The 2024 White Sox: A Journey to the MLB’s All-Time Worst Record | Sports

MORE THAN 17,000 followers — and 375 canine, attending the season's closing Dog Day promotion — descended upon Guaranteed Rate Field on Tuesday, there to see the Chicago White Sox set the modern-day mark for losses in a single season. One fan even printed out a tough ticket for the sport.

“It's history,” he stated. “I want to have a piece of it.”

Inside the clubhouse, gamers have taken the ignominy in stride over the previous 156 video games, 120 of them losses. But figuring out that this record-setting second was coming did not take away the sting of its arrival.

“This isn't the kind of attention we want,” outfielder/first baseman Gavin Sheets advised what was the largest media contingent of the 12 months, in accordance to a number of gamers.

Six hours later — after a pregame rain delay of an hour and 5 minutes adopted by an eighth-inning comeback in opposition to the Los Angeles Angels — the White Sox ended the night time precisely the place they began it: one sport away from changing into the worst crew in fashionable baseball historical past.

Chicago improved to 1-94 when trailing after seven innings — however celebrated the victory on the mound to boos loud sufficient to be heard by the stadium. The followers' difficult emotions confirmed all sport lengthy, with a mixture of cheers and boos when issues went proper for the dwelling crew and at others chanting “Sell the team!” when issues went unsuitable.

“First comeback win being this late in the season is hard to believe,” outfielder Andrew Benintendi stated after the sport. “People here tonight were trying to see history. They're going to have to wait one more day. Maybe.”

There are unhealthy groups in each baseball season. Some of them lose 100 video games, perhaps extra. That was the destiny many anticipated for Chicago – even inside the franchise — coming off a 101-loss 2023 season. But except they've 5 extra surprising wins in them, the 2024 Chicago White Sox will quickly dwell in baseball infamy as the worst crew ever, supplanting the 1962 New York Mets who have been 40-120.

“I think if you would have told me we were going to end up flirting with the record I would have been a little surprised,” basic supervisor Chris Getz stated Sept. 16. “Now if you would have told me prior to the year that we would have ended up with over 100 losses, 105, 110, I wouldn't have been as surprised. But this is the cards that we've been dealt at this point.”

How does a crew go from profitable its division three seasons in the past to creating a brand new customary for failure? A catastrophe of this magnitude should have a number of tributaries. It's not solely about the decades-long behavior of proprietor Jerry Reinsdorf loyally clinging to workers previous peak effectiveness. “Old news,” stated one staffer. It's not solely a few wave of accidents; numerous groups cope with numerous accidents. It's not solely a few first-time supervisor whose tenure was contaminated by a poisonous clubhouse combine. Lots of groups have veterans who do not get alongside, although the White Sox appeared to have had greater than their share. It's not solely a few handful of gamers acting at their worst. It's not solely a few first-time basic supervisor taking his first activate the studying curve. It's not essentially about spending — in an period through which groups have slashed payroll to facilitate tanking, the White Sox's payroll is about $145 million, ranked 18th amongst 30 groups.

According to greater than two dozen sources inside and outdoors the group, it is all of that, collectively. Over the course of the season, there have been missteps from each stage of the group — and simply plain unhealthy baseball — that turned the 2024 White Sox from a nasty crew right into a traditionally terrible one.

“There is so much randomness in our sport, and the worst teams still usually win a share of games,” stated one rival government. “But [the White Sox] have taken the randomness out of the sport. They are that bad.”

March 28

Record: 0-0

IN LATE MARCH, then-White Sox supervisor Pedro Grifol and Getz have been making an attempt to determine on their Opening Day starter. Two weeks earlier, the White Sox had traded ace Dylan Cease to the San Diego Padres for prospects. The deal got here collectively late as a result of Getz was intent on getting most worth for the 2022 AL Cy Young runner-up, however it left the crew with out time to discover a substitute for his or her ace.

It additionally successfully served as a white flag on the large league season, the first in cost for the 40-year-old Getz. The new basic supervisor turned his focus to how to construct belongings amid a misplaced 12 months.

At the outset of spring coaching, Garrett Crochet was given the alternative to do one thing he is by no means completed in the majors: work as a beginning pitcher. The White Sox employees challenged him to be extra environment friendly, to have extra 15-pitch innings than 25-pitch innings, and he is completed what they've requested. The White Sox had no different apparent candidates for the honor of Opening Day starter, and Getz believed that if Crochet may excel as a beginning pitcher, the left-hander would possibly develop right into a beneficial piece of their roster — or on the commerce market. He advised Grifol, “F— it, let's start Crochet.”

It was thrilling information to ship to Crochet, a participant whose confidence had wavered in the previous, however it was additionally the first barometer studying of a major problem: The White Sox's pitcher of their first sport of the season could be making his first profession begin. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, solely three non-expansion groups in the dwell ball period (since 1920) have debuted 4 new starters since the earlier 12 months in the first 4 video games of a season, as the White Sox did with Crochet and journeymen Erick Fedde, Chris Flexen and Mike Soroka. The bullpen was additionally an issue space: the most dynamic expertise, Michael Kopech, fought the yips at the finish of the 2023 season, and the complete reduction corps had been turned over since the earlier Opening Day with veterans Aaron Bummer and Reynaldo Lopez leaving by way of commerce or free company in the offseason.

Crochet pitched nice on Opening Day, permitting one run in six innings, however the White Sox misplaced 1-0 to Tarik Skubal and the Detroit Tigers. And then they stored shedding — 7-6 of their second sport in opposition to Detroit, 3-2 of their third. By Chicago's fourth sport, Chris Flexen was hammered in a 9-0 rout by the Atlanta Braves, and the White Sox fell to 0-4.

Meanwhile, a lineup already skinny on large league expertise was getting thinner. Eloy Jimenez, a high prospect acquired in 2017 and signed two years later to be a foundational piece of a earlier rebuild, performed three video games earlier than he was sidelined with a hamstring damage. On April 5, Luis Robert — in concept, the finest participant on the White Sox's roster — suffered a hip flexor pressure as he was working the bases; he'd miss the subsequent two months. Yoan Moncada, the longest-tenured of the Chicago regulars, additionally suffered a hip damage. Little greater than every week into the season, a 3rd of the lineup was out, and the White Sox had gained simply certainly one of their first 9 video games, with a run differential of minus-30.

They did not win a sequence for nearly a month, a stretch that included a sweep at the palms of the Cincinnati Reds, who outscored them 27-5 in a three-game set in mid-April. Several first-year Reds, who had thought-about signing with the White Sox, expressed confusion about their winter selections.

“Oof,” one Cincinnati participant stated. “What happened to all their pitching?”

May 26

15-38

AFTER EIGHT WINS in the first two weeks of May, a brutal stretch awaited Chicago: sequence in opposition to the New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays, Baltimore Orioles and Milwaukee Brewers.

In the third sport in opposition to the Orioles, with Crochet on the mound, the White Sox misplaced, once more, to the Orioles' Kyle Bradish. The crew was 15-39, Grifol's second season as supervisor had began badly, and he was pissed off. He praised Crochet to reporters, however stated the remainder of the crew is “f—ing flat.” The phrases didn't land properly with a clubhouse of beleaguered gamers — it sounded to them as if Grifol was piling on blame, moderately than sharing it — and a few of them pushed again when talking with reporters. “He's going to feel that way, and obviously we're going to have a different feeling,” catcher Korey Lee stated. “He's entitled to his own opinion, and we are also.”

Sheets stated, “I'm not sure. I think we ran into a pretty good pitcher with pretty good stuff.”

“I mean, we were trying,” one White Sox participant stated later. “For better or worse, that was it, right there. … I think that could have been the beginning of the end for Pedro.”

Grifol had been employed by then-GM Rick Hahn and former membership president Kenny Williams early in the 2022 offseason. Hahn and Williams' hope was that Grifol, who was from Miami and bilingual, would join with the crew's core of Latin American gamers, however the rent was of venture: Grifol had a powerful résumé as a coach, together with the earlier three years as the Kansas City Royals bench coach, however had by no means managed in the large leagues.

And he was inheriting a splintered clubhouse. Liam Hendriks, then the crew's most outstanding pitching star, is distinctly an extrovert — loud, pleasant, accessible to the media, chatty. Three organizational sources say a rift had grown between Hendriks and a few of the different veterans on the crew, specifically pitchers Kendall Graveman, Lance Lynn and Joe Kelly.

In December 2022, Hendriks was recognized with most cancers. He went by remedy in the spring of 2023 earlier than making his method again to the crew. In late May, the White Sox entrance workplace deliberate a welcome again information convention, and the crew organized for gamers to be in the room as Hendriks spoke with the media for the first time — an elementary present of help. Some veterans initially balked, and in accordance to membership sources, had to be talked into attending. The scenario, one longtime White Sox staffer believed, was certainly one of the worst issues he had ever witnessed in skilled sports activities.

The rifts went past the pitching employees, too. Former All-Star shortstop Tim Anderson was mired in a season-long stoop whereas coping with private points off the discipline and catcher Yasmani Grandal was described by one former teammate as somebody who “tore people down instead of building them up.”

“It was as negative a place as I've seen anywhere,” stated one other membership supply.

Within every week after the White Sox traded Keynan Middleton to the Yankees throughout the 2023 season, the reliever spoke to ESPN about the White Sox's tradition. Asked the place the void exists with the crew, Middleton stated: “Leadership in general. They say s— rolls downhill. I feel like some guys don't want to speak up when they should have. It's hard to police people when there are no rules. If guys are doing things that you think are wrong, who is it wrong to? You or them? It's anyone's judgment at that point.”

When some White Sox staffers learn the phrases, they have been livid, as a result of they felt Middleton's ideas mirrored a bigger downside: With an inexperienced supervisor overseeing the clubhouse, the tradition actually belonged to the gamers, and so they shared a big measure of duty for the issues.

At the 2023 commerce deadline, different groups — conscious of the dysfunction in the White Sox's clubhouse — handed on alternatives to tackle a few of the veterans due to the ugliness of a few of the emanating tales. One government stated of certainly one of the pitchers the White Sox have been making an attempt to commerce: “We've seen that act before.”

Grifol had an advanced clubhouse on his palms; he did not actually do difficult. Some managers are practiced schmoozers, wonderful politicians; Grifol shouldn't be, in accordance to some friends. He is a hardcore baseball man, robust in his beliefs, and expects gamers to be accountable. His desire, pals consider, would have been to deal with the day-to-day work, however as an alternative, he felt compelled to have a tendency to a fractured clubhouse.

At least one White Sox staffer stated this took up numerous Grifol's power. “When you get a first-time manager like that and veteran players, they will take advantage of him,” stated the staffer. “They didn't help him.”

Early in the 2024 season, with the White Sox shedding a lot once more, Grifol's scenario seemed untenable. The crew was a large number in his first 12 months as supervisor, and in his second 12 months, he was working for a basic supervisor who did not rent him. “He had no chance,” one organizational supply stated of Grifol.

His criticism after the loss to Baltimore did not assist. The White Sox ended May in the midst of a 14-game shedding streak — certainly one of three double-digit skids the crew would endure throughout the season — and entrenched their report tempo.

Even the wholesome gamers have been struggling horrifically. Three gamers who Grifol was together with in his lineup day by day, given their stature inside the roster — Benintendi, Andrew Vaughn and Sheets — ranked amongst the eight least productive gamers in the majors, in accordance to FanGraphs, combining for minus-1.3 fWAR this season.

“I missed having healthy players,” Grifol advised ESPN this week. “It's not an excuse — that's just the reality. I missed having Liam Hendriks and other really good players able to perform. It wasn't the players' fault. They just got hurt.”

Said a former White Sox participant: “When things are going good, no one says anything. When things go bad, everyone starts pointing fingers.”

June 23

21-57

IN THE SEVENTH begin of his profession, Jonathan Cannon took the mound in opposition to the Tigers. His earlier two outings had been robust — 8⅔ scoreless innings in opposition to Houston and 7 one-run innings in opposition to Seattle — however on that day, all of it fell aside rapidly.

The Tigers, who'd scored simply 5 runs over their earlier six video games, scored 5 in the first inning and 4 in the second. Cannon was pulled in the second inning. After the sport, the 2022 third-round choose was requested about his outing: “Baseball is a cruel game, and sometimes it doesn't go your way.”

Meanwhile, in the reverse dugout sat A.J. Hinch, an everlasting image of what may have been for the White Sox — what many really feel ought to have been. In October 2020, Hinch was in the final days of his year-long suspension for his position in the Houston Astros' sign-stealing scandal — and he was the first selection of then-GM Rick Hahn to take over as the White Sox supervisor. Hahn seen Hinch as a really perfect candidate: He had a championship pedigree, a superb status for communication, and a sophisticated understanding in analytics honed throughout his time with the progressive Astros. For Hahn, Hinch could be the man who was going to drive the White Sox ahead and assist the entrance workplace outline for Reinsdorf the place and the way the group was behind. The White Sox have been on the upswing then, with a younger, gifted roster and coming off a wild-card look in 2020: a horny job for a managerial candidate. It appeared such an ideal match that pals of Hinch assumed that's the place he would work in 2021.

Reinsdorf, nonetheless, wasn't . He felt he had fired La Russa wrongly in 1986 and bore a debt to an outdated good friend. Above all else, Reinsdorf — who declined to converse to ESPN for this story — is constantly steadfast to pals and workers. In his time as proprietor of the White Sox and Chicago Bulls, he has had a lifetime of battles with homeowners and others, however he trusts his individuals. “Fact is, he might be too trusting,” stated one staffer. La Russa was employed with out Hinch even going by a proper interview with the White Sox.

Players complained to their brokers about the 76-year-old La Russa, feeling he was out of step with a a lot youthful technology of gamers. Privately, they questioned numerous his strikes. Publicly, he was second-guessed by followers and media for on-field selections. But La Russa was in his fourth decade as a supervisor, bearing a stature that helped maintain a basic stability, and in La Russa's first 12 months in 2021, the White Sox gained the AL Central with a 93-69 report. “To this day [Reinsdorf] will tell people hiring La Russa was the right move, especially after seeing how the team did after he left,” stated one supply.

La Russa was overcome by sickness in his second season. When he left the crew in August, the White Sox have been 63-65. Disappointing, however not disastrous. The resolution was made in the closing days of the 2022 season that he would not return for 2023.

By then, Hinch's Tigers have been progressing; they completed in second place in the AL Central in 2023 and this 12 months will finish with their highest win complete since 2016 and, doubtless, a wild-card spot. The Guardians and Royals have additionally improved, whereas the Twins stay constantly aggressive. The AL Central is toughening.

The White Sox franchise, nonetheless, has moved in the different path; the group has fallen method behind, from high to backside. After La Russa stepped down as supervisor, he was stored on as a guide — and nonetheless had the ear of possession.

Sources stated that as Reinsdorf ready to fireplace Hahn in August 2023, La Russa gave optimistic suggestions about Getz, somebody he'd gotten to know as the assistant GM of the White Sox, the place he had labored since 2017.

A typical trade follow is to ask permission to converse to a variety of candidates from different organizations — in some circumstances, division rivals, in an effort to glean a better understanding of their data methods. Sometimes subterfuge is the solely actual purpose for the interviews. But Reinsdorf wasn't excited about that form of studying.

He was offered the choice of interviewing candidates outdoors the group, and he declined. Getz was his man, and no person was going to change his thoughts. Getz was employed 9 days after Williams and Hahn have been dismissed.

“Jerry's hands are still involved in the major decision-making,” one White Sox worker stated. “I mean he's the owner but whether La Russa was the right hire or not he didn't let his baseball people make that call. It was laughable what he said [last year] … about letting his front office make decisions. Maybe in basketball, but not baseball.”

Getz, along with his years of expertise in the White Sox's workplaces, is skilled in working with Reinsdorf — they focus on his strikes, actually, however Getz doesn't really feel micromanaged, whilst he instantly seemed to implement foundational adjustments inside the group. Last fall, he employed certainly one of the most progressive pitching minds in the sport, Brian Bannister, away from the San Francisco Giants, and put in Paul Janish, the former main league shortstop and Rice head coach, to lead the crew's participant improvement.

This 12 months, that work continued, whilst Getz ready for the daunting month forward of him: The MLB draft and commerce deadline have been weeks away.

His focus was there, to the frustration of Grifol and a few of his coaches, who believed Getz was not giving the large league crew sufficient of his consideration. They needed to hear extra from him and frightened that the lack of communication was an indication of how he regards them.

At the All-Star break, Grifol held a crew assembly, noting the crew's trajectory, their tempo to set a brand new report for losses. No one in the group needs that, he stated, including that this was an opportunity for a lot of of them to play and shine in the large leagues — and he inspired them to put in the work to make that occur. The White Sox misplaced their subsequent sport, extending their shedding streak to 5. And they continued to lose.

July 25

27-77

BY JULY, IT was a fait accompli that the White Sox would turn into certainly one of the most outstanding sellers earlier than the July 30 commerce deadline. There was no gradual rollout for Getz in his first summer time. Instead, he had to take into account dozens of potential commerce mixtures in a truncated timeline, and a few of his friends with different groups puzzled if he was prepared, particularly after a few of his first trades.

The earlier fall, he had traded Bummer, a coveted left-handed reliever, to the Braves for 5 gamers. The return shocked some rival evaluators, as a result of they believed a few of the gamers in the deal doubtless would've been non-tendered by the Braves. In fact, Getz was absolutely conscious of the non-tender chance — as a result of Braves exec Alex Anthopoulos had advised him so — and needed the deal anyway, to guarantee the arrival of Mike Soroka in the much-depleted rotation.

In the midst of the 2024 season, Getz and his employees had a few of the finest choices in a depleted commerce market: Erick Fedde, whom Getz signed to a savvy deal in the offseason after a 12 months in Korea; Kopech, who struggled in the nearer position however had 59 strikeouts in 43⅔ innings; and, most notably, Crochet, who had blossomed right into a dominant starter. Getz was in fixed communication with different groups, however he made the resolution early: If no crew met their asks, they'd preserve the left-hander.

Five days earlier than the deadline, Getz was consuming breakfast when he acquired texts from a crew asking him about tweets simply posted that urged Crochet would solely pitch in the postseason if he acquired a contract extension — one thing Getz had not heard earlier than from the participant or his agent, Andrew Nacario.

The timing of the breaking information was terrible — not as a result of it affected curiosity, however as a result of with little greater than 100 hours remaining earlier than the commerce deadline, Getz knew entrance workplaces would attempt to use the contract scenario as leverage to diminish the asking value. But contending groups stored making gives — the Dodgers, Phillies and Braves at the forefront. “The sincere teams remained sincere,” stated one White Sox supply, “and the teams that weren't sincere — they were out.” Said a rival government: “I don't think [the contract demand] affected his value.”

The White Sox believed that the Dodgers had sufficient to make a deal with out high catching prospect Dalton Rushing included, however that provide from L.A. by no means developed. The Phillies turned down the White Sox's request for high pitching prospect Andrew Painter as a part of the bundle. The Braves had numerous pitching to provide, however the White Sox most well-liked a deal for place gamers.

In the finish, Getz traded a piece of his roster: Fedde, Kopech and Tommy Pham as a part of a three-team commerce with the Cardinals and Dodgers, and shortstop Paul DeJong to the Royals. Getz determined he would preserve Crochet for the remainder of the common season and into the winter. He known as Reinsdorf to inform him, and Reinsdorf was nonplussed in his response.

In another entrance workplaces, Getz's decisions have been panned. Some evaluators believed he did not get sufficient in the Fedde-Kopech-Pham commerce; others questioned how he may've let the second move with out dealing Crochet. He had the finest accessible beginning pitcher in the commerce market, with big-market groups , and critics believed Getz ought to have flipped Crochet for building-block prospects. They puzzled what sort of counsel he was getting from Reinsdorf, and others. “Somebody needed to tell him, ‘Look, this is the time when you have to trade him,'” stated a longtime entrance workplace sort who has labored by many deadlines.

Some rival evaluators disagree with the criticism, and so do the White Sox. Getz thinks Crochet could have at the very least the identical commerce worth this winter, when groups in want of an ace could have extra time to weigh the selection between paying large {dollars} free of charge brokers like Blake Snell or dealing prospects for Crochet. And now groups know for positive that Crochet can deal with a starter's workload over a full season.

Hours after the White Sox made the resolution to maintain Crochet, they misplaced their sixteenth straight sport.

Aug. 8

28-88

AS SOON AS the commerce deadline handed, Getz needed to transfer on from his supervisor, in accordance to sources aware of his considering. It was not a matter of if, however when. But with rumors swirling about Grifol's instant future, a gathering occurred on July 31 between Reinsdorf, Getz, Grifol and La Russa. And then, for every week, in certainly one of the stranger twists of the season, nothing occurred.

On Aug. 6, a shedding streak that started earlier than the All-Star break lastly ended, at an American League report 21 video games, with a win over Oakland. “It was just really good to get this behind us. I thought we played a clean game today,” Grifol advised reporters. “Any time you win it's great. Any time you win when you lose 21 in a row it's even better. I'm proud of these guys.”

Two days later, Getz known as Grifol to inform him he was making a change. Third base coach Eddie Rodriguez, assistant hitting coach Mike Tosar and bench coach Charlie Montoyo — all of the White Sox's Latino staffers — have been additionally fired. Grifol is a lifelong good friend of Tosar and knew Rodriguez from their days collectively in the Royals' group. Getz thought that whereas Montoyo held the title of bench coach, Grifol was principally leaning on Rodriguez and Tosar.

Getz believed that to get the White Sox to a greater place, these have been the proper employees strikes to make in early August. But he knew the optics of the decisions have been lower than ideally suited. Getz known as Michael Hill, MLB's senior vice chairman for on-field operations, to present background for the resolution. The league displays the variety of MLB teaching staffs and is predicted to achieve this on the White Sox's subsequent hires.

The entrance workplace promoted first-year coach Grady Sizemore to interim supervisor, primarily taking on-the-field selections out of the dugout and into the government suite. Sizemore had expressed no want to handle however was picked as a result of gamers like him. Getz acknowledged that he'd look outdoors the White Sox household for a everlasting substitute, squashing any speak of a reunion with Ozzie Guillen, who supplies tv commentary on video games, or common former catcher A.J. Pierzynski.

A month later, with the White Sox closing in on the all-time report for losses, the sometimes reticent Reinsdorf issued a press release. “Going back to last year, we have made difficult decisions and changes to begin building a foundation for future success,” he stated. “What has impressed me is how our players and staff have continued to work and bring a professional attitude to the ballpark each day despite a historically difficult season. No one is happy with the results, but I commend the continued effort.”

Weeks after Pham was traded, he mirrored on his time as a White Sox. The 1962 Mets had gamers like Pham — established veterans close to the finish of their days as lively gamers, scu as Gil Hodges and Don Zimmer, who grew to become witnesses to historical past.

“Everything compounded on the White Sox this season with injuries and rebuilding,” Pham stated. “Guys are being allowed to develop in the big leagues and that's never been done. Ten years ago you weren't allowed to develop in the big leagues.

“I believe the White Sox downside is not only a White Sox downside. I believe it is a common downside occurring in MLB. We have groups which can be creating gamers in the large leagues. We've by no means seen that. Add all the accidents and the Sox are the place they're.”

Sept. 24

36-120

BY MID-SEPTEMBER, IT seemed a matter of when, not if, the White Sox would break the Mets' record. A long road trip to the West Coast garnered a 3-6 record, and the White Sox returned home with 120 losses.

Much of Tuesday's game played out like so many of the defeats that came before it. The White Sox hitters failed to score for the game's first seven innings. The bullpen finally wilted, and the Angels took the lead, with “Sell the crew!” chants raining down from the stands.

“I get the frustration,” Sizemore said. “They need to see wins and so they need to see them now.”

Though Chicago's rally then postponed the seemingly inevitable, there are five more games in the season; the White Sox could climb to as many as 125 losses. Their path from here is unclear — because of new collective bargaining rules, the White Sox can't receive a draft lottery pick; even after the worst season in history, they'll pick no higher than 10th in next year's draft. There is no quick path back to respectability for a team in the third-largest market in MLB. Fans booing might be the norm for the foreseeable future.

Still, Getz and his staff are looking ahead: refining a process through which they will hire the next manager, among a wide-ranging field of candidates from around the industry. As he did with lengthy processes to hire Bannister and Janish, Getz's goal is to objectively pick the person who best fits the White Sox and what they need moving forward. This week, Getz made another important hire, tapping longtime scout David Keller — who spent many years with the Mets — to oversee their international department.

In mid-September, Getz watched a latest interview of UConn basketball coach Dan Hurley, a few tense assembly along with his predecessor, Jim Calhoun. Early in Hurley's tenure, he had complained to Calhoun about work impediments; Calhoun tells Hurley to cease whining and do the job. Getz relates to this. And as the White Sox catastrophe reaches its conclusion, Getz feels … energized. The problem — the alternative — is now as immense as the failure.