Since he was signed as a lauded prospect in 2017, to winning a Gold Glove as a rookie for a seemingly ascendant playoff team in 2020, to the unfortunate role of being the most talented player on three-straight 100-plus loss teams, Luis Robert Jr. was always central to the White Sox.
“One of the guys I was really excited to manage, getting this job,” said White Sox manager Will Venable.
On Friday, he returned through the visitors entrance to Rate Field, to Sox teammates who view him warmly, to a brief tribute on the scoreboard, and as an afterthought.
After acquiring Robert as a win-now move this January, the Mets are having a disastrous season that cost manager Carlos Mendoza his job. That Robert remains after they sold at the trade deadline reflects his diminished trade value, due to the same issues that dogged his final years on the South Side.
“It’s very sad,” said his close friend, Miguel Vargas. “I feel like we could have seen one of the greatest baseball players on the field if he stayed healthy.”
For the third-straight year, Robert has been more hurt than good. A herniated disk in his back has limited him to 49 games this year and he’s struggled when available. He entered this weekend hitting just .215/.290/.362 with seven homers. With the Mets looking toward the future with young outfielders Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing, the still 29-year-old Robert, who used to range over to steal fly balls from Eloy Jiménez, was relegated to manning left field Friday.
“This season has been pretty similar to how other parts of my career have gone where I’ve been hurt, where I’ve been off the field,” Robert said via interpreter. “You prepare yourself all offseason to be healthy, you work on your body. For it to happen the way that it did this season, this is really disappointing.”
A tattoo on Robert’s right knee commemorates his 2023 Silver Slugger-winning season, where his career-high 38 home runs was thought to cement himself as one of the game’s premier power threats and the centerpiece of the Sox lineup. Instead, Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery has hit more homers than Robert since that season (47 to 35), despite not debuting in the majors until July of 2025.
Montgomery is only third in homers on a White Sox offense that leads the American League in runs per game in Robert’s absence. The Sox have actually not received huge returns from the players the Mets sent back for Robert. Ironically, it’s hard-throwing Jordan Hicks, whose contract the Red Sox were also looking to shed this winter, who has been the most useful player the Sox were able to add after moving Robert’s $20 million salary.
More so it’s that Tristan Peters has provided stalwart center field defense and even made the AL All-Star team after being designated for assignment by the Rays and acquired for cash over the winter, that’s really demonstrated the wisdom in the Sox finally ceasing their efforts to revive Robert’s star potential.
But Sox players and coaches still look at Robert and see someone who was on the ground floor for the beginning of their turnaround last year, and could have fit in with their fun-loving ascent to playoff contention this summer.
Assuming he could’ve stayed healthy, that is. He couldn’t, obviously. He hoped there are no hard feelings about it. The smattering of boos mixed into his reception Friday night suggested otherwise.
“This is a team that I was with a long time and it will always have a special place in my heart, so I keep tabs on the results on the games and I’m really proud to see how they’ve been performing this season,” Robert said via interpreter. “Those last few years, we didn’t get the job done the way that we wanted to. But at the same time, I can look back at it as a beautiful journey.”