White Sox trade of Austin Slater makes recent Luis Robert Jr. updates seem false

The Chicago White Sox completed their first trade of the deadline on Wednesday afternoon, shipping veteran outfielder Austin Slater to the New York Yankees for pitching prospect Gage Ziehl.

Slater, 32, signed a one-year deal with the White Sox this past offseason as he looked to re-establish himself as a lefty killer following a disappointing 2024 season. Slater certainly accomplished that goal, producing an .859 OPS against left-handers this season with the White Sox.

22-year-old Gage Ziehl, who joined the White Sox organization in the trade, was drafted in 2024 by the Yankees and currently has a solid 4.15 ERA between three minor league levels in 2025. 

Austin Slater's market is a good sign for Luis Robert Jr.

With Slater being a platoon bat destined for free agency at the end of the year, the expectation was that the return for him wouldn’t be much more than a Complex League lottery ticket prospect. The White Sox did much better than that.

Ziehl was the 18th best prospect in the Yankees system per MLB Pipeline, and he comes in at No. 14 for the White Sox.

Ziehl will be assigned to High-A Winston-Salem where he should immediately slot into the starting rotation.

Landing a Top 20 prospect in the Yankees system for a rental platoon bat should bode well for the White Sox in the Luis Robert Jr. sweepstakes. Quite honestly, it makes the reports of the White Sox being unable to land a Top 10 prospect from an organization for Robert seem untrue. 

Luis Robert Jr. is worth way more than Austin Slater

On the surface, Austin Slater’s batting average and OPS are better than Robert’s this season, but Slater doesn’t have nearly the value on defense or on the bases that Robert has.

Slater has never hit right-handed pitching well in his career, and even though Robert has struggled against righties recently, he has been much more serviceable in the past.

Robert is just two seasons removed from a 38-homer campaign where he looked every bit the part of a five-tool player. His improved play in July has many wondering if his ceiling can still be unlocked. He’s only 27 years-old and with two team option years on his deal, a team could potentially be trading for 2.5 years of an elite center fielder. 

Obviously, this kind of upside is the selling point for Chris Getz in all of his trade negotiations, but I think it’s unlikely that Getz won't find a suitor willing to trade a Top 10 prospect in their system for a player of Robert's talent.

Notoriously big-swinging executives like AJ Preller of the Padres or Dave Dombrowski of the Phillies should be foaming at the mouth to land a player this talented at such a discounted price.

Steve Cohen and the Mets have reportedly been involved as well, and Cohen has the deepest pockets in all of baseball, so he should have no problem picking up Robert’s option for $20 million.

One of these aggressive teams is going to pony up and get closer to what Chris Getz is asking. When that happens, Luis Robert Jr. will likely be headed elsewhere.

Austin Slater’s surprisingly good return makes it clear that the interest in Robert is there, and the White Sox should have no problem adding a couple interesting young players to their future core.