MAY 3, 5:05pm: Robert has a Grade 3 hip flexor strain, which is a complete tear, general manager Rick Hahn told Scott Merkin of MLB.com and other reporters. The White Sox will determine how to proceed with Robert in the coming days, but they announced he’ll go 12 to 16 weeks without baseball activities. That would seem to put Robert’s season in jeopardy, but they’re not ready to rule out a return yet.
4:31pm: Robert will sit out for “an extended period of time,” Bruce Levine of 670 The Score tweets. The team has considered surgery for Robert, and there should be more on his status soon.
MAY 2, 3:40pm: White Sox manager Tony La Russa told Fegan (Twitter links) and other reporters that Robert will be placed on the injured list. Outfielder Luis Gonzalez will get the call to replace Robert on the active roster.
1:02pm: The White Sox are holding their breath after Luis Robert fell to the ground after running through first base today (video provided here by Ben Verlander of Fox Sports). Robert had to be helped off the field, per the Athletic’s James Fegan (via Twitter). That’s potentially devastating news for the White Sox, who are already without his running mate in the outfield, Eloy Jimenez. Supersub Leury Garcia took over in centerfield for the White Sox.
Initial X-rays are negative, however. The White Sox are saying Robert has a right hip flexor strain, and he will be looked at again tomorrow, per Fegan (via Twitter). That’s hardly definitive, but it’s good news for the time being. Robert could still end up missing time, but they seem to have avoided the worst.
Without Robert, Garcia figured to get much of the playing time in center. Billy Hamilton is also on the roster and likely to see time in the grass.
I hope you’re getting paid overtime for all these injury articles
He’s DTD with carpel tunnel syndrome.
Your day to day with hoof and mouth disease
Watching the game live, you could tell that Robert was in some immediate pain. Hoping for a speedy recovery
Yeah quite the tumble and chilling to hear it so quiet except for the solo “We love you, Luis” cry. Godspeed on recovery to a La Pantera.
My fantasy is falling appart this year. If I had try to build an all star IL team in March, could not have done better than my actual team.
A word of caution for next years draft: Luis Robert and Eloy Jimenez have missed a significant amount of time, every year they have been in the Chisox organization. Eloy in particular, doesn’t take much to sideline himself with injuries that make you wonder, ”he did THAT”.
I’ll play ya best of seven for IL championship!
Robert is better than whoever his replacement will be long-term but he hasn’t been a difference maker by any means
He’s hitting 32 percent better than league average with strong defense. That certainly seems like a difference maker to me.
He has an .810 OPS as a 23 year old, while playing a premium defensive position. I don’t know who you are mistaking him with.
He is a GG CF. That alone makes you a difference maker.
You don’t know baseball if you truly think he’s not a difference maker
Don’t feed the troll. Or let him out of grandmas basement.
Who hurt you, bud?
He doesn’t know anything about Robert. Not a very thoughtful post.
The fact that it is only a right hip flexor strain after how much pain he was in, is a small miracle.
Depends on how bad the strain is. Hip flexors can be a nagging injury as they are responsible for any lower body explosive movement.
The way he couldn’t put any weight on it, it very easily could have been a tear.
Well it is apparently
Yea, it def looked like it was worse than a everyday strain. I wasn’t surprised to hear it was worse, but grade 3 is bad news.
And wasn’t he just activated from the IL on Friday for this series?
Not technically the IL….missed a game with flu like symptoms and the Sox took advantage of the COVID list as a precaution which teams are allowed to do.
I hope they actually give Gonzalez some playing time.
They never give their position players much chance unless they were high draft picks, and it usually takes a series of injuries for them to get a look. Mercedes would probably be in alternative camp without Eloy’s injury.
Billy Hamilton and Leury Garcia aren’t hitting much, so there is no reason to not see what they have here.
Yeah in the strange month its been, only godsend is opportunities that have opened up for Yermin and Kopech. Hopefully Luis Gonzalez will seize an opportunity here, also more PT for Andrew Vaughn who is starting to click. Vaughn reminds one of a young Robin Ventura with his sound fundamentals
Dumpster, how’s the Zack Collins experience coming along? Quite a dynamic pair you got to choose from behind the plate.
Gonzalez is not ready for major league at bats and is inferior to hamilton defensively and on the bases by a long shot. Gonzalez is just depth until Engel is back, he needs more AAA at bats to see if he is a ml player.
How do you know?
You can’t tell what a player can do in MLB until they actually get a shot in MLB.
Hamilton and Garcia have OPS+ right now under 40. What is the harm in seeing if one of your prospects can do better than that? And frankly, if they aren’t going to sign someone off the street, they need to take a look at someone else especially if Robert is out for an extended period of time, which seems likely.
Billy Hamilton made sense when he was the fifth outfielder. He is now an Adam Eaton injury from starting. That’s not remotely out of the question. It’s time to see who else can help this team.
Gonzalez had a .675 OPS in a full season of AA ball in 2019, which is actually lower than Blake Rutherford on his same team. He hit .154 in spring training this year. There is absolutely no evidence that he is capable of hitting at even the AAA level. Is it 2% possible that he hits the ground running and becomes a ml? I suppose, but I believe he’d be better off at AAA getting ABs long term.
Before you tell me that no one expected Mercedes to do what he did, remember he was always a terrific hitter in the minors. Gonzalez has not shown that. I hope he does, but I suspect he will be on the roster until Engel comes off DL (Thursday/Friday), then he goes to Charlotte to get ABs.
He’s a great player in the final developmental stage. Big loss. Glad the X-ray was negative. My hope is they don’t force him back. Let’s him completely heal.
Adam Engel will be back next week and should immediately slot into the everyday CF role. Another great defender whose offense has really picked up over the last year+.
Engel has the potential ceiling of a Kiermaier.
Thankfully, Engel returns soon. Sox have one of the best offenses in the league despite slow starts from Abreu and Grandal and all the injuries. Once they’re all healthy at the same time, and especially if Giolito gets right, this could be a very dangerous team. Very grateful that Robert is only on the 10-day DL.
A lot of that is because of Robert. And a great deal is because of Mercedes.
If Robert is down for an extended period — and he very well could be if it’s a severe strain or worse — the team needs to consider other options, because they cannot afford to continue starting Leury Garcia, or wear down Adam Eaton, who is already sliding quickly.
Four total hits in the past two games., and Robert had a quarter of them.
This might be the appropriate time for the White Sox to finally roll the dice on one of the Cuban OF free agents who could be had for a minimal MLB contract.
RF Yasiel Puig just signed a deal in the Mexican League, in part because of a ‘shady’ sexual assault allegation. Puig has reverse splits and would give the White Sox a solid bat versus RHP which they have struggled against in the recent past. Puig could play RF with Adam Eaton sliding over to CF until Adam Engel returns later this month.
The White Sox had also reportedly showed some interest in LF Yoenis Céspedes who had been keeping in shape training with his younger half-brother Yoelqui who was recently signed by the team as one of the top rated international free agents. The younger Céspedes is expected make his pro debut in CF at AA Birmingham once his visa issues are resolved.
Honestly . . . Call up Adolfo and Gonzalez and Adolfo and see what they do.
Or make a trade.
This pretty much blows a hole in the season so you might as well go back and work on development, or get the outfielder you could have signed in the offseason for backup.
Puig is still in limbo and everyone else is on the scrap heap.
Go big, or go young.
White Sox fans received more bad news on the heels of the Robert injury update.
Per: soxon35th.com/2021/05/03/breaking-luis-robert-sust…: “Rick Hahn also announced that Adam Engel suffered a setback in his comeback from a hamstring strain, one that will set him completely back in his rehab process. In addition, Reynaldo Lopez had eye surgery to deal with vision issues and should be available to return in 3 weeks. Engel’s injury puts more pressure on the front office to find external options to replace Luis Robert.”
It’s looking like the front office will be exploring trade options sooner rather than later. The attached article link had some possibilities.
I really hope they don’t go the trade route. You can never have too much pitching and they don’t have any other prospects that would return a difference-maker. I’d rather they sign Yoenis and roll with him for a few months. I think they have a shot at the playoffs, but unless at least one of Eloy or Robert comes back strong, I don’t see them as legit contenders anymore.
I believe the White Sox have sufficient pitching depth to facilitate a smart trade that could help them in 2021 without jeopardizing too much of their future. They could also pursue a deal that might provide more than a quick fix this season, perhaps for their future core RF who might also swing a high OPS left-handed bat to help better balance their lineup going forward.
In addition to dangling a young power reliever with MLB experience and high upside like Codi Heuer the White Sox also have a few highly thought of recently drafted high school pitching prospects in Jared Kelley, Matthew Thompson and Andrew Dalquist who will all be pitching at A+ Kannapolis this year. Some limited combination of those RHP’s might be enough to centerpiece a trade for their future RF who could also impact their playoff aspirations as soon as this season.
White Sox should trade with Baltimore for Mullins. As an O’s fan I’d hate to see him go, but he’d be a great fit for the White Sox batting leadoff. Pretty much any Oriole outfielder can be traded for a few young A-league or Dominican League type prospects as Elias stocks the talent pipeline. Mullins is having an All Star beginning of the season and has I think 4 years of control…so who knows what Elias would demand – likely 4 specs?
Larussa brought them bad karma.
That’s terrible. I hope he recovers quicker that that. He’s young so it might be less that. A hip injury is kinda like tommy John to pitchers. Players use their hips in nearly ever motion..
This is because of manfred’s decisions to continue to make unnecessary changes to the game, like changing the composition of the ball, ridiculous 7 inning double headers, extra innings rule (forcing players to run without proper warm ups, forcing loogys to pitch 3 batters when they have been trained to face on le guy and that leads to over throwing/compensating). The game has been played a certain way for over 100 years. Now he is forcing players to make adjustments on the fly and now we are seeing an increase in injuries. I can’t wait to see when he attempts to
Implement the home run derby rule and we see how it destroys players swings and leads to an increased amount of injuries.
Wow…. There is sooo much here to respond to.. first of all, the “ball” was altered 2 seasons ago and just got back to the original version as it seems. Secondly, 7 inning doubleheaders would be actually safer for players.. less innings, lol simple math… All players have a place to warm up especially for running.. 3 batter minimum.. I mean, I like it, but whatever about that.. and yet not one single thing you stated caused this injury… Smdh
And let’s not forget for the first 140 years of baseball pitchers pitched seven plus innings and relievers pitched two innings at a time not just to one lefty at a time. It’s fun watching old World Series games and watching the pitcher bat in the 7th inning when their team is losing by a run.
Kind of funny that it is Manfred’s fault that Robert got hurt running hard down the line. He certainly has his faults and reason for criticism but Luis Robert tearing a hip flexor really isn’t on Manfred.
Just curious how long have you been a fan? These changes are ruining the integrity of game. You can throw all of the records away because now you have guys pitching 7 inning complete games, no hitters perfect games and comparing them against guys we did it the legitimate way (9 innings). Also you can throw batting averages out the window because guys now have less abs in a season. Baseball is officially ruined. But maybe you don’t agree and that’s fine.
Ruining the integrity of the game and saying the injury is because of it (Your words) are two separate things. You do understand how many nine inning complete games are thrown now, don’t you??? TEAMS rarely get over half a dozen in season.
Baseball is not officially ruined by throwing records out because teams will play less than a handful of seven inning games a year.
Getting sick of these soft tissue injuries of White Sox players. I think they need to seriously look at the conditioning staff for the Sox as Im not sure they are really doing their jobs. Especially with these younger guys that apparently think they do not need to. For Luis to go down to something like this… someone should be fired.
nrd——it is a freak injury…….no reason to throw shade on the conditioning staff. It happens—-and which other soft tissue injuries are you talking about.??? I believe that was the first hip flexor for the Sox.
The Sox conditioning staff have been letting down the players for more than just this season.. Hamstring injuries, Calf injuries, lat injuries, hip flexor injuries.. If these guys were properly conditioning I doubt many would have needling issues like they have had since Herm Schneider move up the org. I think he needs to take a more hands on approach or they need to find someone like him. When he was ‘ruling the roost’ there were very few such injuries and when they did occur, most players wanted to rehab as fast as they could as Hermie was nicknamed ‘Dr Pain’ He was a wizard getting players back healthy and keeping them that way. and I think the Sox sorely miss him (and yes I get that he would not be able to do anything for Robert after this injury, but I think with his discipline the injury would never have occurred).
Time to call Puig
I think Cepedes is better option
The problem with Yoenis Céspedes aside from his age and own injury history is the fact that he is strictly a LF/DH option where the White Sox already have ample depth with Andrew Vaughn, Yermin Mercedes and others competing for AB’s.
Yasiel Puig would be the better OF fit in RF and would allow Adam Eaton to help fill the CF void, at least until Adam Engel returns following his own hamstring injury setback.
The front office is likely leary of adding Puig with his baggage making a trade more likely. Possibilities might include Charlie Blackmon, Joey Gallo, Mitch Haniger or Kris Bryant to name a few.
If the Sox do go the trade route, I’d want Gallo of those options. He K’s an awful lot, but terrific power and has worked very hard to become a plus defender. The extra year of control over him vs Bryant and the lower salary also help.
Even when healthy the White Sox had no depth. Lose Jimenez and Robert, sprinkle in a senile manager that is making all the wrong moves and the result is pain. Rodon must be on red alert.
They really didn’t.
Losing two outfielders fir the season early was always a big possibility.
Except those two guys were Eaton and Garcia. Now, you are praying they stay healthy.
But they may not, and in that case, they are pretty much sunk without trades, promotions of not-so-ready players, or tolerating a beer league outfield.
Should the nuclear option be considered? Give Mercedes a LF glove and move Vaughn to RF? I hate everything about that plan other than……..any other alternative. This assumes Robert and Jiminez aren’t in beast mode come September.
Three OFs injured; The old new manager can’t manage a pen. This promising season is falling apart.
Nah, that kills your pitching. See if Gonzalez can take advantage of some PT before Engel takes over CF. They can also gamble on an out of work veteran OF even if this didn’t happen to get Eaton rest. Good starting pitching can mask some OF deficiencies offensively if they can catch the ball.
let’s give ole Blake Rutherford a shot-
Rutherford stinks.
Relax White Sox fans …… We still have enough! We will be smiling in September and welcoming the boys back into the lineup.
I was crushed when we lost Eloy (RIP). And gutted when I heard the news about Robert earlier today.
But if I try to relax a little, I still think this lineup is better than average:
Anderson – SS
Eaton – RF
Moncada – 3B
Abreu – 1B
Mercedes – DH
Grandal/Collins – C
Vaughn – LF
Leury Garcia/Hamilton/Luis Gonzalez – CF
Madrigal – 2B
The starting pitching has been great, and I still believe the bullpen has all the talent in the world and will get better results moving forward.
The season is not lost.
Oddvrk, I believe that you have been taking every bit of koolaide that Stone and boy-wonder have been trying to sell. The lineup you suggest as ‘better than average’, might be better than a Double A lineup. When you realize reality, you will see that the Chisox have NO MLB catcher, Moncada is just all hype from your tv announcers , and the OF you suggest is truly bad.
For someone who hates the White Sox you sure pay a lot of attention to them. But it’s cool, I still love you.
A positive out of all this could be a full commitment to playing time for Vaughn. His ABs have been improving.
It’s not lost, but let’s be real here.
The team is an Adam Eaton injury away from losing its top four outfielders for a significant portion of time. And an Adam Eaton injury is hardly a stretch of the imagination, especially if he is pressed to play more than he should because of injury. Garcia doesn’t have a good track record of health either.
Even with Eaton, the team needs to consider reinforcements, because they are very much on the realistic brink of having to go with a group of outfielders who can’t field, or a group of outfielders who can’t hit.
And if they don’t start getting production out of Abreu and Grandal soon, and if Mercedes begins his expected regression, this team is going to be in the pits.
They should have added outfield depth in the offseason due to the very real risk of injury. Now it’s here, they aren’t ready, so they are going to have to do something, either via a trade, or by pushing young players on the 40-man roster into the outfielder like Gonzalez and Adolfo.
It is time to call Texas about Joey Gallo.
Despite the high strikeout totals, Joey Gallo figures to be a better bet than the last left-handing hitting RF the White Sox received from the Rangers in a trade. He would also cost a lot more than Steele Walker.
Yikes. A grade 3 hip flexor strain sounds better than converting that into English, which is a complete tear! Hopefully this is something that can be fully repaired and doesn’t impact his speed and his overall game.
Glad we have La Russa in times like these.
Now, that’s funny!
Trade for Bryant! What do Cubs need?
A new FO.
But in a trade for Bryant, they have a thin farm and took a crap return to offload Darvish’s salary. May not take all that much, especially as Bryant’s a rental.
It’s time to start looking forward to Da Bears.
The same Bears that can’t find a good QB to save their posteriors, overpay in the draft to move up, and can’t decide whether they want to rebuild or contend? Those Bears? Pass.
Besides, the season isn’t written off yet. Minnesota’s digging themselves a big hole and, even when they start playing better, they have some ground to make up. KC probably can’t keep this pace, so the Sox have a shot at the playoffs and both Eloy and Robert could be back by then. A title is a long shot, but the season isn’t over.
12-16 weeks is an odd timeline to give. Just say 3-4 months. White Sox outfield is snake-bitten.
Nonsense, i.e., the paragraph below should never post by MLB Trade Rumors. Roberts clearly had devastating muscle or tendon injury, yet the writer, TC Zencka, is minimizing the injury after an Xray which only shows bone.
“Initial X-rays are negative, however. The White Sox are saying Robert has a right hip flexor strain, and he will be looked at again tomorrow, per Fegan (via Twitter). That’s hardly definitive, but it’s good news for the time being. Robert could still end up missing time, but they seem to have avoided the worst.”
“
@ Priggs89
Uh-oooohhhhh….. that over on the season win total might not be “EASY MONEY” anymore.
LOL