With the first 30 games past us, RotoWire.com looked into the past five years of data (2021-2025 seasons) to see which MLB teams have had the worst starting stretches. We used Baseball-Reference.com for the results from each team's first 30 games, and ranked teams based on lowest to highest 5-year winning percentage.
Top 10 Worst 5-Year MLB Starting Stretches
Rank | Team | Avg. W-L% |
1 | Colorado Rockies | .327 |
2 | Chicago White Sox | .360 |
3 | Miami Marlins | .400 |
T4 | Washington Nationals | .420 |
T4 | Athletics | .420 |
6 | Detroit Tigers | .433 |
T7 | Cincinnati Reds | .440 |
T7 | Kansas City Royals | .440 |
T9 | Los Angeles Angels | .473 |
T9 | Pittsburgh Pirates | .473 |
Rockies, White Sox Struggle Early
Look away, Rockies fans. The last five seasons have not gotten off to great starts at Coors Field, and unfortunately 2025 was no different. Under skipper Bud Black, the Rockies appear overmatched to start the season out of Spring Training, with the club posting the worst average W-L percentage across MLB in the first month of the season since 2021.
This trend unfortunately speaks to a bigger issue in Colorado, as the club hasn't posted a winning season since 2018. The first 30 games of the current year didn't help buck the trend either, with the Rockies going 5-25 to start the 2025 campaign.
It's a similar tale in the Windy City, albeit over a sample size that covers a few different skippers in the dugout. The White Sox posted the second-worst winning percentage over their first 30 since 2021, a time frame that covers seasons under Tony La Russa, Pedro Grifol and Will Venable.
It wasn't until 2023 though under Grifol where the wheels truly fell off. The Sox went 8-22 to start that year, followed by 6-24 to start 2024 and 7-23 this season (the first under Venable.) Those three seasons put the Sox in unfortunate company at the top of this list.
Other April Underachievers
What other clubs have been slow to adjust away from Spring Training in recent seasons?
The Marlins, Nationals and Athletics are next on the list, to little surprise. None have made the postseason since the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign, which of course didn't count towards our data. Nats skipper Davey Martinez may still be dining out on the club's 2019 World Series victory, but push will come to shove soon in D.C.
A's manager Mark Kotsay has also yet to win more than 69 games in a full-season in the dugout, but gets the benefit of the doubt with the club's relocation debacle. Plus, he has the club over .500 in early May this season. Keep an eye on the A's to shed the early season-blues label in the years to come.
New Marlins skipper Clayton McCullough - a longtime coach with the Dodgers - will try desperately to bring his former club's winning ways to Miami - but a 12-18 start to this season wasn't ideal.
Rounding out the list were the L.A. Angels and the Pittsburgh Pirates, both of whom have been reeling in recent years due to losing superstars (the Angels and Shohei Ohtani) or failing to sign any (Bob Nutting's Pirates).
