The Orioles barely got a look at Luis Robert Jr. before the latest injury interruption hit, and that’s become the familiar story with a player whose talent has never been the issue.
Baltimore claimed Robert off waivers from the Mets ahead of the August 31 roster deadline, beating out the San Diego Padres in the waiver order. The Orioles were in the thick of the AL wild card race and took a swing on an outfielder with real upside, hoping he could give their lineup a jolt. Instead, Robert lasted just three games with his new club before going back on the injured list with a hamstring strain.
Robert went 2-for-11 with a home run after joining the Orioles on September 2nd. At this point in the season, he’s unlikely to play again, leaving Baltimore to sort through what comes next - including whether to pick up his $20 million option for 2027, which seems highly unlikely.
That quick exit fit a pattern that has followed Robert for a while now. Since the start of 2025, he has now suffered three hamstring injuries. The Orioles are just the latest team to run into the same wall: the upside is obvious, but the availability keeps disappearing.
The Mets had hoped they might unlock something when they brought him in after the White Sox finally moved on from him this offseason, sending him to New York in a deal that returned Luisangel Acuna to Chicago. Robert opened with some pop, going 5-for-15 with a home run in March as the Mets tried to chase a World Series run.
But the hot start faded quickly. By the end of April, he was back on the injured list with a back injury, then missed nearly two months before returning in late July.
It wasn’t until August that he started looking comfortable again. Robert hit .267 with six home runs that month, including a multi-homer game against the White Sox in Chicago.
The Mets even explored a trade for him at the deadline, but no deal came together. They eventually placed him on waivers, and Baltimore pounced.
For White Sox fans, none of this is new. Robert was always the guy with the loud tools and the frustrating results.
Chicago signed him out of Cuba in 2017, watched him flash his potential in the minors, and then saw the real breakout tease in 2019, when he posted a 1.000 OPS and 32 home runs across three minor league levels. His best big league season came in 2023, when he played a career-high 145 games, hit 38 home runs, and posted an OPS of .857.
But the next two seasons were derailed by injuries and poor performance, and the White Sox chose not to keep paying for the possibility of a rebound.
They dealt him away instead, and now the Mets and Orioles have both found out what Chicago already knew: the talent is real, but so is the risk.
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