It’s been the MLB offseason for barely a week, but the rumor mill is in full swing. The White Sox made the decision to pick up Luis Robert Jr.’s $20 million team option earlier this week, and already the speculation about his future in Chicago is picking up. The White Sox find themselves in a remarkably similar position to a year ago, and it’s making White Sox fans feel like they’re Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.
670 The Score’s Bruce Levine reported earlier this week that multiple teams are still interested in trading for Robert Jr., however, General Manager Chris Getz reiterated his earlier expectation that Luis will be a member of the White Sox moving forward.
“We’re planning on him being in a White Sox uniform,” Getz said to MLB.com’s Scott Merkin earlier this week. “What he did in the second half was very indicative of what he’s capable of doing and how that can impact our team.” Later, Getz went on to say: “From the beginning, we’ve been open-minded. If there are opportunities to strengthen the organization, we’ll have those conversations. But as it stands today, we’re very much preparing for having Luis Robert play center field.”
Feel familiar? That’s because the situation the White Sox are in with Robert has hardly changed. In Robert, the White Sox have an ultra-talented player that has struggled to stay on the field and consistently perform at his ceiling. The 2023 season that the White Sox hoped was a breakout has seemed to be an outlier, but the White Sox think too highly of Robert as a player to sell him for what they believe is less than his value, hence the evergreen rumors. The White Sox also understand the optics of sending Robert to a developmentally-savvy team for a small return and watching him explode elsewhere. Instead, they’ve chosen to put their faith in their own player development system, which they’re working to improve, and trust that eventually, they’ll be able to bring out the best in Luis. With his value at arguably its lowest and a significantly more expensive contract, it’s a gamble that Chris Getz feels is low-risk, and he may be correct.
If the White Sox were passing on large prospect returns to hold onto a player that has two-years left in Chicago at most during a rebuild, it would be fair to question the logic of the decision. But all indications are that the offers on the table for Robert have been insignificant, so it makes sense to hold out for the best value possible.
Luis Robert Jr. is happy where he's at
As far as Luis Robert’s opinion is concerned, he’s healthy and ready to win with the White Sox. “Hopefully I can stay with this team for a long time, and if that’s not the case, then I’ll do my best with another team” Robert said on a zoom call this week. “We improved a lot during the second half of the season with all the young players coming up. It was an exciting second half for us and i think that if we’re able to sustain that performance and to keep improving and developing, we are going to be a team that’s going to be in contention for a playoff spot next season.”
Luis Robert Jr said today he’s hoping to stay with the White Sox all season ,after they picked up his contract option.He said he works with Miami based hitting instructor Gregg Tekerman in offseason. ( since 2018) He only talks to Wh Sox hitting people during the season.
— Bruce Levine (@MLBBruceLevine) November 5, 2025
The 28 year-old outfielder has spent his entire professional career in the White Sox organization since coming to the US from Cuba, and he’d certainly love nothing more than to win a championship with the team that signed him. But Luis and everyone in the White Sox front office is aware that baseball is a business and sometimes tough decisions need to be made for the long-term good of the team. Whether there will finally be a resolution to the seemingly never-ending trade saga this offseason is unclear, but it’s certainly familiar territory for White Sox fans.