Out of the three bonafide international prospects that the White Sox acquired throughout this rebuild process (Moncada, Jimenez, and Robert) scouts around baseball went out of their way to say that Robert has a great chance of being the best of the three. Through his first 30 games at AA Birmingham, it’s easy to see why.
When Robert was first promoted to Birmingham after murdering A+ ball, he went into a slump…that lasted all of a whopping 3 games. Since an 0-10 stretch to begin his career with the Barons he has slashed (deep breath here) .369/.407/.622. Good for a 1.029 OPS. Even if you include his first 3 games in Birmingham, he is still slashing .339/.385/.570. For reference, Eloy Jimenez at Birmingham in 2018 slashed .317/.368/.566.
But there’s more. Robert is currently on a 13 game hitting streak. During that stretch he is batting .417 and has an OPS of 1.085. He has also wrecked havoc on the base paths with 9 stolen bases in 30 games for Birmingham.
At some point we have to ask ourselves is a AAA promotion even worth it? It is a more hitter-friendly park and the balls are juiced, so his numbers will be even more video game-esque than they already are. I don’t mind giving him another 100 at-bats in AA before making any promotional decisions (he currently has 121 in Birmingham). But if the White Sox are still fighting for that 2nd Wild Card spot and Robert is still flashing all 5 tools on a nightly basis, then why not call him up? I get the extra year of control is nice, but not in a season where there’s actually a shot at the playoffs for the first time since 2008. If the situation is justified, I have no problem at all with him coming up this year and being pulling a Juan Soto.
Sox fans are finally seeing what a healthy Luis Robert can do. Don’t be surprised if he’s a top 5 prospect when the mid-season rankings come out. Hell, he could jump all the way to no. 1 overall and it still wouldn’t shock me. Whether you call him LuBob, or La Pantera, he’s still going to rake all the same. Hopefully it’s in Chicago at some point in 2019.
