Baseball Executive SHOCKS Chicago White Sox by Naming Luis Robert Jr. Top Trade Target

Baseball Executive SHOCKS Chicago White Sox by Naming Luis Robert Jr. Top Trade Target

The White Sox GM says he doesn’t plan on trading Luis Robert Jr. in the offseason, but at least one baseball executive begs to differ. You are Locked on White Socks, your daily Chicago White Socks podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Hello, I’m Todd Welter. Welcome to Lockdown White Socks, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network. I’m a lifelong socks fan. Been podcasting here for over a year and a half and covering the team well before then. And also, I’ve covered Major League Baseball for outlets such as the Associated Press. I’m going to address some reasons to still be grateful to be a White Sox fan even though it seems hard on this Thanksgiving Day after I talk about how great it is to see Dylan Sees get paid, but sad that it didn’t happen in Chicago. But first, let’s address ESPN’s Jesse Rogers pulling 16 baseball executives and one of them thinking Luis Robert Jr. will be one of the top trade candidates. And I got some ideas as to why. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel right now. New customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Download the app today. All right, I know I know I’m talking about Luis Robert Jr. again. But people, I talk White Sox baseball at a minimum, 5 days a week, for at least a half hour a day. So when Nuggets like at least one baseball executive thinking Luis Robert Jr. will be one of the top trade targets in the offseason, not named Tariq Scubble, it makes you wonder if there’s actually a market for Luis Robert Jr. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe that white whale of a trade package that GM Chris gets is uh trying to get still exists. Although I don’t think it’s going to exist because again he’s asking for like two top five prospects. He’s been asking for, you know, basically the 2023 version of Luis Robert Jr. that just no longer exists. And again, why are we talking about the potential of trading Luis Robert Jr.? Well, remember he’s represented by Scott Boris. Scott Boris, which I’ll talk about in the second segment, just got Dylan sees $210 million. So if Luis Robert Jr. does have a bounceback season like everybody’s hoping for. Even me, I’m hoping for it. I’m hoping for 2023. Luis Robert Jr. shows up because that would be great for the franchise. I just don’t think it’s going to happen because I’ve been watching him play baseball obviously the last two seasons and it just doesn’t seem he’s there anymore. That version of him, you know, but he’s represented by Scott Boris and if that does happen, he’s gone. So, you got to try to get something for him, at least now, especially if he gets injured. like what happened to Yoan Monata in 2024, then you’re just paying him to go away. So, while I don’t think Get is going to get that white whale of a trade package that he’s looking for, I do think, hey, if one baseball executive still thinks that, hey, there’s some value that Luis Robert will be targeted. Maybe he does get traded this off season if gets gets an offer for major league talent like when there were rumors that the New York Mets might be willing to send Mark Ventos at last uh July’s trade deadline. What if there is a younger player who just hasn’t been given the wrong way, the runway? The highly regarded though, former prospect maybe. What if that player’s out there like the Mets? And I’m just giving this for the simulation of because um Jesse Rogers’s executive did not provide a reason or at least Jesse Rogers didn’t write it up. So what if that’s out there though? Because you know Chris gets collecting those guys. and we just traded for Everson Prairie, you know, Curtis Meade in uh the July trade deadline with Adrien Howser, Miguel Vargas. So, what if a team’s willing to dangle that? Might that actually motivate Chris Gats to trade Luis Robert Jr. in the offseason if there is that offer? And it could be because you know one of the reasons why trade market could still materialize for LRJ is once Cody Bellinger and Harrison Bader make their free agent decisions. There isn’t much in terms of center field upgrades available on the free agent market. I mean a team could roll the dice on JJ Blade. You know Cedric Mullen maybe a bounceback but you know and everybody thinks I’m still hammering Luis Robert Jr. just I’m hammering more of the process. And yes, I I I do think it’s time to move on, but I’m not like, “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe that they’re taking another run at seeing if Luis Robert Junior has trade value.” I get why they’re doing it. I’ve done shows on that. I’ve even advocated extend them then, but obviously that won’t. But when you look at the market for center fields and at least getting guys that could potentially upgrade with Luis Robert Junior’s talent, there’s not much out there except for Byron Buckston. But if he decides not to wave his no trade clause, then Luis Robert Jr. might be one of the few center fielders available on the trademark a a contender could acquire that still could provide a potential upgrade of what they’re looking for. Cuz I’m not seeing a team trying to acquire Jiren Duran to play center field every day. He’s more of a corner outfielder. He can play a little bit of center field, but again, he’s not going to be like somebody that is going to really make your defense great, at least in center field. And again, you want a center fielder who can catch everything, which Luis Robert Jr. can do. But when you look at the trade market that has been screaming back and why we know this is the one thing that um I give Chris gets credit for is he’s been very open about kind of what the trade market has been. It’s been basically at a rental price. Not a guy with two years of club control. It’s more again, we can’t trust him to stay healthy. We’re not really certain that we’re going to pay him $20 million in 2027 on his option. And he is going to come $5 million more expensive than what he was at the trade deadline in July. But if you’re a team like the Mets with a glut of young infielders like Mark Ventos, Ronnie Maricio, I know I probably butchered his name there, or Lucel Akuna, Lucangel. um a kuna might maybe that might entice Chris gets to come off his high asking price of prospects because that’s still young talent that needs a runway and gets has been going after those guys. He’s been trying to find that’s how he’s been trying to find high upside players because he doesn’t have the financial resources to go and sign a guy like Cody Bellinger. But I doubt Gats is going to be maybe using Luis Robert Jr. as that trip because he’s usually been using that pitching talent, you know, kind of the fringed good decent pitching talent to get those guys and rightfully so. You know, he’s leveraged Adrien Howser, Eric Fetty, Yo, Andre Gomez, and Steven Wilson to get guys like Miguel Vargas and Curtis Meade and now Everson Praaria up. But the thing is if Mark Vantos is out there and you know the Mets are willing to take him on even at you know say the White Sox covering 5 million of Luis Robert Jr’s you know contract. I think you got to entertain it. And I do think though the White Sox would probably have to tap into large market teams like the Mets or the Dodgers. And I don’t know if the Dodgers have I mean Andre Andy Paz uh PZ would be the guy coming back but I don’t think they want to give him up uh in the corner but you’d have to probably go to a big market team like that who could actually you know and they need outfield help that could actually absorb and be fine taking on at least all of the money or most of the money but basically they’re banking on then a change of scenery would get the best version of LRJ to make that type of deal happen because I doubt team like the teams like the Royals, the Pirates, the Guardians, or the Reds give up that type of talent given the cost of Luis Robert Jr.’s um now $20 million contract. And again, get didn’t want to eat money last offseason to pull off a trade with the Reds. And I’m not sure he’s going to do it now. I mean, maybe 5 million, but I don’t see him covering 10 or 15 million that probably these smaller market teams are going to want him to cover. But I’m sort of hoping that that random baseball executive as ESPN Jesse Rogers granted anonymity was Mets team president David Stern as I wouldn’t be opposed to Ventos or Maricio. I mean Vento’s defense it’s terrible at third base but he was given some innings at first and his defensive metrics they were very similar to Miguel Vargas’ when he was with the Dodgers and he got some run at first base. So maybe you move him to first and you know I think the socks might have to eat some money but you get him to play first and see if his power returns that he produced in 2024 cuz he hit 27 in 2024 only hit 17. That still would be an upgrade for the White Socks and he also had a 413 slugging percentage. Mauricio is another player who hasn’t gotten much of a runway but he’s got power potential and again I’m fine with Luis Robert Jr. coming back next season. Even though I don’t like the process of why he’s coming back, but at the same time, if there’s a chance to get a guy like Mark Ventos, for example, in return for Luis Robert Jr., a younger player, cheaper player, I would take it. Well, the hope was trading Dylan Cece to the Padres’s would help the White Sox in the long run, which has failed to materialize just yet. But cease just got paid in free agency by signing with the Toronto Blue Jays. I want to discuss why it’s nice to see SciCas get paid, but also sad that it was with the White Socks. And that’s after the break. The NBA is back and there’s no better place to get on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you missed the start of the game or want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. 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Welcome back to Lockdown White Sox. I’m your host, Todd Welter. Thank you for making Lockdown White Sox your first listen of the day. And thank you for making Lockdown the number one sports podcast network. Make sure to hit the like button on today’s episode. Subscribe to the YouTube channel at Lockdown Whites Sockox. And if you can’t catch the show on YouTube, you can get the audio version of the show on places such as Apple or Spotify. So make sure to follow or subscribe and wherever you get your audio only podcast. Either way, get your 30-minute fix of Chicago White Sox baseball venting with me and maybe some hope. Also, make sure to check out my ring content at southsidsockoxs.com and on tapportset.com. I am super happy for Dylan CE getting his big payday. He’s signing with the Blue Jays for seven years and $210 million. And basically by me saying seven years and $210 million, it’s one reason why Dylan CE is no longer on the White Socks because there was no way the White Socks were ever going to pay him that money. And that’s why he, you know, one of the numerous reasons. There were other reasons why CE was traded during spring training of 2024, but the money was a big one cuz the White Sox were never going to pay him that amount of money for a guy who, you know, while he may have his ups and downs, he possesses one of the best sliders in the game, can get 200 strikeouts, and oh yeah, is dependable to take the ball every five days. But you know what? Even though he’s dependable to take the ball every five days, ownership never pays for pitching. Even if you get a guy that has basically a figurative rubber arm, this owner does not pay pitchers. He at least doesn’t pay pitchers beyond three years unless it’s a team friendly pre-arb contract. And he definitely doesn’t pay players over $100 million. And that is one reason Dylan CE had to go. Another elite player we had to watch leave because of the team’s inability to maintain a farm system to keep providing young talent. That’s one of the other reasons why he had to go. He had to be leveraged in a trade to get more young talent infused to the organization. But one of the main reasons why he had to go, this club doesn’t pay the going rate for good pitching. And sometimes this franchise, even though during the dark times, can actually produce good pitching. It’s like one of the few things that they can do. It’s not a lot, but it’s some. And when they do produce it, unless it’s a very very team- friendly contract and very very early in the process like what Chris and Jose Canana did, they don’t pay them to stay. They don’t pay to buy out their arers and a couple years more. And guess what? Even if they do, one of the problems is is why Chris Sale and Jose Katana had to go was they did not have young talent in the organization because of how they had an inability to develop it. And it just keeps getting sad because we have to watch former players enjoy success elsewhere because it comes down to the money and the need to leverage those pitchers to try to get more young talent because the club has struggled to develop much of it outside of a few good pitching arms. I mean think about it. Chris Sale, Jose Katana, Dylan Cece, although he was acquired in the Katana trade with the Cubs and Garrett Crochet all for traded away because of those reasons. Well, in the case of sale and Katana was more for the young talent, but they eventually would probably be getting traded as they came close to, you know, their free agent, you know, payday. And for cease and crochet, one of the big reasons why they had to be traded was the unwillingness to extend them to pay them the market rate and the need for young talent to be infused. Now, in the case of Crochet, obviously that deal is trending towards working out great for the organization. But in the case of cease, that trade is toward trending toward being a complete bust. Unless Everson Praia becomes something and Drew Thorp can return from Tommy John surgery and become that offspeed ace in the Aaron Nolan Aaron Nola in his prime or Mark Burley mode or at the very least he still has that lethal change up when he does return to become a effective highle leverage reliever and maybe Samuel Zavala can become a race floor talent player if he does make it to the majors. But if you think about it, Steven Wilson was just okay. He was awful in 2024, decent in 2025, now traded away. And Hirote is trending towards being a major bust. The cease trade just did not have the impact on the franchise as what the cochet trade did, you know. And then what was one of the frustrating things about the Crochet trade? We saw him get a massive extension from the Boston Red Sox after getting dealt there. That was probably the most frustrating thing about it. Even though again, I was advocating for let’s keep him, let’s build the rotation around him. Obviously, I saw the logic and why they had to trade him. And I’m very happy with the trade return, but it still stunk to see him get his money that he probably asked for at the trade deadline in, you know, July of 2024 when there was brief extension talks, which probably was the White Socks asking, “Hey, Garrett, well, Garrett’s camp, what do you guys want?” and he said probably $160 million and they’re like, “Well, we’ll be looking to trade you.” And now we have to watch CE cash in on free agent riches. And that is why in a vacuum it continues to stink to watch the few premium talents the White Sox acquire or develop, you know, draft and develop like with Sale and Crochet eventually have to leave because ownership won’t cough up the money necessary to keep them around or this organization can’t draft. Well, although the I think the drafting is getting better. So, let me put this in a different way. The organization can’t develop talent well enough, whether you know who they draft or sign an international free agency to keep infusing young talent. So, they have to keep trading these guys to get young talent that you can basically potentially build a good team around. And that’s been happening now for how many years? And I get the owner’s concern of pitchers are always one pitch away from a career-ending injury. I I get that. But this I don’t like how he hates sunk costs. It’s the cost of doing business. It is going to be the inherent risk of the game. Sandy Kofax, you know, Jerry loves bringing up, you know, the old Brook, you know, Brooklyn Dodgers and obviously doesn’t bring up the Los Angeles Dodgers because, you know, the move broke his heart. Sandy Kofax eventually had to retire because of arthritis in his elbow. But you don’t think for a second even back in the day that the Dodgers are like, “Oh man, can’t believe we had him in our organization. He won World Series and threw no hitters.” It’s just it’s the cost of doing business. I don’t think the Yankees regret ever paying CC Sabbathia, you know, that type of stuff. And in the case of CE, he may have that rare rubber arm as he has made 32 or more starts the past five seasons during that span has always thrown over 165 innings. And he’s always struck out at least over 200 hitters in each of those campaigns. And instead of being a centerpiece of the foundation of this rebuild, he was traded for assets that foolishly chased a quick turnaround. Now, had that one I put on Jerry Moore, forcing Chris gets to kind of have a quick turnaround because I remember James speaking of socks machine. I remember him on the Socks Machine podcast saying that the White Socks were looking for more guys that could definitely get to the B big leagues and definitely be contributors, you know, ceiling be darned. They were looking for more of a high floor. Now, had Chris gets been authorized to pursue prospects that a normal rebuild would follow with an asset like Cease because remember he was still highly regarded. Everybody was thinking even though he had a a down 2023 just needed a change of scenery, you know, maybe gets could at least get two high ceiling players like he got in the crochet trade. Instead, he had to go with three prospects who had raised floors but not very high ceilings. It was nowhere close to leveraging a trade asset like Crochet where the White Sacks got two high floor prospects in Braden Montgomery and Kyle Teal i.e. two major foundational pieces to build the next competitive team around. Then with Chase Mro and Wicklman Gonzalez to be that supporting cast players, basically they got supporting cast players and they might not even have that right now. Well, let’s not be sad on Thanksgiving. There are still things to be thankful for when it comes to being a White Sox fan and I’ll discuss that after the break. The NFL season is in full swing and honestly, there’s nothing better than being in the stadium surrounded by fans cheering on your team. But let’s be honest, getting tickets that can be a hassle between cues, login screens, and prices jumping at checkout, it’s frustrating. That’s why I use Game Time, the app that gives the advantage back to fans. Game time is fast, easy, and backed by the Game Time guarantee. 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Welcome back to Lockdown White Sox. I’m your host, Todd Welter. Shout out to all the everydayers. I appreciate your loyalty. Please hit the like button on today’s episode. Also, something huge will be debuting shortly on Locked On. still waiting for more details from the powers at be, but we will be rolling out the everyday club in the near future. So, be on the lookout for details regarding what is involved in that. Um, just the small things I can remember, you know, that they’re still ironing out, but there’s going to be like a Discord chat so you can chat with all the your fellow White Sox fans. I’ll be in there too, I believe. Uh, you know, I I don’t know what the price and what the subscription will be, but you can get like an ad free audio only podcast. uh a lot of other neat things that they’re going to be coming out with like daily newsletters, that type of stuff. Again, that they’re still ironing out the details. I’m still waiting for the final final like approval, but I I know I’ve been told start at least teasing it. So, be on the lookout for the Everyday Club and then once it rolls out, I hope you every day join it. Well, even when it seems hard, there are still some things to feel thankful for when it comes to being a White Sox fan. And yes, I’m going to go with things to be thankful for because I’m it’s Thanksgiving and I don’t always want to be doom and gloom, that type of stuff. And it does feel like it can be a curse to be a White Sox fan. But at the same point, I still find things to be thankful for knowing that, hey, at least I’m a White Sox fan. I I’ve always felt like it it’s one thing that makes me unique as a person and I hope it is you too because again like when it comes to Chicago sports everybody just is like well you got to gravitate to the Cubs Wrigley Field you know all that you know the lovable losers and now that and then they won the World Series in 2016 and Wrigley Field and Wrigley Field and oh they have all this you know the Gallagher Way. Oh yeah, but again they’re the fans are being suckered again by an owner who Yeah. Yeah, he won a World Series and now he doesn’t want to do anything else except for basically try to cash in as much as he can. And while White Sox fans, I get we have an even worse owner. At least I like to think we’re smarter to say, okay, if you’re not going to put a winning product on the field, we’re not going to show up. We’re not going to give you a hard earned dollars. We’ll give you some attention. We’ll still give you some passion when we feel like it. And that’s okay. And I do think the fan community is great, especially White Sox Twitter. I love White Sox Twitter and I love just White Sox social media and I love interacting with White Sox fans. I think we have a unique connection and I’m grateful for all of you. Uh but the biggest thing that I think we can actually be grateful for or have some thanks for is this thing called hope. There’s finally hope. Even if you still got to be cautiously optimistic, you’re gonna have hope that things might be turning the corner, that things might keep, you know, might get back to being competitive, that you might be able to actually watch good White Sox baseball, you know, that the potential of this organization being a sleeping giant about to wake up could actually happen. But I do say be cautiously optimistic because we’ve heard it before. We actually kind of saw it before obviously in 2020 and 2021 only to see it just absolutely crumble. Not even crumble, I would say burn to the ground dumpster fire style. But you finally could potentially see though this organization being what we’ve always hoped it to be, a big city organization that can draft, sign international free agents and develop them well and then have a rich hobbyist owner spend gobs and gobs of money on free agents. That puts the team over the top. or again being willing to sign off on big bold trades because you have the prospects to go acquire that superstar talent. But also where the hope just starts is again it comes with that young talent that has emerged this season into a young core that the team could potentially move forward with and start winning some baseball games with. You know, you get excited, at least I get excited about the potential of Coulson Montgomery, Kyle Thiel, Edgar Carroll, Chase Maid, Shane Smith, Davis Martin, Mike Vassel, and Grant Taylor. I think you can be somewhat optimistic with Jordan Leisure with how he finished strong to the 2025 season out of the bullpen. And there’s some more outstanding pieces on the way in Brandon Montgomery, Noah Schultz, Hagen Smith, Tanner McDougall, Christian Opper, Caleb Bodmer, Billy Carlson, Sam Antanachi, Derel Perez, William Burggoya, Jaden Fosski. I mean, the the past two drafts followed, I think, outstanding process except for obviously you would love to have Connor Griffin or JJ Weatherhol over Hagen Smith, but hey, I’ll still take Hagen Smith. But still, they followed good process that you could actually get more contributing players and maybe some more prospects that other teams would be willing to trade for. So, you got to be excited about that. And again, Coulson Montgomery, you know, I still say be, you know, I choose to actually be hopeful that that 21 homers in 71 games is a preview of him hitting 40 homers a season. I’m very hopeful that Kyle Thiel and Edgar Carro will combine it to be one of the best catching duos that we’ve ever seen as teams embrace using catchers, you know, two catchers more and more because of the physical taxing of the position and the fact that Kyle Thiel has some athleticism. you can maybe play a mountain left and you have the DH spot and then you get excited because you got the potential of Justin Ishbia owning the team just as the club is hopefully getting back to being competit well actually hopefully is you know hopefully they’re they’re competitive by 2029 ready to win a World Series and all they need is just his and cash to go get that missing piece to complete the rebuild because I I don’t trust Cherry to provide the resources to go get those missing pieces to complete the rebuild. You know, again, that John Lester like signing. And the thing is though, again, you know, you still got to be cautiously optimistic. You know, he’s got to hope he’s more rational and calm than his brother Matt, who, you know, has had nothing but controversy owning the Suns outside of he’s very fanfriendly. And I think that’s one thing that you got to give the Ishbas credit for, but there’s just a lot of other issues there. obviously as I talked about it uh on a few episodes ago, but you still just got to hope he’s willing to open up his pocketbook and then this organization could definitely be a franchise that starts acting like it operates in the third biggest market and there’s hope and there’s great fans to be around during the dark times that we’ve been going around. That’s the other thing. You got you got people that understand and you’ll have a great fan base to celebrate the good times again hopefully someday. And it’s been rough. Don’t get me wrong. The past four seasons have been rough especially when this was supposed to be the decades that the White Sox were going to win title after title where going to be multiple championship parades. Instead, it’s been three straight 100 loss seasons including that historically awful 2024 season. But the reason again you got to have a little bit of hope that things could be turning around is I got to give GM Chris Gats credit for at least modernizing the front office and still trying to modernize it. And even if he just turns out to be the guy that helped acquire foundational talent or again gave the foundational talent a runway, he at least got this franchise to start operating like it’s 2025 and he deserves credit for that. The jury is still out. Can you do the hard part and that is actually keep acquiring the talent to get this team back to being competitive to support this core that’s emerged and did they identify the right coaches to and did they get all the stuff that is needed to devel keep developing that talent at the big league level to make sure that these guys keep improving not regressing or stagnation that’s still out but again got to give them credit for that but you got to at least like the possibility that this franchise may have found a way to climb out of this pit of despair be cautious. I think that’s the one lesson to learn and I’m actually kind of grateful for that. You know, don’t you don’t have to be a skeptic, but you can be cautious. You can understand that there are risks, but it’s okay to have hope and that’s always something to be thankful for. Well, that wraps up this edition of Lockdown White Sox. Thank you for making Lockdown your first listen every day. For your second listen, find the Lockdown MLB podcast where there is no offseason. Sully keeps you up to date on contract negotiations, rumors, and everything you need to be the most informed MLB fan. Find Locked On MLB on YouTube over listening your podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. And I’ll be back tomorrow with a fan poll Friday segment. You can leave comments about today’s episode on the episode page on YouTube via email [email protected] on exformly Twitter lockdowns or on Tajjub. Also, make sure to like today’s episode on YouTube. Leave a fivestar review at wherever you get your podcast. Also, subscribe to the YouTube channel at Lockdown Whitox or wherever you get your audio only podcast. Have a great day. Have a great Thanksgiving and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.

Luis Robert Jr. could be the hottest trade target of the MLB offseason, not named Tarik Skubal, according to one anonymous baseball executive per ESPN’s Jesse Rodgers. The stagnant and thin free-agent center field market may push contenders to consider a bold move for Robert’s rare talent. Will GM Chris Getz finally pull the trigger for a blockbuster deal, or hold out for that elusive, franchise-altering package?

Host Todd Welter explains that maybe a contender could dangle a young big-league player who has not been given much of a runway as a way to get Getz to trade Luis Robert Jr. despite his assertions he won’t this offseason.

Dylan Cease just got a big free-agent contract from the Toronto Blue Jays. A deal he was never going to get with the White Sox. Welter explains why it is sad to see elite talent the White Sox once had leave due to financial reasons.

0:00 – Luis Robert Jr. Trade Speculation

Discusses possibility of White Sox trading Luis Robert Jr. despite GM denial; explores market value and trade package scenarios; analyzes why other executives still see him as a trade target.

10:54 – Dylan Cease Blue Jays Contract & Sox Financial Limits

Reacts to Dylan Cease’s $210M Blue Jays deal; laments White Sox inability to pay market rate for pitching and cycle of trading top talent due to financial constraints; compares historical player moves and organizational struggles.

21:04 – White Sox Fan Hope & Young Core

Focuses on reasons for optimism as a Sox fan; highlights emerging young talent, hope for organizational progress, and gratitude for the community; touches on front office modernization and cautious optimism for the future.

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