The White Sox have a deal in place with outfielder
Jon Jay, a source told MLB Network insider Ken Rosenthal on Monday night. According to USA Today's Bob Nightengale, who first reported the agreement, it's a one-year, $4 million contract. The club has not confirmed.
Not only does this move give Chicago some outfield depth, it could also help the White Sox in their pursuit of
Manny Machado. Jay is close with Machado and Machado's brother-in-law
Yonder Alonso, who was traded to Chicago earlier this offseason. Each of the three wrote about training together in Miami during the offseason in a 2017 piece for the
Players' Tribune.
"The three of us all come from the similar backgrounds. I've known Yonder since he was 10," Jay wrote at the time. "And we've both known Manny since he was a young kid coming up. We're from the same neighborhoods, the same culture, so its just natural for us to stick together."
A nine-year big league veteran, Jay is coming off a year in which he slashed .268/.330/.347 over 143 games between stints with the Royals and D-backs.
