024 Royals are the only other clubs in the Expansion Era to reach the playoffs the season after a 100-loss year. Minnesota went from 59-103 to 85-77 and lost a wild-card game. Kansas City went from 56-106 to 86-76, swept a wild-card series, then lost in the Division Series. Neither of those teams had just posted two 100-loss seasons in a row. Chicago had three.

League research counts 96 teams with 100 or more losses since 1961. Those clubs averaged 68 wins the next year. Chicago already has 82, with Colorado still on the schedule.

THE PATH FROM 121 LOSSES

1. 2023: Loses 101 games and finishes last in the Central.
2. 2024: Goes 41-121, the most losses in the modern era, and trades Crochet that December.
3. 2025: Improves to 60-102 in Venable’s first year and still finishes last.
4. December 21, 2025: Signs Murakami for $34 million plus the posting fee.
5. April 2026: Starts 6-13 and looks like the same club.
6. September 24, 2026: Beats Kansas City 9-1 and clinches a playoff spot at 82-77.

From 41 wins to 82 is a 41-win jump in two seasons. From 60 to 82 is 22 wins in one. The 1967 Cubs and 1989 Orioles still hold the Expansion-era mark for wins right after a 100-loss year, at 87. Chicago can get to 85 if it sweeps Colorado. That is no longer the point. The point is October, and the White Sox are in it.

Cleveland Still Owns a One-Game Lead

The Guardians beat Boston 1-0 on Thursday and clinched a playoff spot of their own, their third straight October. They are 83-76. Chicago is 82-77. The White Sox already took the season series, winning seven of 13 games by a combined 58-57, so a tie for the Central would give Chicago the title and, as the bracket sits, a likely No. 2 seed and a bye into the Division Series. Wild-card series start Sept. 29. Division Series start Oct. 3.

THE LAST THREE GAMES

Colorado is last in the National League West. Kansas City is last in the Central at 68-91. Chicago cannot control what Cleveland does in that stadium, which is one reason the handshake line stayed on the dirt. The White Sox still need a little help from the club they just beat up.

Run differential backs the 82 wins. Chicago has 760 runs scored and 708 allowed, a plus-52 that Pythagorean math turns into an 85-74 team. They have been a different club at Rate Field (46-32) than on the road (36-45). The next three are at home.

If Chicago falls short of Cleveland, the likely path is a No. 6 seed in a best-of-three against the AL West winner. If Chicago catches Cleveland, or ties it, the 16-1 ticket pays a second time: a bye, home games in October, and a division flag on a roster that lost 121 games two years ago. Murakami already said the quiet part. They are starting from here, not ending.