In 1969, the San Diego Padres and the Montreal Expos both joined the National League. Both teams posted records of 52-110 in the first season of divisional play, and those stood as the worst season records in the divisional era until the 2003 Detroit Tigers finished 43-119 and the 2004 Arizona Diamondbacks set the new National League record at 51‑111. Ironically, another last-place Padres team may be responsible for teams losing more than 110 games in a season.
During the 12 seasons Bruce Bochy was the Padres’ manager, the team won four division championships and finished last four times. The Padres went from first place in 1996 to last in 1997 back to first in 1998. The often-injured Tony Gwynn was the Padres’ only primary starting position player in 1997 not to spend time on the disabled list, and starting pitcher Andy Ashby also spent part of the season on the disabled list. During the season, 18 different players would go on the disabled list, and the list would be used 20 times including 19 after the regular season began.
At one time in 2000, the Padres had more salary on the disabled list than on the active roster. That same year, the Padres once had ten pitchers on the DL at the same time. That means some of the Padres’ pitchers that year weren’t truly ready for the major leagues but were promoted to the San Diego roster.
The 2000 Padres who weren’t yet ready for major-league play also included outfielder Kory DeHaan. In 1998, DeHaan was in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ affiliate in the Class A South Atlantic League and batted .314 with 33 stolen bases. DeHaan split 1999 between two minor league teams and batted .303 with 46 stolen bases. The promise was enough for the Padres to select him in the Rule 5 draft, which required DeHaan to stay on the major-league roster for all of 2000. He batted .204 in 110 plate appearances while stealing four bases in 2000.
The Padres were allowed to send DeHaan to the minors for 2001, and he batted .268 with 24 stolen bases. Prior to the September call-up period, he was with the Padres’ Triple-A affiliate in Portland during 2002, and he batted .283 with 23 stolen bases.
That year, the final 66-96 record not only gave the Padres last place but was 32 games behind the first-place Arizona Diamondbacks. The San Francisco Giants, who would reach the World Series that year, finished second and the Los Angeles Dodgers finished six games behind the Diamondbacks.
The 2002 Padres played their final 19 games of the season against the Diamondbacks, Giants, or Dodgers. The first of those was six days after DeHaan was recalled to the expanded major-league roster. Major League Baseball has an unwritten rule that September call-ups shouldn’t play against contenders. The Padres 2002 outfielders prior to the September call-ups included Ron Gant, Trenidad Hubbard, Gene Kingsale, Ray Lankford, and Bubba Trammell. Although none of them played for the Padres in 2003, they, rather than DeHaan, saw action against the contenders.
DeHaan also was not with the Padres in 2003. He was limited to 11 plate appearances with the Friars in 2002 and had only a single. That did not provide the sufficient major league experience DeHaan needed to make the 2003 roster. He played 54 games with Portland in 2003 before retiring. The Padres themselves were in last place from the end of April to the end of the season and finished 36 1/2 games out of first place. In effect, the inability to get the team’s 2002 September call-ups plate appearances cost the Padres the following year.
Baseball’s wild card playoff entrants make sense if there aren’t too many. When there are two or four or eight divisions, or leagues in the case of high school sports, a certain number of playoff teams from each division makes sense. Otherwise, wild card or at-large teams are needed to round out the brackets. The San Diego County section for high school sports was formed in 1960, and initially there were four 2A large school leagues and the top two teams from each league made the playoffs. The playoffs were expanded not so that a third-place team in a tough league could make the playoffs, but because enrollment growth merited a fifth 2A league. When the American Football League and National Football League merged, two 13-team conferences with three divisions apiece made sense and a wild card team was needed to round out the playoffs. So, after Major League Baseball expanded to 14 teams in each league. a format with three divisions with a wild card team was justified.
High school baseball teams do not have roster limits. Coaches will assign a player to the junior varsity if he won’t see much action on the varsity. The functional roster expansion is actually for the playoffs, since there are no further JV games and the JV players might fulfill some roles (often as a pinch-runner). Also, a contending high school team can’t trade junior varsity or feeder middle school players to a non-contending team for varsity starters.
At the major league level, the non-contending teams weren’t able to use prospects after the wild card created more contenders. That led to two options: don’t give the prospects needed experience and sacrifice future seasons, or unload the veterans before September so that the prospects wouldn’t be September call-ups. What happened with Kory DeHaan sent a lesson to other teams, who began unloading veterans before the roster expansion period. More contending teams due to the wild card also means more teams seeking veterans for prospects, so non-contending teams are willing to increase the current season’s losses given the right offer.
Pro football playoffs were expanded from four teams to five in each conference to give division champions a bye while the two wild card teams played in the first round, so baseball playoff expansion to five teams in each league created that same benefit. The six-team playoff only meant more dumping by non-contending teams.
The 2013 Houston Astros matched the 2004 Diamondbacks’ National League record for most losses in divisional play. The next major-league team to lose more than 110 games was the 2018 Baltimore Orioles, who had a 47-115 finish.
Two other changes to Major League Baseball are likely responsible for dumping veterans earlier in the season and sacrificing the current season for a brighter future. The original trade deadline was implemented for the right reasons. In 1922, interleague trading didn’t exist, a rift between American League owners created factions, and the suspension of White Sox players involved in the Black Sox Scandal meant that the New York Yankees traded almost exclusively with the Boston Red Sox. The acquisition of Red Sox third baseman Joe Dugan in late July allowed the Yankees to win the 1922 American League championship by one game. Although the non-waiver trade deadline was eventually moved from June 15 to July 31 in 1986, trades could still be made later in the season if the player cleared waivers.
In 2019, waiver trades in August were eliminated. That forced teams to declare early whether they were buyers or sellers. In 2019, the Tigers lost 114 games.
Also in 2019, rosters prior to September 1 were expanded to 26 active players effective for the 2020 season, although due to the shortened 2020 season teams were allowed 28 players that year before having a maximum of 26 since 2021. That change also limited active rosters after September 1 to 28 players, and that took effect in 2021.
When teams were allowed 40 active players after September 1, the additional roster positions went to both prospects and players returning from what was known as the disabled list. The reduction in additional players has limited the number of prospects who can be called up, thus turning those September prospects into earlier-season call-ups.
With fewer September call-ups allowed, more veterans are jettisoned early to allow for the prospects to see playing time. In 2021, both the Diamondbacks and the Orioles had 110-loss seasons. The 2023, Oakland A’s had 114 losses. In 2024, the Chicago White Sox set an all-time record with 121 losses. The 2025 Colorado Rockies lost 119 games.
Non-contending teams are now better off sacrificing their current seasons earlier than when two-team or even four-team playoffs, 40-man September rosters, and August waiver trades were the standard. The playoff expansion, September call-up limits, and August trade elimination changes were done for understandable reasons, but the increased discrepancies between the top teams and the worst teams may show that those changes have had some adverse consequences on parity.
Kory DeHaan himself didn’t lose very many games. He had 27 hits and walks in his 121 major league plate appearances. A star he was not. But the inability of the Padres to develop players like Kory DeHaan likely led to changes throughout Major League Baseball which increased the quantity of losses by last-place teams.
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