Worst Record in MLB History

The worst regular-season record in MLB history belongs to the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, who finished 20-134 for a staggering .130 winning percentage. That mark, more than a century old, has never been threatened, though the modern game has produced its own monuments to futility in the 1962 New York Mets and the 2024 Chicago White Sox.

“Worst record” splits into two questions in baseball, because the schedule and conditions have changed enormously since the 1800s. One measure is winning percentage; the other is raw losses in a season. Here is how the game’s worst teams stack up, why the Spiders sit alone at the bottom, and how the modern record for losses finally changed hands. All figures are through the 2025 season.

The record holder: the 1899 Cleveland Spiders

The 1899 Cleveland Spiders went 20-134, the worst record baseball has ever seen. The collapse was engineered from the top: the Robison brothers owned both the Spiders and the St. Louis Perfectos, and they shipped Cleveland’s best players, including a young Cy Young, to St. Louis. What remained in Cleveland was a skeleton crew that lost 40 of its final 41 games.

The Spiders played the vast majority of their schedule on the road, drew almost no fans, and were nicknamed the “Misfits.” The team folded when the National League contracted to eight clubs after the season. It stands as a record that reflects a broken business model as much as bad baseball, which is part of why it has proved untouchable.

The full leaderboard of MLB futility

The table below ranks the worst full seasons in MLB history, blending the 19th-century record with the worst of the modern era.

Team	Season	Record	Win%	Note
Cleveland Spiders	1899	20-134	.130	Worst record ever
Philadelphia Athletics	1916	36-117	.235	Worst modern win%
New York Mets	1962	40-120	.250	Expansion futility
Chicago White Sox	2024	41-121	.253	Most losses, modern era
Detroit Tigers	2003	43-119	.265	119 losses, near the record

The Spiders sit apart at the top. The rest of the list is drawn from the modern era, where the worst winning percentage belongs to the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics and the most losses now belongs to the 2024 White Sox.

The 1962 Mets: the face of futility

For most of baseball history, the modern standard for a bad team was the 1962 New York Mets. In their inaugural season the expansion Mets went 40-120, a .250 winning percentage, and turned losing into folklore. Manager Casey Stengel’s plea, “Can’t anybody here play this game?”, became the season’s epitaph, and first baseman Marv Throneberry became an unlikely symbol of lovable ineptitude.

The Mets’ 120 losses stood as the modern record for 62 years. It was the number every struggling team was measured against, and for a long time it looked safe.

The 2024 White Sox: a new low for losses

That changed in 2024, when the Chicago White Sox finished 41-121 and lost 121 games, one more than the 1962 Mets, to set the modern record for losses in a single season. The White Sox endured a 21-game losing streak in the second half, itself an American League record, and were eliminated from contention early. Unlike the expansion Mets, this was an established franchise that simply collapsed.

The White Sox’s .253 winning percentage was actually a hair better than the Mets’ .250 because they played a 162-game schedule, but the loss column is what made history. It was the first time the modern loss record had moved since 1962.

Winning percentage versus losses

The distinction matters. By winning percentage, the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics’ 36-117 (.235) is the worst modern season, worse even than the Mets or White Sox. By total losses, the 2024 White Sox lead the modern era at 121. And by any measure, the 1899 Spiders’ 20-134 remains the outright worst.

These futility marks are the mirror image of baseball’s greatest seasons. For the other end of the spectrum, see our guide to the best regular-season record in MLB history, and for the streaks that define the worst stretches, the longest losing streaks in MLB history.

Why these records endure

Baseball’s worst seasons stick around because they are so hard to repeat. A 121-loss year requires not just a bad roster but health, scheduling, and a long enough season to accumulate the defeats. The 1899 Spiders needed an ownership loophole that no longer exists. The 1962 Mets needed expansion. Each record is a product of its moment.

That is why the loss record went untouched for six decades and why the Spiders’ winning percentage may never fall. They are less about a single team being historically inept and more about rare circumstances stacking up all at once.

The short version: the 1899 Cleveland Spiders own the worst record in MLB history at 20-134 (.130), the 1916 Athletics hold the worst modern winning percentage at .235, and the 2024 White Sox set the modern loss record at 121, passing the 1962 Mets. Through the 2025 season, those marks define baseball’s floor.