Guardians outfield surplus means they won’t have to buy low on Luis Robert Jr. 

Luis Robert Jr. career has gone in plenty of different ways. It got off to a great start in 2020 when he signed a six-year, $50 million contract before ever stepping on a big league diamond and finished the subsequent season with a Gold Glove and a runner-up finish for Rookie of the Year. 

But, outside of a stellar 2023 season, Robert didn’t really live up to that hype largely due to injuries, though he did manage to stay on the diamond long enough to punish the Guardians on occasion. Robert had another stereotypical Robert season in 2026, as he flashed his tools on the field but only managed to play in 61 games across his time with the Mets and Orioles. 

That performance wasn’t enough to convince the Orioles to pick up his $20 million option for 2027, which means Robert is about to become a free agent for the first time in his career, which will provide an interesting litmus test of how front offices view him and his injury struggles. 

While that complicated player profile could result in plenty of deliberations among various MLB front offices, the Guardians front office shouldn’t be one of them. 

The Guardians need to stay away from Luis Robert Jr.

The Guardians arguably know Robert better than teams other than the White Sox, as the 29-year-old outfielder has played in 59 games against the Guardians (the most he’s played against any team) and recorded a .799 OPS in those games. But it’s impossible to talk about anything Robert did on the field without talking about his inability to stay on the field. 

Robert’s only played in 100+ games in three of the six 162-games seasons he’s played in, and is coming off a season where he played in just 61 games due to lumbar spine disc herniation. And it’s not like he was great when he was on the diamond; he finished last year with a .221 batting average in those 61 games and has recorded a .669 OPS across the past three seasons. 

The White Sox clearly saw the writing on the wall earlier this year when they traded Robert to the Mets in exchange for Luisangel Acuña and Truman Pauley, and the Orioles acquired him at the end of August after the Mets placed him on waivers. 

They made a bet on his potential, and he played in just three games with them before suffering a season-ending injury. 

In previous seasons that kind of signing would be right in the Guardians’ wheelhouse since it would give them the ability to buy low on an established big leaguer (like they’ve done in the past with Rhys Hoskins and others), but the Guardians’ established outfield removes any chance of that happening. 

Even if the Guardians choose to trade one of Steven Kwan or Jo Adell, they still have Angel Martínez, Petey Halpin and Chase DeLauter, not to mention some other options in the minors. Let Robert become someone else’s problem. 

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