White Sox Feeling the Irony as They Face Luis Robert Jr. for First Time Since Trade
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Friday's series opener with the last-place New York Mets will be meaningful for the White Sox for a couple of reasons.
First, it marks the beginning of what should be a simpler rest of the season. The Sox have the fourth-easiest remaining schedule over their final 35 games, so whether they win the AL Central is completely up to them. That's where you want to be!
The bigger reason for many Sox fans, though, is that it marks Luis Robert Jr.'s first return to Rate Field since the offseason trade that ended his six seasons on the South Side. The reception he gets when he first comes to bat will be worth paying attention to, and there should be plenty of fans wearing gear with his name and/or likeness.
Luis Robert Jr. is Back on the South Side
It was clear by the end of the 2025 campaign that Luis Robert was not going to bring back anything close to what he would have demanded had he theoretically been dealt after his All-Star season in 2023. But with him entering the final season of his seven-year, $70 million contract, the Sox were eager to get him off the books by any means necessary.
The key player the Sox got in their eventual trade of Robert to the Mets was Luisangel Acuna, whose expectations were never that high, not unlike those of the 2026 Sox as a whole. Although Acuna has mainly stayed true to those expectations, he has turned into a serviceable utility player on a surprise playoff contender. The Sox couldn't have asked for much more from him.
By contrast, Robert's first season with the Mets has been by far the worst of his career. Yes, he missed nearly three months with a lumbar spine disc herniation, but he's played nearly every game for the Mets since coming back, and he's on track for career lows across the board. That undeniably puts him under more scrutiny than Acuna.
Of course, Robert's disappointing season is coinciding with that of the Mets in general. After going on a spending spree that only the Los Angeles Dodgers would dare try to match these days, they instead have sat in last place in the NL East for most of the season. They consequently became surprise sellers at the trade deadline.
So we find ourselves with two teams going in opposite directions from where many expected them to be before the season. And at the center of this series is a player who previously was on a Sox core that fell woefully short of championship expectations and is now playing that out again with a different organization.
Baseball sure can be cruel to certain players, can't it?
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After nearly eight years on newspaper night desks, Geoffrey began a lengthy tenure with Fighting Irish Wire to cover Notre Dame athletics for USA TODAY. He continues covering the Irish and other college football stories for The Voice of College Football. He also covers prep sports for the Daily Herald and Chicagoland Soccer, writes about Chicago sports for Da Windy City and helps run Chicago Bulls Confidential. He received a bachelor's degree from North Central College in 2011 and a master's degree from DePaul University in 2016. He hosts a World Series history podcast and hopes to visit every MLB stadium, so far having checked off 20 current ballparks and four demolished ones.
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