White Sox lose Luis Robert for 12-16 weeks with hip flexor tear

(Photo by Nick Wosika/Icon Sportswire)

At FanGraphs about a fortnight ago, Dan Szymborski released his list of 2021’s most irreplaceable players, based on the difference in postseason probabilities for teams with and without their specific stars. Mike Trout headed the list, which, of course. Gerrit Cole was second, and Ronald Acuña Jr. third, and they make sense. Alex Bregman fourth? Yup. Jacob deGrom fifth? Sure.

Two spots after the MVP and Cy Young favorites, Luis Robert appears. With a healthy Robert, the White Sox have a 69.2 percent chance of making the postseason. Without him, that number drops down to 46 percent. Only the aforementioned five players and Carlos Correa could cost the teams more by not being around.

Well, the exercise is no longer theoretical for the White Sox. Rick Hahn announced this evening that Robert has a Grade 3 strain of his right hip flexor, which is another phrase for a complete tear. He will not resume baseball activities for 12 to 16 weeks, regardless of whether he undergoes surgery or merely rests it.

Robert suffered the tear during the first inning of Sunday’s game while legging out an otherwise ordinary infield single to the left side. He started the year by hitting .316/.359/.463, showing a combination of better plate coverage and pitch recognition that made him somebody worth depending on.

I suppose that makes Tony La Russa technically correct when he said it’s a less severe injury than the one Eloy Jiménez suffered, but a three-to-four-month absence basically takes them both off the roster for the same amount of time from here, since Jiménez was injured a month earlier. And that assumes that either would have a smooth rehab, which is why Hahn wouldn’t say one way or another whether Robert could return this year.

Speaking of smooth rehabs, that’s exactly what Adam Engel isn’t having. Hahn said that Engel suffered a setback during his initial attempt to come back from a hamstring strain, and is probably three weeks away from being able to return to the field.

That means center field will be a mishmash of Leury García, Billy Hamilton, Adam Eaton, and whoever else the White Sox might be able to acquire. I’m guessing La Russa will start with the first two, because he hasn’t minded playing García and/or Hamilton even when there were better options. Now there are none.

(Photo by Nick Wosika/Icon Sportswire)

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dwjm3

The single ply roster is now just a torn piece of bounty in the bottom of a sewer

asinwreck

Rick Hahn has suffered a Grade 3 strain (complete tear) of his one-ply roster.

Greg Nix

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Last edited 2 years ago by Greg Nix
Shingos Cheeseburgers

This one really sucks because it forces them to add major league ready talent mid season which has proven to be one of their weakest areas. Keep losing, Twins!

dwjm3

This is another reason why you go hard after a Bryce Harper or George Springer when the opportunity presents itself. An outfield of Springer, Vaughn, and Engel looks a heck of a lot better than the alternative.

tommytwonines

Is Springer off the IL? Oh yeah, he’s played 4 games.

dwjm3

Yup, he had two dingers in his first game back.

tommytwonines

What would the OF have looked like in the first month with Springer on the roster?

dwjm3

What is your point? Are you suggesting you prefer not to pursue 5 win players?

35Shields

No, you don’t understand. See actually it would be a bad thing for the Sox to have a 5 win OF coming off of the DL at the exact same time that they have a 3 win OF going on it. Duh.

tommytwonines

Again – Springer was not coming here to platoon, as Pederson was not coming here to platoon – only Eaton.

dwjm3

Platoon? what?

tommytwonines

You wanted an OF of Eloy, Robert, and Springer? Okay. Real world that OF never plays together. Injuries. You watch the news?

35Shields

Who knows man. This entire thread is that guy just saying a bunch of barely connected nonsense to step around the fact that ‘ackshually you’re wrong, the White Sox shouldn’t have tried harder to sign a really good baseball player’ is just a stupid and obtuse position to have.

tommytwonines

You think he’ll put up a single 5-win season during his new contract? I’d bet against it.

tommytwonines

And when are you expecting Engel in the OF?

dwjm3

Sounds like in about 3 weeks

tommytwonines

Wow, deja vu.

metasox

At least three weeks before a rehab starts according to what I read.

Michael Kenny

Well, there’s that second big blow they couldn’t afford.

soxfan

Can Cespedes play CF? His bat can’t be any worse than Hamilton or Garcia’s.

jorgefabregas

Which Cespedes are you asking about? The elder is most likely a DH. And according to a recent scouting report, the younger is far from ready at the plate and may never be.

soxfan

At what point is Hahn going to have to take matters into his own hands and start cutting players than shouldn’t be playing? Because I already feel like I have too much Hamilton and Garcia in my life. Not sure I can take any more.

Yolmer

Well, this sucks. I don’t know how the Sox could have built a roster to sustain losing Eloy and Luis Robert for 3-4 months though. I am also worried what the long term effects of the injury are for Robert. It sounds pretty gruesome and potentially as bad as when Charlie Tilson’s hamstring snapped.

Joliet Orange Sox

It’s impossible for a team to be ready to be as good as the team would be healthy when it has two serious injuries to players as good as Eloy and Robert. However, steps could have been taken to have a better backup plan in place. The fact that Yermín has played great and Vaughn has shown some ability to play LF and hold his own with the bat have been best case scenarios so far. When your best case scenario backup plan still leaves you short, it wasn’t enough of a backup plan.

texag10

I can have a backup plan for my house being in the path of a tornado but when it also catches fire at the same time, I’m screwed and there was no amount of reasonable planning that have have helped me out.

shaggy65

I’m optimistic about his long-term prognosis. I had a Grade 2 strain in a similar area and was able to return to full health pretty quickly. He’ll probably never have quite as much strength in that muscle again after a complete tear, but he’s young enough that he should be very good at regrowing muscle. And there are so many different muscles involved in running that the effect of a single one in the hip losing just a bit of power should be negligible.

asinwreck

My worry is not about who will play CF in 2021. My worry is what this means for Luis Robert’s career going forward. Will we see again the effortless, blazing speed? Or is this the start of a loss of flexibility that will have us wondering what might have been?

When he went down, my first thought was of Eric Davis. Davis wound up having a good career, but he looked like Willie Mays Reincarnated With Muscles when he first came up with Cincinnati. The classic five-tool profile. But injuries kept him off the field for long stretches of his prime and ate away at his amazing defense.

I hope history isn’t repeating, or even rhyming.

Soxfan2

Look at the bright side, Sox might have RF covered for the next 6 years when Robert has to move there. *starts crying*

To Err is Herrmann

This is horrible, for Luis and the Sox. Pitching alone might keep the Sox in the division race, but if power outages continue (Abreu, Grandal) in the lineup, this season is on the ropes. Possibly, Luis and Eloy return in time to salvage the year. I am afraid of Hahn making a midseason trade, or two because A) do we have anybody to trade, and B) I have never gotten over Tatis Jr.-for-Shields, though I know Hahn has been pretty good at trades in general. This is dismal.

The way I read Hahn’s statement is “Luis is out for the year but I’m being told I can’t say ‘out for the year’” so I wouldn’t bank on seeing Luis until 2022. Eloy maybe but who knows given Engel’s 2 month long recovery from an initially estimated 2 week injury.

polishwith

Man, I just dont see the Sox recovering this season from losing both Eloy and Robert. Even if they can be competitive and make the post season, they really wouldnt have the pieces to do much. Even when these guys do come back, performance expectations will be low. What a gut punch. It absolutely sucks to be thinking about next year in May.

HallofFrank

How did La Russa find a way to make me angry at him for this? His optimism yesterday set some expectations that make the news even tougher.

Amar

What could have been

knoxfire30

What a gut punch. This is an insanely bad injury for a guy with 70-75ish speed on the grading scale. He wont be able to do much of anything for months, and even then pushing to get back too soon is the worst way to handle this injury. He is likely gone this year and it could be a lingering problem if they aren’t very careful about it.

The only positive at this point is the twins are still playing terrible baseball. With the emergence of Mercedes and Vaughn likely now getting to settle in the offense can absorb some of what is lost with Robert out of the lineup but good god, probably the 2 guys aside from Anderson that you couldnt afford to lose are gone.

I still think its a coin flip on if the sox can make the playoffs this year, but in a couple months that picture will be a lot clearer…. the contingency plan needs to start being taken into consideration which means if things go south… gulp…. do lynn, rodon, eaton, etc get put on the block…..

Amar

Yeah, if things go south pretty quick, Rodon and Lynn are on the block. It would be negligent otherwise.

HallofFrank

If things are so south that the Sox are sellers in two months, then Robert (and likely even Eloy) wouldn’t have made a difference anyway. Plus, it’s almost inconceivable that the Sox are that bad *and* Lynn, Rodón, and Eaton are worth anything via trade.

knoxfire30

I don’t think I would totally agree with that, being without 2 superstar level players dramatically can shift a teams w/l especially when some of the backups weren’t even rostered players in late March. Might be a 10 WAR swing.

Last edited 2 years ago by knoxfire30
HallofFrank

Well, yes, missing Robert & Eloy dramatically shifts W/L. But that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about a Tier 1 team becoming sellers in two months. So, even if you’re right about the 10 WAR swing, over ~2 months that’s ~4 WAR. My point was: turning the Sox into sellers at this point requires bigger problems that Eloy & Robert alone couldn’t fix.

Also, I’m very skeptical about the 10 WAR swing. Eloy/Vaughn probably makes up some ground on Vaughn/Mercedes, but not a ton. And even if Robert kept up a ~6 WAR pace, García & Hamilton have consistently been slightly above replacement level. And this is over 162 games, doesn’t count that Robert has already played a month, assumes Eloy & Robert are gone all season, assumes no Engel, assumes no trades, etc.

knoxfire30

You’re probably right especially given the Twins slow start but its something the front office has to plan for as a just in case situation.

patrick

I think the main issue is that the Sox were likely not as good as the Twins on paper to start the season. So even with the Twins horrific start, my guess is projections still heavily favor them to take the division and now even more so. Combine that with the one-year deals that Eaton, Lynn, and Rodon are on, and maybe it makes sense to see if you can get young major league talent for the latter two at least, to retool going into next year.

It seems unlikley that deals are going to be reached for them both in season anyways, so maybe revisit in the offseason.

roke1960

This talk about giving up on this year is just crazy. The Sox have the best rotation by far in the division. Their offense is still decent, and will still be above average especially if Abreu and Grandal can regain competency. If anything, they need to add pieces ASAP. The Twins pitching is very suspect, the Indians have no offense, and the Royals are an average team. This division is so winnable. And we should have Eloy and possibly Robert back for the stretch run. The one guy that I could see being available right now is Charlie Blackmon. He’s off to a slow start, but the dumpster fire that is the Rockies has had to contribute to that. He could probably be had for almost nothing, if the Sox are willing to pick up most of his salary. Plus he would add more left-handed balance to the lineup. This is not the time to panic.

HallofFrank

Projections do not favor the Twins, even after the Robert injury. Losing Robert hurts the playoff odds, obviously, but ZIPS still thinks the Sox have the best odds to win the division (48.3%) and make the playoffs (61.9%). They beat the Twins in each category by ~15%.

Roke is right. This team is still good, they are just good in a different way than we expected. The rotation really might be one of the best in the AL. And while the offense hasn’t exactly lit the world on fire, they’ve at least been decent—and with poor performances from the veteran heart of the order.

roke1960

Sox sign Brian Goodwin. Almost .800 OPS with the Angels in 19-20. Good pickup.

Soxfan2

Sox cannot roll with Leury Garcia and Billy Hamilton for 3-4 months. If the Sox want to make a splash they can go after Gallo or Marte. If they want more of a place holder type, I think they should take a look at Lane Thomas or Andrew Stevenson. Both of these guys can play CF and offer more with the bat than Garcia/Hamilton. As I said when Eloy went down, you gotta pick someone up that you hope can BABIP it up for a couple months.

HallofFrank

Marte is out until early June, so that’s not the fix. I like the Gallo idea, but Gallo’s defense has taken a turn for the worse. A Vaughn-Eaton-Gallo defense is a recipe for disaster. But, depending on the prospects required to get him, that may be the best option.

metasox

The way teams are losing guys around the league, you don’t know who will be left standing. A team could add a guy today and have two more injuries tomorrow. For a significant deal, probably makes sense to wait until closer to mid-season when more guys are available and teams can evaluate where they stand.

ThisReallySox

The dodgers could lose two more and still be the most talented team. That is why is is a good idea to have extra players that are good at baseball instead of hoping everything goes right.

metasox

Sox aren’t the Dodgers. Sure, the Sox could have signed a little more depth. But they don’t have the farm depth to cover for significant losses. Nor to necessarily add much. There will have to be a period of riding this out, maybe some small signing.

Joliet Orange Sox

You are correct that the Sox don’t have minor leaguers ready to step up and also don’t have the depth in the minor leagues to trade for help. The one way the Sox could have addressed this lack of depth issue was by signing off-season free agents. The Sox knew they were short a couple players and didn’t use the one avenue available to them to fill those positions.

The major issue isn’t that the Sox didn’t sign Springer (who would’ve been nice) because if they had, they would not have signed Eaton and would still be in a position of seeing Billy Hamilton start some games after losing Eloy, Robert, and Engel. The issue is that the Sox started the season with Hamilton and Lamb on the MLB roster. Some fans seem to think the Sox should have started the season with Eloy, Robert, Springer, Brantley, Jackie Bradley, Schwarber, and Pederson all on the roster which is unrealistic not because of the cost but because all of those players were looking to play everyday and would not have signed to be backup players. However, players like Kevin Pillar who are better players than Hamilton could have been signed. If the Sox had started the spring with Eloy, Robert, Eaton, Engel, Pillar, and Leury as the OF’s I would have been happier (although wishing for Springer). The injuries would still have been a big blow but at least everyone on the initial roster would have been playable (Hamilton is not really playable).

I listed Leury as part of the team even with better planning because I think Leury is a great choice for the 26th man who covers a lot of positions in an emergency, comes in as a defensive replacement, and pinch runs now and then. My only issue with Leury is he’s being used as much more than 26th man.

andyfaust

I don’t know the first thing about this kind of injury, but can anyone explain how a complete tear of the hip flexor wouldn’t necessarily require surgery? It wouldn’t grow back if it’s completely torn right? Or would it?