Five teams running neck and neck in MLB’s tankathon

It was shortly before the opening of training camps in Arizona and Florida that MLBPA Executive Director Tony Clark made a stink about the proliferation of tanking ballclubs.

“This year a significant number of teams are engaged in a race to the bottom,” Clark said in a statement. “This conduct is a fundamental breach of the trust between a team and its fans and threatens the very integrity of the game.”

So how is the Race to the Bottom going one month into the season?

Here are the early leaders — or trailers, if you will — in the 2018 tankathon (records and stats through Friday):

ORIOLES (7-19): General manager Dan Duquette made a bold move March 21, signing Rays starter Alex Cobb to a four-year, $57 million deal. It was a sign the Orioles were actually trying to win. But Cobb is 0-3 with a 13.11 earned-run average, and the O’s have lost 11 of their last 13 games to fall to the bottom of the AL East. They have the 28th-ranked batting average (.223), are last in OBP (.288) and rank 23rd in slugging (.374). At least manager Buck Showalter gave up on the experiment of batting Chris Davis in the leadoff spot. Playing in the toughest division, a 100-loss season appears to be reachable, especially after they deal Manny Machado this summer before he leaves as a free agent.

REDS (6-20): After losing 86 games in 2014 despite a lineup that included Joey Votto, Todd Frazier, Jay Bruce, Brandon Phillips and Zack Cozart, and with Aroldis Chapman as their closer, the Reds began their rebuild. They’ve lost 98, 94 and 94 games in the first three years and seemingly are going backward in ’18. Manager Bryan Price was replaced April 19 by Jim Riggleman. But with a 5.53 team ERA, worst in the majors, and Votto off to a sub-par start, this could be the worst team in Reds history.

WHITE SOX (7-16): All the positive talk in spring training about fielding a competitive team has been drowned out by an awful start, their worst since 1950. “If you look at it on a strictly wins-and-losses basis and look at it as a few things that the guys aren’t quite doing in the first 15 games, there are some negatives,” general manager Rick Hahn said recently. “But if you try to focus on what are the long-term goals of the organization and how are we advancing toward that, there have been some positives despite the losses.” Still, the Sox are second-worst in the majors in ERA (5.41) and walks per nine innings (4.76), and have the worst WHIP (1.57). And only Jose Abreu, Yolmer Sanchez, Tim Anderson and Yoan Moncada are hitting above .250. Most observers believed Year 2 of the rebuild was going to be difficult, but the Sox have been even worse than expected.

MARLINS (7-18): Beating Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers on Wednesday might be the highlight of the Marlins’ season. CEO Derek Jeter is taking a beating, not only for trading stars Giancarlo Stanton, Marcell Ozuna, Christian Yelich and Dee Gordon but for denying the team is in tank mode. Their 5.13 ERA is fifth-worst in the majors, and they rank 29th in hitting (.222). Fans aren’t buying in, as evidenced by the MLB-worst average attendance of 12,614 in a relatively new ballpark.

ROYALS (5-19): With a league-worst 3.3 runs per game and a staff that has compiled a 5.18 ERA, the Royals are perhaps the most uninteresting team in baseball. They entered Saturday’s doubleheader against the White Sox with a 1-11 record at home, which may be why average attendance was down over 14,000 from 2016, the year after their championship season. General manger Dayton Moore had the players sit through an anti-porn seminar during spring training, a move that drew some criticism. In hindsight, perhaps some drills on fundamentals would have been more helpful.