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Baseball is a numbers game. But ask any player and they'll tell you it’s also a game of rituals and superstition.
There’s the lucky glove, the rule about not mentioning a no-hitter while it’s in progress and the sacred avoidance of the foul line. And yes, even grown men wearing the same unwashed socks for weeks, all in an effort to stay in the good graces of the baseball gods. But some teams? Some teams seem to have tested the limits of baseball superstition and paid the price.
After analyzing 6 full seasons of data (2019-2024) across 9 distinct types of misfortune, we’ve identified the most hexed, jinxed, and flat-out cursed teams in MLB. The numbers are right there on the scoreboard and for some teams, they’re in nothing but pain.
Each team was scored across 9 unlucky categories
Each incident adds a point to the team’s curse score.
Curse Score: 21 instances of misfortune from 2019-2024
Their top 3 curse categories: 1. Blown Leads (8) 2. Regular Season Misery (6) 3. Controversial Calls (4)
No team in MLB has carried the weight of bad luck quite like the Pittsburgh Pirates. With a curse score of 21 over the past 6 seasons, the Buccos top the league in what can only be described as consistent heartbreak. The biggest culprit? Blown leads. On August 28th, 2024, they gave up a 7-run lead to the Cubs at Wrigley. Just a few months earlier, on May 22ⁿᵈ, 2024 they coughed up a 5-run advantage against the Giants, a midseason collapse that felt, well, pretty on-brand. Between 2019 and 2024, the Pirates suffered 6 additional collapses where they let multi-run leads of 5 or more slip away, further cementing their reputation for late-game unraveling.
But it’s not just the bullpen. The curse runs deeper. The Pirates have finished last in the NL Central in 4 of the past 6 seasons, with 2023 as the lone exception, a stretch that includes a 101-loss campaign in 2021 and the surreal 19–41 sprint in 2020, a season that felt like losing on fast-forward.
Controversial calls, front office blunders, and brutal trades have all added to the Pirates’ long-standing misfortunes. One glaring example came in July 2021, when they traded reliever Clay Holmes to the Yankees for Diego Castillo and Hoy Park. Holmes went on to become an All-Star closer in New York, while Castillo and Park made little impact in Pittsburgh. Then there was the infamous May 2021 play against the Cubs, when a routine groundout turned into two runs after a chaotic defensive meltdown, a moment that seemed to capture the essence of the Pirates’ curse.
So, forget lucky charms, the Pirates need a city-wide sage cleanse. Still, if the curse score is high, so is the patience, and the humor, of a fanbase that’s seen it all and still shows up, box score in one hand, Primanti sandwich in the other.
Curse Score: 20 instances of misfortune from 2019-2024
Their top 3 curse categories: 1. Blown Leads (6) 2. Playoff Heartbreak (5) 3. Controversial Calls (3) and Bizarre Plays (3)
Winning 100 games for the Dodgers feels as routine as batting practice, but their postseason track record hasn’t always kept pace. With a curse score of 20, they rank joint 2nd on the misfortune leaderboard, proof that even elite teams aren’t immune to unraveling at the wrong time. The biggest culprits: blown leads, playoff heartbreak, and just enough weirdness to make you wonder if someone in the Dodgers’ clubhouse broke a mirror during spring training.
In 2021, they let a 7–1 lead against the Padres slip away in extra innings, and in 2024, a 9–4 advantage over the Tigers unraveled in the ninth. Those rare lapses have sometimes shown up in October; too; for example, a 2023 NLDS sweep by the Diamondbacks and a four-game loss to the Padres in 2022, despite the Dodgers entering both series as heavy favorites.
Still, let’s be clear: this isn’t about a lack of talent. The Dodgers have a roster built to win, year after year. But that’s what makes it feel even more cursed: in L.A., the regular season comes easy; it’s October when the ghosts show up.
Curse Score: 20 instances of misfortune from 2019-2024
Their top 3 curse categories: 1. Blown Leads (12) 2. Controversial Calls (3) 3. Playoff Heartbreak (2) and Brutal Trades & Free Agency Losses (2)
The Blue Jays have had their fair share of tough breaks, and with a curse score of 20, they’re tied for 2nd on the list of baseball’s most cursed teams. Their biggest issue is blown leads: 12 of them from 2019 to 2024, including a devastating 7-run collapse against Seattle in the 2022 Wild Card. The trend has continued, with losses even after holding 5- and 6-run leads. And then there’s the ump show. Whether it was 27 missed calls in one game against Oakland, or a missed strike call that got George Springer tossed and two broadcast crews fired up, controversial moments haven’t exactly been in short supply.
Still, the Jays aren’t lacking talent. They win games, stay in the mix, and keep fans engaged, even if things don’t always go their way.
Curse Score: 19 instances of misfortune from 2019-2024
Their top curse categories: Blown Leads (13), Brutal Trades and Free Agency Losses (2), Controversial Calls (2), Regular Season Misery (2)
Curse score: 19 instances of misfortune from 2019-2024
Their top curse categories: Blown Leads (10), Playoff Heartbreak (3), Bizarre Plays (2)
The Miami Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays each land with a curse score of 19, they may not share a division, but the Marlins and Rays do share cursed coastlines. For the Marlins, it’s all about blown leads, a whopping 13 of them over 6 seasons, making late innings in Miami feel more like a warning than a guarantee. Add in a couple of tough roster losses and some familiar regular-season struggles, and the picture isn’t hard to piece together.
The Rays, on the other hand, have kept things unpredictable: 10 blown leads, 3 playoff heartbreaks, 2 bizarre plays, 1 controversial call, 1 almost-win that slipped away, 1 front office misstep, and a tough trade/free agency loss.
Together, the Marlins and Rays sit side by side on the curse board. 1 state, 2 teams, 19 reasons each to believe in curses.
The Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros sit joint 4th with a curse score of 17, while the New York Mets and Texas Rangers follow closely at 16 in 5ᵗʰ place. Nine teams are represented across the top 5 most cursed positions in MLB, due to ties. From blown leads to bad breaks, playoff gut-punches to roster regrets, each of these clubs has taken its own path through the baseball pain index.
At the other end of the spectrum, the St. Louis Cardinals and Athletics share the title of least cursed teams in MLB, each with a curse score of just 7. While no team is completely immune to tough breaks, these two have mostly avoided the blown leads, playoff heartbreaks, and strange moments that have defined others.
Baseball may be ruled by numbers, but as the curse scorecard shows, luck, timing, and the occasional twist of fate still have a say. For some teams, the curse is just part of the story and for others, it's the one they can’t seem to escape.
Casino.ca analyzed 6 full MLB seasons (2019–2024), tracking nine distinct types of on-field misfortune, from blown leads and playoff heartbreaks to bizarre plays and controversial calls, to create a comprehensive “Curse Score” for each team and rank the most snakebitten clubs in the league.
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