CHICAGO (WGN) — There was a time when Luis Robert Jr. lived up to the heights of his nickname—La Pantera (The Panther)—and terrorized opposing pitchers in the batter’s box as much as he did catchers on the base paths. But after returning from the injured list Tuesday, the same question that’s loomed like a dark cloud over his 2025 season remains.
Can Robert Jr. return to being the player the baseball world knows he can be?
Prior to Tuesday night’s game at home against the Toronto Blue Jays, the Chicago White Sox reinstated their beleaguered star outfielder from the 10-day IL after he suffered what the club called a left hamstring strain in late June.
“He’s ready to go. I think that’s where we got to,” White Sox manager Will Venable said Tuesday. “With his timing, we want to be in a spot to go and him be himself—run around the field like we’re used to seeing him do so, no limitations from his end and from me, there won’t be any limitations either.”
The injury serves as symbolism for what’s been a painful season to watch from Robert Jr.
He’s 1-5 with a walk in the two games he’s played since returning from the IL. On the year, Robert Jr. is batting .185/.272/.311 with eight home runs and 32 RBI over 75 games this season, his sixth with the White Sox.
It’s a far cry from the offensive performance he put together in 2023 when he hit 36 doubles and 38 home runs, drove in 80 runs, and stole 20 bases on the way to a slash line of .264/.315/.542.
But at the same time, all of the other talents that earned Robert Jr. the label of being a five-tool player remain.
According to Baseball Savant, his glove and base-running skills remain above average to near elite, depending on what part of his game is being looked at.
For the 2025 MLB season, Robert Jr. ranks in the 91st percentile in sprint speed, the 86th percentile in fielding range and arm value, the 84th percentile in fielding run value, and the 73rd percentile baserunning run value. League average in all Baseball Savant metrics sits at the 50th percentile.
He is also tied for ninth in stolen bases (22) across all of baseball, trailing only players like Pete Crow-Armstrong, Elly De La Cruz and Bobby Witt Jr., among others.
So what gives with Robert Jr.’s poor performance at the plate?
On paper, it boils down to a steep decline when facing right-handed pitchers, and not being as proficient of a fastball hitter as he once was.
In 218 plate appearances against right-handed pitchers in 2025, Robert Jr. has a slash line of .162/.227/.269 with five home runs and 24 RBI. In 73 plate appearances against left-handed pitchers, he has slashed .263/.408/.456 with three home runs and eight RBI.
Now, let’s hop in the hot tub time machine and go back to 2023.
In 476 plate appearances against righties in 2023, Robert Jr. hit 31 home runs with a slash line of .252/.303/.531. Against lefties, he hit 7 home runs with 13 RBI and a .312/.364/.587 slash line in 119 plate appearances.
That’s a 76-point drop in on-base percentage, a 90-point drop in batting average, and a 262-point drop in slugging percentage, for my fellow mathematicians keeping track out there.
According to Baseball Savant, Robert Jr. had an added run value of 17 on four-seam fastballs in 2023 (9th in MLB), which translated to him being the ninth-best fastball hitter in the game two seasons ago. He trailed only Chas McCormick, Aaron Judge, Sean Murphy, Mookie Betts, Kyle Tucker, Freddie Freeman, Matt Olson and Shohei Ohtani that year.
More traditional stats also detailed Robert Jr.’s prowess at crushing fastballs in 2023—he batted .309 with a .691 slugging percentage and a 58.8% hard hit rate on four-seamers that season.
So far in 2025, Robert Jr. has a run added value of 0 on four-seam fastballs, with a batting average of .226 and a slugging percentage of .396. His hard hit rate is also nearly 12% lower than it was in 2023. It sits at 47.2% as of Thursday afternoon.
Not ideal.
The drop in performance against righties and four-seam fastballs isn’t due to a lack of plate discipline either. Robert Jr.’s eye in the batter’s box has actually improved since 2023.
When comparing the two seasons, he is still making contact in the zone at a near-similar rate (78.6% in 2023, versus 77.7% in 2025), but his chase and whiff percentages have both declined since 2023. Two years ago, Robert Jr. chased on 40.5% and whiffed on 33.5% of pitches. This season, he’s chasing only 32.5% of pitches, while whiffing on 32.2%.
At this point, it’s just as likely it’s the human component of baseball that ails Robert Jr.’s performance, and who could blame him, given the current state of the White Sox?
Fresh off the most losses in a single season in MLB history, the South Siders are once more meandering into the basement of the American League Central, just at a slightly better clip.
The White Sox sit at 31-62, five games better than they were at this point last year, but 27.5 games behind the division-leading Detroit Tigers.
A lack of playing important baseball down the stretch can be more than enough to tank a talented player’s performance. Just look at how former Cubs great Javy Baez toiled away in Detroit before the Tigers restored the roar heading into this season.
But there’s also the financial security side of baseball that plays into the equation.
For the rest of 2025, meaningless baseball will be played in a half-empty Rate Field. That means the only meaningful business afoot with the South Siders—aside from developing prospects—is what kind of return they can get on a handful of plus-performers before the trade deadline.
Robert Jr. figured to be a part of that conversation before the season began, given the promise of his ceiling when healthy, and the team-friendly deal he’s currently on. Robert Jr. will be owed $20 million in each of the next two seasons, with a club option available at the end of both.
Obviously, he won’t be hurting for money, but it only makes sense for a player in the position Robert Jr. is in. Who wouldn’t want to put themself in a position to go from making $40 million over the next two years, to possibly signing a 3-5 year extension and make upwards of $30 million a season after that if they played close to how Robert Jr. played in 2023?
I can’t speak for how that impacts Robert Jr. in his day-to-day, or any other MLB player for that matter. I’m just a guy looking to write a story that’s more than just an injury update.
Venable can shed some light on that, though.
“I think every deadline impacts guys differently. There’s different teams in different situations. Different players in different situations,” he said. “Everyone is going to have their thoughts about what their club might do and how that might impact them. It’s my job and the job of our staff and the job of all of our players to have an undivided focus on going out and doing the things that we need to do to win games.
“That’s what we’ll be doing here, but also knowing there are dynamics you have to give attention to and communicate to players to help them through and help them stay focused.”
Maybe that’s the secret sauce to it all—just trying to stay focused on the task at hand, and play baseball.
Maybe it’s something more than that. Maybe Robert Jr. could benefit from channeling a little bit of Pedro Cerrano from Major League and find his version of Jobu, the little voodoo doll Cerrano offered tributes to before games for good luck.
I say that in jest, but there may not be enough time left for Robert Jr. to get his mojo back before the July 31 trade deadline.
But if he can roll into a bit of good luck and find a way to revive the 2023 version of his bat, he and the White Sox could be on their way toward a brighter future for both this offseason.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
