Major League Baseball

Red-hot Luis Robert powering Chicago White Sox's offense into the playoffs

Published Sep. 24, 2021 1:14 p.m. ET

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By Jake Mintz
FOX Sports MLB Writer

Luis Robert is happening. 

Despite missing three months because of a torn hip flexor, Robert has emerged as the most dangerous offensive force for a White Sox team that, despite finally securing the AL Central on Thursday, has scuffled of late. Robert reached base three times in Chicago’s division-clinching win and crushed himself a little home dinger to raise his season average to .355 and his OPS to .952.

The 24-year-old Cuban cheat code is officially transforming from "Oh, he might be really good one day" to "Oh, he might be a top-10 player in the world right now."

At his best, there are few players more limitless. A locked-in Luis Robert at the plate looks like he has hacked baseball. The common man should not be able to swing a stick with such force and such ease. He is a flickering neon sign reading "unlimited potential" that’s about to stop flickering. Watch how effortlessly he uncorks this pitch deep into the Chicago night. A flick of the wrist makes 434 feet look like child’s play.

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Ever since he entered the larger baseball consciousness in the winter of 2016-17, Robert has been considered a living, breathing, pulsating orb of immense possibility. He was a gargantuan teenager with two first names, lightning quick hands and the raw ability to become a perennial All-Star, a game-changing, franchise-altering destroyer of worlds.

Scouts at the time unwaveringly claimed that he was one of if not the best amateur prospect they’d ever seen. One evaluator, an American League International Scouting Director quoted in a 2017 article from MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez, boldly proclaimed Robert "the best player on the planet, and that’s no exaggeration."

Putting aside the fact that calling a 19-year-old with zero minor-league experience "the best player on the planet" months removed from Mike Trout’s 10.5-WAR 2016 season is a complete exaggeration, that quote sums up where Robert stood as an amateur. He was, to put it simply, The Guy.

Then the White Sox gave him a large satchel of gold and rubies ($26 million bonus), and he rocketed up the minors, showing swing-and-miss issues typical of a young, toolsy player but taking everyone’s lunch money nonetheless. Then, before 2020, which was set to be Robert's rookie season, the White Sox gave him an even larger satchel of gold and rubies and emeralds and sapphires (a six-year, $50 million contract).

And right out of the gate in his rookie campaign, Robert was worth the Brink’s truck and then some. In his first month, he slapped 10 homers with a .298 average, was ninth in baseball in fWAR and had an OPS identical to Trout's. He looked like the no-doubt, runaway, 2020 COVID Cup AL Rookie of the Year.

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Then the roof caved in. 

For the first time since he was a 15-year-old playing in the top professional league in Cuba, Robert struggled to hit. In the month of September, he went 11-for-81 with a single home run. He struck out 32 times. His Rookie of the Year candidacy fell apart. He looked like a blindfolded toddler trying to blast open a piñata, swinging aimlessly at nothing but air.

Last season, the White Sock (is that the singular? Does anyone know?) really struggled with anything at the top of the strike zone, which was a huge part of his September slide. He whiffed 59% of the time on pitches up and middle within the zone (think of the 2 key on your phone). 

A look at his Statcast zone charts from last year tells the story.

But this season, he has lowered that upper third swing-and-miss rate significantly.

Some of the improvement here is small-sample noise, but Robert has made a significant, noticeable adjustment to his stance that has helped him conquer the high fastball. 

In 2020, his front foot was in line with his back foot, parallel to the inside chalk of the batter’s box, a positioning usually referred to as "even" or "straight-up." This year, his front side is much more open and his front foot much closer to the third-base side.

This new stance enables Robert to keep his hands closer to his body, which in turn allows him to get his bat head to heaters up in the zone. Matt Kelly of MLB.com made a similar observation and put together a video comparing Robert’s swings against elevated fastballs from this year to last.

Hitting isn’t easy. Pitchers will make adjustments, and Robert will need to readjust to those adjustments. Plus, it’s not like he clicked a spam link at the bottom of an internet post labeled "YOU’LL NEVER BELIEVE THIS ONE EASY TRICK TO STOP STRIKING OUT AGAINST THE HIGH FASTBALL," but even so, this change appears to have made a real difference for him.

And the White Sox need him to stay hot. Chicago’s lineup is as deep and as formidable as any in baseball, but big names such as Tim Anderson, José Abreu, Yoán Moncada and Eloy Jiménez have been merely very, very good and not otherworldly. Besides Robert, the only Chicago starter with an OPS over .830 is Yasmani Grandal. 

If the Sox want to venture deep into the glory of autumn, they’ll need their 24-year-old phenom with the luminescent smile and eye-popping trapezius muscles to play like one of the best players in the world.

An unfortunate injury robbed him of the chance to toss his name up there with the likes of Shohei and Vladdy for the AL MVP, but come 2022, Robert is a legitimate contender to bring home some hardware. That is, if he doesn’t do it in the postseason. 

There are wonderfully few humanoids on this globe who could conceivably one day be called the greatest baseball player in the world. Luis Robert is one of those lucky, talented few. 

The future is now.

Jake Mintz is the louder half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball analyst for FOX Sports. He’s an Orioles fan living in New York City, and thus, he leads a lonely existence most Octobers. If he’s not watching baseball, he’s almost certainly riding his bike. You can follow him on Twitter @Jake_Mintz.

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