White Sox’ Luis Robert Jr. doesn’t start Tuesday, won’t start Wednesday

This season hasn’t gone how White Sox center fielder Luis Robert Jr. had hoped.

Instead of a resurgence, the 27-year-old has reached the nadir of his career. He’s struggling so badly that manager Will Venable sat him in the Sox’ 8-1 victory Tuesday against the Tigers and said Robert wouldn’t start Wednesday. Venable already had dropped Robert to seventh in the batting order for two games last weekend in Baltimore.

‘‘He’s continued to work hard on making adjustments to get right,’’ Venable said. ‘‘As he continues to do that, similar to [first baseman Miguel Vargas] earlier in the year, where he’s taking on some real adjustments, just not having him do that while also dealing with the results of the game.’’

Robert is hitless in his last 18 plate appearances and looks lost. He’s not swinging at hittable pitches, and he struck out three times in back-to-back games against the Orioles.

Venable has been supportive of Robert amid his struggles, but it reached a point where the team had to take him out of the lineup. Venable said Robert was receptive to the decision.

‘‘He wants, more than anything, to be the best version of himself and has been extremely committed to doing that,’’ Venable said. ‘‘He is putting in a ton of work and working extremely hard all throughout the day to try and get this thing right. He agreed that it would be a good idea just to press pause on the games, just for a couple of days here.’’

Robert has fallen from the heights of 2023, when he hit 38 home runs, made the All-Star team and won a Silver Slugger award.

Though Robert is striking out less and walking more, he’s lacking the decisiveness he once had, and his power has vanished. Robert has only five homers and hasn’t hit one in his last 25 games. Robert talked weeks ago about how his struggles were affecting him mentally.

‘‘When you’re good, you go to the plate and you don’t think anything,’’ he said.

In the Sox’ 3-2 loss Sunday to the Orioles, Robert struck out looking in the ninth on a four-seam fastball in the zone. That at-bat exemplified his struggles.

‘‘He’s in a good spot physically,’’ Venable said. ‘‘Just want to give him a couple of days here to lock in some of these adjustments.’’

Barring a significant turnaround, the Sox likely would have to take less back in a trade for Robert. He has club options of $20 million in 2026 and ’27 that the Sox likely would decline based on his production.

Robert is playing solid defense (66th percentile in outs above average) and leads the league in stolen bases (21), but his appeal stems from his ability to be a dynamic two-way talent. He looks far from that.

The Sox hope the reset allows Robert to clear his head. It would be better for the team and for Robert if he turned it around and became alluring to another club because both sides could use a fresh start.