Resilient Robert's HRs ring louder than boos in Chicago return

CHICAGO -- A day before crushing two home runs against his former team in Saturday night's 10-5 win over the White Sox, Luis Robert Jr. sat in the visitors' dugout at Rate Field and reflected on the six seasons he called this place home.

It was strange, Robert said, being a visitor to the South Side after nine years in the White Sox organization. It felt good to see his long-term friend Miguel Vargas doing so well. It felt less good when Vargas forced him to pick up the check for their steakhouse dinner.

It was also noteworthy, Robert said through an interpreter, that his first season outside of Chicago was playing out like so many of the ones he endured here: injuries, games missed, opportunities lost.

“Right now,” Robert said, “the most important thing for me is to finish the season strong and just go out there and just try to be the best version of myself.”

One day later, Robert demonstrated precisely what that version looks like. Batting in the third inning, Robert pushed a two-run homer off Luis Castillo a Statcast-projected 405 feet over the right-center-field fence, eliciting boos from the Rate Field crowd. Four innings later, he pulled a solo shot off former teammate Huascar Brazobán 417 feet to left. More boos.

Those home runs -- combined with shots from Bo Bichette, Carson Benge and Luis Torrens -- kept the Mets in front of Robert’s old team despite a slew of pitching issues.

“It feels good to hit homers against any team,” Robert said. “But I will say, it did feel good to hit the home runs here, just because it was a stadium that I played so many games in -- essentially my whole career.”

Playing in left field for the third time this season, Robert even recorded his first outfield assist at the position when he cut down Vargas wandering too far off first base -- a play he said meant more to him than the two homers.

“He got us good today,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “Obviously, a couple of really big hits. Really talented player that you make mistakes to him, he’s going to hurt you.”

Even if the Mets’ (59-71) pipe dream of clawing back into National League playoff contention falls flat, Robert has plenty of reason to want to finish this campaign strong. For the first time in his stateside career, he can become a free agent after the season.

It was largely for that reason that scouts began watching Robert closely leading up to the Trade Deadline, wondering if he might prove useful to a contender. At that point, however, Robert was barely two weeks removed from a three-month stint on the injured list due to a lumbar spine disc herniation. Physically, he felt less than perfect. In his final seven games leading up to the Aug. 3 Deadline, Robert batted .125 with a .347 OPS. He didn’t have an extra-base hit.

Things didn’t begin to change until three days after the Deadline, when Robert submitted a three-hit game. Two days after that, he homered. Another three days later, another ball over a fence.

Rather suddenly, then, Robert has rounded into form, with a .318/.347/.682 slash line over his last 14 contests. Squint, and it becomes possible to see the player who finished 12th in AL MVP voting with a 38-homer, 20-stolen base season for the White Sox in 2023 -- the same player whose talent convinced the Mets to trade for him back in January.

For a long while after that trade, things did not go Robert’s way. Despite a preseason program designed to keep him healthy, Robert succumbed to his back injury in mid-April and didn’t make it back to the field until after the All-Star break.

During that time, A.J. Ewing established himself as the Mets’ everyday center fielder, with Benge in right. Those two and Juan Soto should form the Mets’ outfield nucleus for at least the next few years, leaving little room for a player like Robert. Given his injury history, the Mets are nearly certain to decline the $20 million team option on Robert’s contract.

So, he will likely enter this winter searching for a home for the first time since the White Sox signed him out of Cuba as a teenager. Things will be different this time around, given his lack of realized potential. But as Robert showed in his return to the South Side, there’s still thunder in his bat -- if he can ever stay healthy enough to use it.

“Really happy for Luis Robert to come here and put two swings on balls like that,” Mets interim manager Andy Green said. “That’s got to feel really good.”