White Sox' Luis Robert Jr. reflects on worst season
Luis Robert is taking the record personally.
He knows all 120 White Sox losses going into their game against the Angels Wednesday are not all on him. But he knows his place and responsibility as the team’s premier position-player talent.
“Yes, of course,” he said through translator Billy Russo. “I see myself as one of the faces of this team. When the faces of this team aren’t producing or struggling, you have a season like this. That’s on us, that’s on me.”
A season “like this” was one defeat away from the 1962 Mets' all-time record 121 losses with five to play. Players get asked a lot how to express what it's like being in it.
“There’s no way to describe this,” Robert said. “You guys have seen the results. The record is there and that is what it is.”
Robert agreed that embarrassment is one of the emotions felt being attached to a record that had stood for 62 years.
“Nobody can be happy seeing your name attached to a record like that,” he said. “But one year can’t define your career. One year can’t define your life. Life goes on and you can try to come back next year and do better and go from there."
To that end, Robert, who missed two months with the second hip flexor strain of his career, said his offseason routine will largely be the same as usual. But he could be traded in the offseason, should general manager Chris Getz, the man in charge of a Sox rebuild, receive a favorable package of players.
His name was in trade rumors during the first half of the season.
"It’s not easy, when you’re probably expecting to be traded or not sure whether you’re going to maintain your time here," interim manager Grady Sizemore said. "Put the injury on top of that and coming back fairly soon [from a bad injury]. He’s had to endure a lot this year."
The value has likely taken a hit after Robert batted .224/.276/.379, all lows in his five seasons. Robert said he lost his rhythm, and after having "like 20 bad games” he couldn’t rebound.
Improved pitch selection was instrumental in his best season in 2023. When he slumped this season, he dwelt on it too much, he said, when he should have focused more on simply doing damage with pitchers’ mistakes.
“That’s one of the things I’ve been working to adjust,” he said.
There are four games left after Wednesday. There isn’t much left to be said.
“There’s no way to describe this,” Robert said. “You guys have seen the results. The record is there and that is what it is.”
Loading up for Tigers
Garrett Crochet was moved from a scheduled start Thursday to Friday for the opening game of the final series at the Tigers, who are in playoff contention.
"We wanna throw our best guy up against this team that’s fighting for a playoff spot," Sizemore said. "These are
our [division] rivals. It’s going to be a big series for them, and we want to do our best to make it good for baseball and make it a competitive series and fight and try to spoil the party.”
Montgomery going to Fall League
Colson Montgomery, Grant Taylor, Peyton Pallette, Eric Adler, Andrew Dalquist, Tim Elko, DJ Gladney, Anthony Hoopii-Tuionetoa and Michael Turner. are the Sox prospects who'll play in the Arizona Fall League.
*Gladney, a Sox ACE program and Illiana Christian product, had the game-winning single in the 10th inning of Double-A Birmingham's 2-1 win against Montgomery in the Southern League championship.