What does a struggling former All-Star do to try to escape the daily baseball grind and turn off the incessant trade talk?
A night at the movies? A glass of wine? A walk on the beach?
“Nothing,” Luis Robert Jr. said Wednesday when asked what he does to unwind off the field.
Sounds like a slog for the White Sox’ star center fielder, who finds himself subject to the trade deadline rumor mill for yet another summer as he tries to find the elite form that once made him the foundation of the franchise’s future.
In his second game back in the Sox lineup against Toronto after a hamstring injury, Robert was 0-for-3 with a walk. Excited gasps were quickly followed by sighs from the Wednesday matinee crowd when his deep fly with the bases loaded was caught to end the fifth inning. Boos followed his eighth-inning strikeout.
A night earlier, manager Will Venable said Robert looked “guarded” in his first game back, but Robert said he feels “good, and when my body is asking me for more, I’ll go for more.”
General manager Chris Getz might’ve gotten more for Robert if he had connected with a trade partner last year or during the offseason.
Robert has scuffled to a .185/.272/.311 slash line with eight home runs and 32 RBI. Those are respectable enough numbers for a league-average replacement, according to FanGraphs — but not for the 6-foot-2 phenom who helped lead the Sox to playoff appearances in 2020 and ‘21.
The former Gold Glove winner is still playing elite defense, as he reminded fans with a sliding catch in the fourth inning Wednesday. And his 22 stolen bases put him in the top eight in MLB.
“I don’t have anything else to reset. Just keep working and if the results aren’t there, keep working,” Robert said.
Getz has said he’s gotten plenty of calls on Robert and his untapped potential, but the GM claims he’s not the one initiating them.
Robert’s tuning it all out. “It’s not in my hands. That’s on the people who make decisions and whatever they want to do,” he said.
It seems unlikely the Sox will take a $20 million gamble to pick up Robert’s contract option after this season to keep him on the South Side next year, in hopes that another, better campaign would improve his trade value.
Contending deadline shoppers will note the Sox might prefer to cut ties, take the $2 million buyout and focus on the next generation of rebuilding faces. Getting any touted prospects for Robert at this point might be a win for Getz as he enters his third year as GM.
Robert’s not ready to start thinking about a change of scenery.
“I’ve been here throughout my whole professional career. This is the only team I know and the only atmosphere I know,” he said. “I’m working hard every day, trying to get results. But at the end of the day, it’s something I can’t predict.”
That follows the attitude of Venable, who said “every deadline impacts guys differently.”
“It’s my job and the job of our staff and the job of all of our players to have undivided focus on going out and doing the things that we need to do to win games,” Venable said.
In the meantime, the 27-year-old Robert says he’s embracing a new role as mentor on a team full of budding young talent, including Cuban countrymen Edgar Quero and Miguel Vargas. Robert can regularly be found dealing cards in the clubhouse.
“It’s always good to know that those young guys are developing and they are doing a good job,” Robert said. “There are a few guys that see me as an example to follow. I always try to give them my best advice. To me it’s just a matter of how you can hold yourself as a professional and be part of this work.”