15 worst trades in Chicago White Sox franchise history

No. 8: Alex Call to the Cleveland Indians for Yonder Alonso - December 2018

This trade is not so much about the results as it is about the premise behind it. Amongst the Manny Machado free agent craze, the White Sox front office actually thought that signing Alonso, his brother-in-law would guarantee Machado signing in Chicago.

We all know how this ended. Machado, of course, wound up signing a gigantic 10-year, $300M contract with the San Diego Padres, and the White Sox were left with nothing but an aging, declining first baseman who couldn't hit a baseball off of a tee while he played for them.

As a matter of fact, 2019, Alonso's first and only with the club, wound up being his last in the majors. He made it into 67 games for the Sox, hitting seven home runs and driving in 27 with a batting average of .178 and an OPS+ of 55.

There's no doubt about it, the Sox brought aboard one of the worst hitters in the game to maybe sign Manny Machado. Didn't work.

Prior to the trade, Call had been a decent but not great outfielder that steadily was rising through the ranks for the Sox. He was never projected to amount to much and had only reached double-digit home run totals once in his three years there.

He broke into the majors last year with the Guardians, appearing in 12 games before being designated for assignment and later claimed off of waivers by the Washington Nationals, where he remains today.