White Sox’s Luis Robert Jr. Acknowledges Offensive Woes, Must Correct to Improve Trade Stock
If the Chicago White Sox hope to trade outfielder Luis Robert Jr. by the July 31st trade deadline, they’ll need the 2023 All-Star to play his way out of town.
But the 27-year-old has a lot of ground to make up between now and then before being shipped to a playoff contender can become a realistic possibility.
It’s no secret that the White Sox brass has been open to trading Robert for the last few seasons now, and they reportedly intensified those efforts over the off-season, but to no avail. Now, amidst the franchise’s continued rebuild, trading the ‘23 Silver Slugger presents an opportunity to acquire one final haul of young talent for the future.
The only problem with that plan is that last season’s poor showing has carried over into this season, further diminishing the outfielder’s trade value.
“Right now, as my season is going, I don’t think anybody is going to take a chance on me,” Robert told reporters, including MLB.com’s Scott Merkin, through interpreter Billy Russo on Tuesday. “I just focus on trying to get better. I can’t think of anything else.”
Two years ago, Robert was considered among the brightest young hitters in the sport. He delivered a sensational breakout performance for the White Sox, posting career-highs in home runs (38), RBIs (80) and fWAR (4.9) while slashing .264/.315/.542 with a 128 wRC+ (100 league average) across 145 games – also a career-high.
Last season, however, the right-handed-hitting slugger saw his strikeout rate soar to a career-worst clip of 33.2 percent as the rest of his results plummeted to a .224/.278/.379 slash line and 84 wRC+ over 100 games. While he swiped a career-high 23 bases, surpassing 20 stolen bases for a second consecutive campaign, he failed to register more than 14 home runs.
Through 45 games in 2025, Robert’s woes at the plate have continued to worsen, resulting in a miserable .182/.276/.302 slash line, five home runs, 17 RBIs and a 65 wRC+. The only solace is that he features a career-high walk rate of 11.5 percent.
“I try to be that player every day. I prepare myself the best way I can to be that player. If at the end of the day the results aren’t there, that is something I can’t control,” Robert said. “Everybody here works hard to get the results every day. When you are working hard and the results aren’t there, you feel a little sad for sure.”
Simply put, Chicago needs Robert to take a massive step forward over these next two months to have any chance of flipping him for a meaningful return this July.
“He knows where he’s at,” White Sox manager Will Venable said of Robert’s offensive struggles. “He’s working extremely hard to make adjustments. He’s going to find what he needs to find to have more confidence at the plate.”
Robert is in the final season of a six-year, $50-million contract that pays him $15 million in ‘25. His deal includes team options in ‘26 and ‘27 worth $20 million per season with a $2 million buyout.
Injuries have followed the native of Cuba for most of his six major league seasons, including last year, as he missed two months early on due to a right hip flexor strain. Now that he’s fully healthy, his elite athleticism has returned – which has him second in the majors in stolen bases (17), one back of Pittsburgh’s Oneil Cruz (18) – even if it hasn’t translated to much offensive success elsewhere.
If Robert can somehow rediscover his All-Star hitting stroke, the former highly-touted franchise star’s market should begin to materialize fairly rapidly. At this point, though, that’s a pretty big “if.”
-Thomas Hall
Twitter: @Hall_Thomas_
Photo: D. Benjamin Miller. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.