Luis Robert Jr.’s early exit from Wednesday’s game against Arizona immediately had fans and reporters wondering if general manager Chris Getz had struck a deal involving his biggest trade deadline asset.
Turns out Robert’s departure could pose the latest drag on his trade value.
After finishing the top of the first inning in center field, the White Sox’ struggling star headed back to the clubhouse with left hamstring tightness. It perked up while chasing down a fly ball that Michael A. Taylor ended up catching.
“[We] feel like he’s in an OK spot. Give him the off day, see where we’re at on Friday,” manager Will Venable said.
The last vestige of the Sox’ most recent contending window, Robert has had the worst season of his career so far, batting a paltry .185/.270/.313 with eight homers as the Sox consider flipping him for prospects. The former Gold Glover has still played strong defense and swiped 22 bases.
The Sox played well in a 7-3 win without Robert behind five strong innings from Sean Burke and a monster day at the plate for second baseman Lenyn Sosa.
he knew 😏 pic.twitter.com/SxnGYCfLt2
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) June 25, 2025
Burke rebounded from a tough first inning that saw him serve up a two-run home run to Diamondbacks first baseman and perennial Sox killer Josh Naylor.
Andrew Benintendi got one back in the Sox’ half of the first with a 390-foot rocket into the right-field bullpen, and rookie catcher Kyle Teel singled home Miguel Vargas, who had walked and stolen second.
Sosa turned it on in the fourth, crushing a two-run homer off D-backs’ starter Zac Gallen. Sosa extended the Sox’ lead with an RBI single in the sixth and added another homer in the eighth to cap his 3-for-4, four-RBI day.
“When he threw me the fastball, I was ready for it,” Sosa said through translator Bill Russo after the first multi-homer game of his career. “It’s a big opportunity that the team is giving me just playing regularly in the majors and I’m just trying to take advantage of it the most I can.”
Starters on the mend
Starter Jonathan Cannon pitched a smooth rehab outing Tuesday with Triple-A Charlotte as he works his way back from a lower back injury.
Cannon gave up a hit and a walk and struck out two batters over three innings. He followed up the game with a 10-pitch bullpen session for some extra reps, for a total of about 60 pitches.
“He came out of it feeling good and it was a good, quality workload for him,” Venable said.
Cannon, on the shelf since June 3, will likely be back for the Sox before his rotation mate, Davis Martin, who’s also on the injured list with a strained forearm. It could push Martin past the All-Star break, but no decisions have been made.
He said he’s just glad it’s not the traumatic type of elbow injury that cost him most of his 2023 and 2024 seasons with Tommy John surgery.
“The only nice thing about having T.J. is you know what T.J. feels like, and this wasn’t anything near what that was,” Martin said. “Just soft tissue stuff that we felt like there was no reason to push through, give the body some time to recover and get ready to go for the second half.”
