The White Sox's attempts to recruit Machado could have turned against Alonso, Jay praised San Diego

On Friday, the San Diego Padres featured Manny Machado as the new cornerstone of the franchise. As joyous as the opportunity in San Diego, where hope is on the rise, it was disappointing for fans of the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox seemed to be Machado's favorites for much of the winter, but were not willing to respect his price.

What the White Sox were willing to do to force Machado to sign with them is an exchange against his brother-in-law, Yonder Alonso, and the signature of his good friend Jon Jay. These movements were probably designed to attract Machado, but they may have turned against them. Alonso and Jay have both played for the Padres in recent years and have all spoken well of San Diego in Machado.

Here's more via James Fegan from The Athletic:

"They talked a lot about San Diego, they never stopped talking about it," Machado said. "Yonder loves it, Jon too, they're happy for me and for our family and for our situation, at the end of the day, I'm going to see them a little bit here in Arizona and we're always having a phone call and talking all days. "

Oops.

Clearly, the White Sox have not (and probably will never be) recognized that they had acquired Alonso and Jay under a Machado recruiting pitch. It's quite a coincidence, though, if it was not intended at one level or another. This just shows that the best practice for recruiting free agents is the willingness to pay them.