How much is the Chicago White Sox payroll to be this bad?

The Chicago White Sox are off to their worst start in franchise history. For context about how historically bad that is, the Sox have been around since 1900.

The Sox are dead last in the majors in runs scored, OPS, and home runs. Only the Minnesota Twins have a worse team batting average and it is just by a point.

The White Sox have been shut out in six of their first 16 games. Only the Brooklyn Superbas have accomplished that level of failure. That is what the Los Angeles Dodgers were known as in 1907.

How much is the team spending to be this bad?

The Sox started the season with a payroll of $142,995,900 according to USA Today. That ranks them 15th in the MLB.

The current active player payroll according to Spotrac is a shade over $73 million since Yoan Moncada and Luis Robert Jr. are on IL. With those two on IL along with reliever John Brebbia on the 15-day IL, the Sox have over $45 million in payroll not playing.

Moncada has the highest payroll figure with a $24.8 million salary. Since Moncada is on the 60-day IL, that puts the struggling Andrew Benintendi at the top of the current active player payroll list. Spotrac has his payroll number at $17.1 million to hit .169. Benintendi also got the richest free agent contract from the White Sox last offseason.

He has continued on the tradition established by Adam Dunn of underachieving after joining the club on a rich free-agent deal. Yasmani Grandal and Dallas Keuchel are also a part of that miserable heritage.

The Oakland A's are the only team in Major League Baseball other than the White Sox to not hand out a contract over $100 million--the going rate for outstanding talent in the big leagues.

Paying Moncada before he earned a high average value and committing the biggest contract to a non-power-hitting corner outfielder in Benintendi is a big reason this team saw a contention window slam abruptly shut. Also, the owner putting self-imposed spending restrictions and refusing to pay the going rate for talent to put a team over the top is another big reason the White Sox are currently in this horrible state.

The good news is the Sox only have three players next season with guaranteed deals. The probable bad news is the team is unlikely to spend enough to get back to being competitive.