During the 2024 season, the Chicago White Sox lost a modern MLB record 121 games — a masterpiece of baseball schadenfreude that no living person had ever seen before. Bettors delighted in regularly fading those White Sox and profited handsomely.
Yet, just one season later, another franchise is giving those White Sox (still near the bottom of the MLB barrel themselves) a run at history. Through 50 games, the Colorado Rockies are an astounding 8-42. That’s a .160 winning percentage that puts them on pace to win only 26 games and lose 136, breaking the modern MLB loss record set less than a year ago.
And as with the 2024 White Sox, bettors are fading the 2025 Rockies en masse and avoiding backing them at all costs.
ESPN BET reports that Colorado has attracted the least moneyline bets of any MLB team this season, while the team playing against the Rockies are a top-three most-bet team on almost any given day. For Colorado’s most recent series with the Philadelphia Phillies, the visiting Phillies were the sportsbook’s most-backed MLB team of the day in three of those four games and the second-most backed in the other.
The Phillies ended up handing the Rockies yet another series sweep, and things may not be getting better for the Denver-based squad anytime soon, as they’ll face a gauntlet of the New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs and New York Mets over their next three series.
“We need the Rockies on a daily basis,” Caesars Sportsbook lead MLB trader Eric Biggio told ESPN. “Especially if they’re in a standalone spot where there’s not much other stuff going on, we have to really push the price out to a good level to get any kind of money on the Rockies.”
Since reaching a major-league-long odds of -400 on May 4 on the road against the San Francisco Giants, bookmakers have routinely handicapped the Rockies’ opponents in the -300 range, but to absolutely no avail.
The fades on Colorado keep flowing and for good reason. Even as the team draws big plus-odds each night, a $100 bettor would still be down $2,701, according to Covers.com. Thus, betting against them each night becomes a viable strategy for bettors and a terror for sportsbooks.
“This becomes a bookmaker’s nightmare if this continues to go on for a complete year, because there’s nothing we can do about it,” DraftKings head of sportsbook Johnny Avello said. “We can raise the price, but that’s not going to stop anyone if the teams are that bad.”
Even on the road, the Yankees are laying -300 on the moneyline and even a very rare -3.5 run line on Friday night, according to ESPN BET lines. Avello notes his book is routinely rising above the standard -1.5 run line given how poor this Rockies team has been. By DraftKings spreads, Colorado is an MLB-worst 16-34 against the run line, even after being underdogs in every single game.
Given the long moneylines, bettors are starting to get creative with how they fade the Rockies. Coors Field has long been a notorious hitter’s park due to Denver’s altitude, making it a clear target for overs on the total. However, with the 2025 Rockies being very lackluster on both sides of the ball, bettors are looking at lots of runs for just the away team.
“The people recognize, ‘Hey, the Rockies aren’t scoring much, the opposing team is,’ so they’re betting the Rockies team total under and the opponent over,” said Biggio. “It’s not rocket science, but it is turning into a kind of big decision on top of the normal markets for baseball.”
This really came to a head on May 10, when the San Diego Padres came to town and defeated Colorado by a ridiculous score of 21-0. Biggio says that the next day, bettors flooded the market, backing the Padres on the moneyline, run line and team total.
However, then something remarkable happened: The Rockies won 9-3, their seventh win of the season. Biggio says it was a huge win for the book, equivalent to an “NFL Sunday kind of decision.”
“Teams playing the Rockies are regularly among the most-bet MLB teams of the day on both the moneyline and run line, so the rare Rockies win is something of a bright spot,” ESPN BET director of North American sports trading Adrian Horton said over email. “However, those wins don’t outweigh the good days for bettors taking whoever is playing against Colorado.”
Barring a huge turnaround for Colorado, the books are likely making some money back on season win total. Before the campaign, sportsbooks set the Rockies’ win total at a consensus 59.5. That’s low, but notably higher than the White Sox’ historically low 53.5. Caesars and DraftKings both report that a majority of money was on the over, citing preseason optimism and general bettor behavior that gravitates to the over.
Since then, books have been consistently dropping that total throughout the season, and it currently stands at 39.5 headed into the weekend series with the Yankees. Biggio says it’s the lowest in-season win total he’s ever seen.
During the current monster stretch of the Rockies’ schedule, sportsbooks aren’t likely to get much respite from the beatings they’re taking on a daily basis. However, there is possibly some relief on the horizon. Following this tough section, Colorado gets the NL East bottom-dwelling Miami Marlins and, for July 4th weekend, the Rockies will take on the White Sox in what has to be one of the most strangely anticipated matchups of the season.
“These prices are already out of control as far as what you have to lay to win to win a dollar, so that won’t stop betters from either betting [their opponents] straight or parlaying them,” said Avello. “We have to just weather this storm, though. We can adjust prices, but we just have to wait for a time when maybe they get on track a little bit and win a few games.”
Bobby Jenks, a two-time All-Star pitcher for the Chicago White Sox who was on the roster when the franchise won the 2005 World Series, died Friday in Sintra, Portugal, the team announced.
Jenks, 44, who had been diagnosed with adenocarcinoma, a form of stomach cancer, this year, spent six seasons with the White Sox from 2005 to 2010 and also played for the Boston Red Sox in 2011. The reliever finished his major league career with a 16-20 record, 3.53 ERA and 173 saves.
“We have lost an iconic member of the White Sox family today,” White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said in a statement. “None of us will ever forget that ninth inning of Game 4 in Houston, all that Bobby did for the 2005 World Series champions and for the entire Sox organization during his time in Chicago. He and his family knew cancer would be his toughest battle, and he will be missed as a husband, father, friend and teammate. He will forever hold a special place in all our hearts.”
After Jenks moved to Portugal last year, he was diagnosed with a deep vein thrombosis in his right calf. That eventually spread into blood clots in his lungs, prompting further testing. He was later diagnosed with adenocarcinoma and began undergoing radiation.
In February, as Jenks was being treated for the illness, the White Sox posted “We stand with you, Bobby” on Instagram, adding in the post that the club was “thinking of Bobby as he is being treated.”
In 2005, as the White Sox ended an 88-year drought en route to the World Series title, Jenks appeared in six postseason games. Chicago went 11-1 in the playoffs, and he earned saves in series-clinching wins in Game 3 of the ALDS at Boston, and Game 4 of the World Series against the Houston Astros.
In 2006, Jenks saved 41 games, and the following year, he posted 40 saves. He also retired 41 consecutive batters in 2007, matching a record for a reliever.
“You play for the love of the game, the joy of it,” Jenks said in his last interview with SoxTV last year. “It’s what I love to do. I [was] playing to be a world champion, and that’s what I wanted to do from the time I picked up a baseball.”
A native of Mission Hills, California, Jenks appeared in 19 games for the Red Sox and was originally drafted by the then-Anaheim Angels in the fifth round of the 2000 draft.
Jenks is survived by his wife, Eleni Tzitzivacos, their two children, Zeno and Kate, and his four children from a prior marriage, Cuma, Nolan, Rylan and Jackson.
ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.
NEW YORK — The New York Yankees, digging for options to bolster their infield, have signed third baseman Jeimer Candelario to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, the affiliate announced Saturday.
Candelario, 31, was released by the Cincinnati Reds on June 23, halfway through a three-year, $45 million contract he signed before the start of last season. The decision was made after Candelario posted a .707 OPS in 2024 and batted .113 with a .410 OPS in 22 games for the Reds before going on the injured list in April with a back injury.
The performance was poor enough for Cincinnati to cut him in a move that Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall described as a sunk cost.
For the Yankees, signing Candelario is a low-cost flier on a player who recorded an .807 OPS just two seasons ago as they seek to find a third baseman to move Jazz Chisholm Jr. to second base, his natural position.
Candelario is the second veteran infielder the Yankees have signed to a minor league contract in the past three days; they agreed to terms with Nicky Lopez on Thursday.
Snell and Treinen each faced hitters Saturday, and Snell pitched two innings. Each could begin a rehab assignment after the All-Star break.
The 32-year-old Snell has pitched in two games for the Dodgers following his five-year, $182 million free agent deal after spending last season with the San Francisco Giants and three before that with the San Diego Padres. He is a two-time Cy Young Award winner.
“(Snell) looked good. He looked really good,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I don’t know what the velo was but the ball was coming out really well. He used his entire pitch mix. I thought the delivery was clean, sharp, so really positive day.”
The Dodgers’ starting rotation has been injury-prone this season but is starting to get a boost from Shohei Ohtani, the two-way superstar who is working as an opener in his return from elbow surgery.
Treinen is looking to get back to his role in the back end of the bullpen. He threw one inning Saturday.
“Blake Treinen I thought was really good as well,” Roberts said. “Both those guys should be ready at some point in time shortly after the All-Star break.”