Laura Albanese: Mets' Luis Robert Jr. can be club's secret weapon, but there's a major 'if' involved
Mets centerfielder Luis Robert Jr. is greeted in the dugout after scoring against the Pirates during the first inning at Citi Field on Thursday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza repeated it often during spring training, as if it were an incantation.
If he can stay healthy . . . if he can stay healthy . . . if he can stay healthy . . .
That’s the caveat with Luis Robert Jr., a five-tool player who was an All-Star and Silver Slugger with the White Sox in 2023 before his legs basically disintegrated from under him — hips and knees and quadriceps and calves that simply refused to cooperate, sapping him of playing time and lowering his price until David Stearns was able to snag him for Luisangel Acuna and a pitching prospect.
You can’t fault Mendoza for his laser focus. While it’s no secret that Robert is talented, Opening Day and the six weeks of spring training that preceded it point to something more. The centerfielder has the potential to be this season’s magic ingredient . . . if he can stay healthy.
“The sky is the limit,” Mendoza said earlier this month. “We’ve seen it. In 2023 when he was healthy, he was one of the best players in the league. The tools are unbelievable. He’s a guy that can go get it in the outfield. He’s got speed. He can steal bases. He can hit it as far as anybody in the game as well. There’s a lot to like. We’ve just got to keep him on the field.”
I’ll take it one step further. If everything goes right (though, truthfully, does it ever?), Robert can exceed what he accomplished in 2023 — a year in which he had a .264/.315/.542 slash line with 38 homers, 80 RBIs and 20 stolen bases and was 12 outs above replacement in the field.
For one thing, Robert is only 28, meaning he’s right in his prime. For another, he wasn’t fully healthy even in 2023, battling multiple lower-body injuries that would recur the next two years.
He also was “the guy” on a woebegone White Sox team that didn’t have an iota of the firepower branded by this iteration of the Mets. The 2023 White Sox had the second-lowest OPS in baseball, and if you exclude Robert, the starting lineup’s WAR was below zero. Juan Soto alone had a 5.3 WAR in 2023.
There are other factors, too. The Mets are being exceptionally cautious with Robert. He didn’t get into spring training games until mid-March and he won’t be playing every day. Sure, that will limit his production, but if it means he can cause havoc in October, so be it.
Mendoza also pointed out something after the Mets’ 11-7 win over the Pirates on Thursday: Robert is going to chase. He had a 40.6 chase percentage in his All-Star year, which was in the third percentile in baseball. If a leather sphere was thrown in the same ZIP code, Robert was going to try his darndest to flail at it.
Except on Thursday, he didn’t.
In the first, he fell behind 1-and-2 against Paul Skenes, fouled off the next three pitches and eventually laid off a nasty sweeper that broke outside for ball four. It’s one at-bat, which means a whole lot of nothing, but it’s a positive initial sign. Skenes, despite not having his best stuff, is still Skenes. And Robert has been working to limit his chase rate. The result was a 2-for-4 afternoon with two RBIs, a run scored and a strikeout.
“We know he’s going to chase,” Mendoza said. “But you watch that whole at-bat right there against a pretty good arm where he gets behind, he’s able to foul off some pitches . . . [It’s a] credit to him and a credit to the hitting coaches because they’ve been behind the scenes in spring training. That’s been a point of emphasis — doing damage with pitches he can do damage with.”
Even a slightly improved chase rate could help Robert exponentially, especially considering the show he routinely put on during spring training batting practice. The power is very much there, and it’s impressive.
He batted fifth on Thursday because of how he “looked in spring training,” Mendoza said. “We just continue to create balance.” It also lengthens the lineup a good bit — enough that Mendoza had enough flexibility to bat Marcus Semien seventh and Francisco Alvarez ninth.
There was another reason Mendoza trusted Robert in that role, too.
“The track record,” he said . . . wait for it . . . “when he’s healthy.”
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
