White Sox trade Luis Robert Jr. to Mets for Luisangel Acuña, Truman Pauley

Not suddenly, and with plenty of warning, the White Sox have traded Luis Robert Jr.

Tonight's the night the White Sox finally found a price worth accepting, as they sent Robert to the New York Mets for infielder/outfielder Luisangel Acuña and A-ball righty Truman Pauley. The Mets are taking Robert's entire $20 million salary.

The deal happened late, but it didn't come out of nowhere. There's the part about Robert being on the trade block for the last three winters, sure, but even the specific team and return had been through the rumor mill before. MLB.com's Mark Feinsand reported back at the trade deadline that the Sox and Mets discussed a Robert-Acuña swap. Perhaps Pauley, a 12th-round pick out of Harvard last July, was the sticking point.

Acuña, who will turn 24 during spring training, is a former top-100 prospect, at least on MLB Pipeline's rankings. He hit just .234/.293/.274 over 193 plate appearances dispersed over 95 games with the Mets last year, as regular playing time was difficult to find in the Mets infield. He's dabbled in the outfield the last two seasons, and center field reps appear to be a point of emphasis in the Venezuelan Winter League. He's playing there half the time while hitting .282/.397/.542, and he just hit four homers in a single game.

The White Sox have all the playing time in the world to offer Acuña, who boasts one immediate major league skill. He used his 97th-percentile sprint speed to steal 16 bases in 17 attempts last year, so capable center field play would seem to be within his grasp. He also boasts reasonable contact skills, as he's struck out in just 18.4 percent of his first 244 MLB plate appearances and Statcast graded out his bat speed as well above-average in 2024, before it took a curious step back last year. Swing decisions are the bigger issue, and Acuña should get enough reps to discover his capacity for improvement, especially since he's out of minor league options; which gives him something in common with Miguel Vargas, Lenyn Sosa, Everson Pereira, Curtis Mead and Bryan Ramos.

As for Pauley, while Harvard isn't a baseball hotbed and the 12th-round doesn't hint at immediate returns, the Mets apparently thought enough of him to sign him for $400,000. He was a mechanical engineering major with the Crimson, and throws a promising gyro slider, according to the student paper.

Jeff Passan broke the report as we were wrapping up the Sox Machine Podcast. Let's take you inside the Zoom room as it happened: