Luis

Robert Jr.

Olney mentions that Robert could be a central focus of the winter meetings next week. Many teams allegedly feel like “Chicago wants to cash out on whatever diminished value Robert has now, rather than risk seeing his value crater even more through another subpar season.” The 27-year-old outfielder will make $15 million next season, with $20 million club options for 2025 and 2026 so he’s on a very reasonable contract if a team believes he can bounce back to his previous form.

Robert drove in the game-tying run in the eighth inning to bail the White Sox out of what would have been their record-setting 121st loss. It was the only hit of the night for Robert, who has now hit safely in three of his last four contests.

Fletcher is batting .218/.267/.275 on the season and .186/.222/.279 this month, so it’s a rather odd move. We’re guessing it was more about wanting Luis Robert Jr. batting third; he’s been batting second since early August and not exactly excelling there. Nicky López, who usually leads off when in the lineup, is batting second tonight. Andrew Benintendi (fourth) and Andrew Vaughn (fifth) are also hitting one spot lower than usual.

Lou Bob will get a day off against the A’s in the matinee. Zach DeLoach will get the start in center and hit second against Jack Kochanowicz and the Angles on Wednesday.

Despite the White Sox scoring seven runs, there was no major star for their offense. It is nice to see some solid production for Robert Jr., who is still slashing just .223/.275/.395 on the season in what has been an incredibly disappointing year. He should still be on fantasy rosters due to his elite upside, but you can bench him in shallower formats if you have a deep enough bench.

Robert left Wednesday’s game with hamstring tightness, but the White Sox’s day off Thursday was all of the rest he needed.

It appeared Robert Jr. hurt the hamstring while going down the line on a double play. The outfielder will likely need to undergo further evaluation, but there’s a good chance he won’t be back in the lineup in the coming days — especially with the White Sox not playing for anything in 2024.

Robert Jr. may have hurt himself while running down the line on a double play in the previous inning. There should be a status update on why the 27-year-old was taken out shortly, but the White Sox may have Robert Jr. undergo testing before there’s an update.

Unbelievably, Robert’s OPS is about to fall below Andrew Benintendi’s; he’s only up .661 to .656 now. He already has the lower batting average, .216 to .218. It has to be hard to get motivated playing for perhaps the worst team of the last 120 years, but this has gotten ugly. He’s batting .200/.231/.293 with 59 strikeouts in 161 plate appearances since the All-Star break. He has as many caught stealings (five) as walks during that span.

Robert has been a bit more aggressive on the basepaths in recent weeks, piling up 10 thefts over his last 30 contests to push his full-season total up to 21 steals. The 27-year-old fantasy standout has been limited to just 75 contests this year due to injury and it’s fair to wonder if last year’s impressive 38-homer, 20-steal campaign was more of an outlier than a reasonable expectation moving forward.