Luis Robert Jr. Just May Become A Hot Trade Asset At The MLB Deadline

Coming in the 2025 season, the Chicago White Sox, knowing that their prospects for success were nil, were hoping to have some trade assets at the deadline to help improve their long-term outlook. Chief among those was Luis Robert Jr.

Robert Jr. is a specimen of a baseball player. At 6’2”, 225 pounds of chiseled muscle, he has 70 grade speed (on the 20-80 scale), and 65 raw power. Watching him take batting practice at Dodger Stadium prior to the All-Star break, one could see why the White Sox locked him up with a 6-year, $50 million contract back in 2020. He has easy power, launching balls to the farthest reaches of the ballpark on swing after swing.

After signing his contract, Robert Jr. started the 2020 season on the South Side of Chicago, Robert Jr. won a Gold Glove in center field and came in second in Rookie of Year voting. But then the injury bug started to bite, and bite hard.

In 2021, he missed 68 games after suffering a complete tear of his right hip flexor. The oddity of this injury was that it happened as he ran to first base on a routine grounder.

In 2022, a series of maladies (groin, Covid, blurred vision, and a wrist) limited him to 98 games.

It all came together in 2023, when he played 145 games, slashed .264/.315/.542, with 38 home runs and 36 doubles, to go along with 20 stolen bases. He was an All-Star for the first time, won a Silver Slugger Award, and came in 12^th in MVP voting. At that point, it seemed like a no-brainer that the White Sox would pick up the options for 2026 and 2027 at $20 million each.

But then Robert Jr. began the 2024 season on the shelf with a right hip flexor strain. This caused him to miss almost the first two months. And when he came back, he was a shell of the player he was the season before. All of his offensive numbers dropped, except for stolen bases, which went from 20 to 23. For the season, he slashed .224/.278/.379, with just 14 home runs. Most concerningly, he struck out in just about one out of every three plate appearances (a career worst).

Going in 2025, the ChiSox were hopeful that Robert Jr. would bounce back – 2023 style – and give them an appealing trade asset with two reasonable cost-controlled optional seasons available to a waiting suitor. But then Roberts slashed .170/.288/.310, with four home runs in his first 28 games. Things barely improved as the team headed to the All-Star break, as he stood at .190/.275/.325, with just nine home runs (the second lowest batting average among qualified hitters). He has struck out nearly twice as many times as he has gotten a hit (93 vs. 51). Shockingly, he had 22 stolen bases, which was among the league leaders.

In the first game coming out of the break, Robert Jr. had some flashes of brilliance that offer a glimmer of hope for the White Sox and potentially any team looking to improve their lineup by the end of July. Robert Jr. had an RBI-single in his first at-bat; made a dazzling diving catch in the third inning; then hit a 106 MPH, 413-foot home run to lead off the fourth. He added two walks to his ledger, and most importantly, did not strike out. There is still a lot of baseball to be played, and many more hurdles for Robert Jr. to clear (including avoiding another trip to the IL) before he is a viable AND valuable trade asset. As Jayson Stark wrote about Robert: “He has one job – to get himself traded.” If he can keep this up for two more weeks, he may just do his job, and the White Sox may just get a pretty compelling offer for the oft-injured but quite-exciting center fielder.