Will the real Luis Robert Jr., please stand up. Contending teams would like to know who they might be getting in a potential trade.
Teams like the Philadelphia Phillies.
Robert has been one of the bigger enigmas in Major League Baseball over the past few seasons. Considered a star in the making as recently as 2023, when he hit 38 home runs and stole 20 bases for the Chicago White Sox, his production dropped off the table in 2024.
Limited by an injured hip that sidelined him for the first two months, Robert posted a slash line of .224/.278/.379 last year, and 2025 started off even worse. He entered the All-Star break slashing just .190/.275/.325, and the trade rumors that had swirled around Robert for more than a year switched from “when will it happen” to “who would want this guy?”
Luis Robert Jr. Flashes 2023 Form Just Before Trade Deadline
But just in time for the trade deadline, Robert has reshown his old form. In the first seven games after the break, Robert has nine hits in 25 at-bats (.360), with two home runs, eight RBIs, 10 runs and four stolen bases.
And now, several teams with playoff ambitions who have less-than-ideal situations at that position are likely taking another long look at Robert, a 2017 international free agent signing who will turn 28 on August 3.
The Phillies being one of those teams.
The bulk of the innings at center field for Philadelphia have been manned by Brandon Marsh and Johan Rojas, and neither one has provided much offense. The duo has combined for just four home runs and 39 RBIs, compared to 11 home runs and 43 RBIs from Robert.
The Phillies are 60-46 and trail the New York Mets by 1.5 games in the National League East Division, and they currently hold the second Wild Card spot. The team has a starting rotation armed to compete in the playoffs, and the thought of injecting the 2023 version of Robert into the lineup is very enticing.
But while trades are rarely simple, the situation with Robert is particularly complex.
The White Sox understandably want a return worthy of the electrifying talent who took MLB by storm two seasons ago — and who’s been lighting up scorecards again over the past week. Any potential trade partner, though, is bound to tread carefully, wary of how dramatically Robert’s bat faded after 2023.
And don’t forget that Robert has appeared in more than 100 games only once in his first four full seasons. He is at 86 so far this season, with 55 games remaining.
Therein lies the dilemma.
Phillies ‘Seriously Considering and Monitoring’ Luis Robert Jr.
Robert is currently in the fourth season of a six-year, $50 million contract, with club options at $20 million over each of the final two seasons, and as reported by Ken Rosenthal for The Athletic, the White Sox have indicated that if they don’t receive a team’s top-10 prospect as part of a trade package, they will be content to pick up the option.
“The White Sox, then, are in something of a no-win position,” Rosenthal wrote. “Trade Robert for the mid-tier prospect teams are offering, and feel short-changed if he returns to the player he was in 2023. Keep him and exercise the option, and assume the risk he will again miss significant time. Keep him and decline the option, and receive nothing in return when he departs as a free agent.
“The best guess is that in the end, they take what they can get.”
Perhaps that will be an offer from Philadelphia. A recent report from Francys Romero of Beisbol FR, who is considered a reliant source of information on Hispanic players, indicated that Phillies “are one of the teams seriously considering and monitoring” Robert in the final days before the July 31 trade deadline.
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