The White Sox are suddenly staring at a familiar waiver-wire possibility, and it comes with a twist that would have sounded absurd not long ago: Luis Robert Jr. is available, and a South Side reunion is at least worth asking about.
The Mets placed the former White Sox outfielder on outright waivers, according to Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, after a season that has played out a lot like the one Chicago already knew well. Robert spent parts of six seasons with the White Sox before being dealt to New York in January for Luisangel Acuña and pitching prospect Truman Pauley, closing the book on one chapter and opening another that has not gone especially smoothly.
His Mets stint started slowly, then got interrupted by a severe lumbar spine disc herniation that cost him nearly three months. Since coming back, though, Robert has flashed more of the player the White Sox once believed they had. In 32 games since his return, he is hitting .233/.296/.476 with 8 home runs, including a multi home run performance in his return to the South Side last week.
New York’s situation makes the waiver move easy to understand. The Mets are heading toward next year, Robert does not look like part of those plans, and placing him on waivers gives them a chance to clear money and open a roster spot for the stretch run. Any club can claim him over the next 48 hours if it is willing to take on the salary.
For the White Sox, the fit is more complicated, but not hard to see. Against right-handed pitching, the lineup has settled in and largely stayed put. Tristan Peters, one of the season’s biggest surprises, has locked down center field and has been rolling lately.
The more obvious opening comes against lefties, where Chicago has spent the year searching for answers with a string of right-handed outfield options. The team eventually landed on Brenton Doyle, a trade deadline pickup from the Rockies, as the solution there.
Doyle’s glove is not in question, but Robert would give them more pop in that role. That matters with the postseason approaching, especially with the Yankees and Red Sox both able to line up multiple left-handed starters in a playoff series.
Robert would also give the White Sox a bat off the bench against right-handers and allow Braden Montgomery to get a break in certain games.
There is also the human side of it, and that part is harder to dismiss than it might have been in the past. Robert’s White Sox tenure was heavily criticized for effort and consistency, but Will Venable recently said he helped shape the team’s culture last season, and Miguel Vargas has echoed that view. Vargas and Robert even had dinner before the Mets’ series in Chicago, and Vargas called him a brother.
“Besides baseball, he’s my brother personally. What he means to me and the impact he’s had on my life has been amazing,” Vargas said.
That kind of relationship matters for a White Sox club that has built a strong clubhouse feel. If one of the team’s best hitters speaks that highly of Robert, it at least complicates the easy labels people have attached to him.
The financial piece is the biggest obstacle. Robert has a $20 million team option for 2027 that almost certainly will not be exercised, which means Chicago would be looking at roughly $3 million for the rest of this season plus a $2 million buyout of the option if it claimed him. That is a lot to pay for a month of a weak-side platoon player, even if stranger things have happened.
Still, the timing makes the whole idea harder to ignore. Fangraphs now gives the White Sox over a 90% chance to make the playoffs after Saturday’s win, and that puts them in a spot where the roster is set enough to be confident but not so fixed that waiver reinforcements are off the table. Robert is available, the White Sox know him well, and the organization already understands what he looks like when he is at his best.
A reunion would have sounded ridiculous a month ago. Now it is at least a real conversation, and one more decision the White Sox will have to make as the postseason gets closer.
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