April tends to be relatively quiet on the transaction front. The early part of the month saw a handful of extensions as talks that had begun in Spring Training carried into the regular season. There probably won't be much more significant hot stove activity for the next couple months. That's largely because all but three teams -- the White Sox, Marlins and Rockies -- went into the season with some measure of hope about competing. The trio of clearly noncompetitive clubs had already moved most of their realistic trade candidates who'd bring back prospect talent.
Luis Robert Jr. is an exception. The White Sox held onto their former All-Star center fielder over the offseason. Robert was coming off the worst season of his career. He lost nearly two months early in the season with a hip flexor strain and was unproductive when healthy. He hit .224/.278/.379 with 14 homers in 100 games. Robert looked nothing like the player who'd finished 12th in AL MVP balloting one year earlier.
It made for a difficult evaluation. Robert has shown star upside -- not only in the aforementioned 2023 campaign but in an injury-shortened '21 season when he hit .338/.378/.567 over 68 games. Last year's White Sox were en route to the worst season in the modern era. Maybe Robert's .216/.253/.302 showing in the second half reflected some amount of mental fatigue. At 27 years old, he should remain in his prime.
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Crazy how drastically he fell off. Wonder how much of it is physical ailments, how much of it is mental- is it the yips? Craziness.
Beware pinheads with millions of guaranteed dollars.
Luis needs to move on
I can’t see spending a haul of prospect talent on him. Maybe that’s not fair, maybe he just needs to find himself, but he’s not durable, he’s a free agent next year, and, at his best, he’s not a first ranked star. If you trade for him, and he turns out to be good, you can’t make a QO, so it’s really a rental–and every passing game makes it more of one.
He can be controlled through 2027 via team options.
Unless he has a monster few months he’s surely getting bought out.
Yeah, but the original comment said that if he turns out to be good, he can’t be QO’d.
He can be retained for a salary very close to the QO for the next two years and then QO’d—if he was actually worth it.
I was wrong–I looked at BR and mis-read the “Earliest FA” line.
It’s still early and the weather isn’t helping probably. As long as he stays healthy he should be fine but the Sox need to reconfigure their expectations of what they’ll get for him to be sure. Looking like they waited too long.
Robert coasted on raw talent for awhile, but he is a classic underachiever. WSox knowingly the worst in MLB at position player development, yet after this long it’s on him to stop chasing junk to adjust.
He’s taking lessons from Cespedes. How to be a pro and a great teammate.
I’m 99% sure he’s gonna start hitting again on the next team he’s traded to.
I thought that about Eloy last year, but I was wrong. Sometimes guys just regress.
A Nobody;
Sometimes they seem to have a lot talent but they’re not
very good players.
Anyone watching some games as opposed to the once or twice a weeks highlights knows that’s the case here.
Eloy was fat and oft injured. Eloy just needs to get to a better environment, like Kopech.
Toronto has plenty of 4a outfielders they could swap for him.
Robert has been mailing it in going on two years. Showing up to that clubhouse for that organization has to be soul-sucking. I can’t imagine anybody giving the WS more than a bag of balls for Robert at the deadline knowing Reinsdorf isn’t picking up that option.
I wanted the reds to trade for him but they were just asking too much for a player with plenty of health issues and little consistency. Although I do think if he stays healthy he’ll probably have a good year but imo nothing like 2023.
This dude had 38 bombs only a couple years ago, wondering if that was a fluke or PEDs or what
Part of it’s that like Oneil Cruz he’s a head case that thinks he’s a superstar.
The baseball media – this article is an example – feeds into that. Narratives can always be built by cherry-picking certain facts while ignoring others.
Critical thinking is not popular.
Always good for some thinly veiled racism, Samuel.
I think there are plenty of players that are way too much into their own heads. On my RS, I think that Story and Casas way over-think things, and that Casas is currently lost.
I don’t see anything racist in that.
He had an insane season and two other very good but shorter ones, but hasn’t shown much for what could be a season and a half now. His stock certainly fell hard, they better pray he gets hot. I think his potential is somewhere in between, to take the boring road. I don’t think a team can bring him in hoping to be their superstar, just a compliment to an already strong group.
Maybe these guys hit their prime a few yrs ago when they were really in the mid 20s.
Now into the early 30s, the regression starts.
Only Mama knows the true age and that might not even be the most reliable source.
If baseball was my only escape from a life long entrapment on a poverty stricken island, Id be 13 yrs old for how ever long I needed to be in order to play ball.
Fool’s gold. Anyone would be a fool to trade anything of much value for him. That what scares me as a Reds fan. Their front office shown the will to jump in these types of situations. Witness Moose, Candelario and it is starting to look like it with Nick Martinez. To be fair, all 3 looked fairly good prior to the Reds signing them and tanked later (It is far to early to judge on Martinez since he is only signed for one year and it is early in the season). At any rate, I can’t see how Martinez justifies the money they gave him. The Reds can’t afford these monumental financial mistakes as a small market team. Again, it is fool’s gold.
Nick was 10-7 with a 3.10 ERA. That was a steal for $14M.
Last season his bat was visibly slow. His swing looks a little faster this year, he’s squaring up more pitches. There is reason to hope that results will follow, I think.
I kind of want the White Sox to keep him. I’m halfway to optimistic this team competes in 2027:
1) The rotation is coming together.
2) They’re figuring out which young bats will play in the MLB. Position player depth is definitely minimal on the farm, but I’m seeing half of a lineup.
3) Robert doesn’t need to be a world beater to justify executing those options. 3ish WAR ball justifies the contract.
4) His contract doesn’t prevent a couple more additions, and they can just not execute the option if he isn’t performing.
Eloy disease
The mental weight of these setbacks—especially for a 27-year-old star expected to carry the White Sox offense—could be contributing to his uncharacteristic .235/.203/.439 slash line through mid-April 2025.