Luis Robert Jr. had been mentioned constantly in trade speculation over the last couple of years.
He remained with the Chicago White Sox after the July 2025 trade deadline passed. In November, the Sox exercised his $20 million club option, but the buzz about a possible trade remained.
The talk became reality late Tuesday when the Sox dealt the center fielder to the New York Mets for infielder/outfielder Luisangel Acuña and minor-league right-handed pitcher Truman Pauley.
“It’s really about being able to bring in Acuña,” Sox general manager Chris Getz said during a videoconference call Wednesday morning. “Getting access to him. We’re talking about a player that’s five-plus years of control, one of the younger, exciting players in our game.
“(He) hasn’t really gotten a runway at the major-league level. We have opportunity here and we can provide that runway to show off his talent and his ability and his ceiling, which the industry has been very high on this player for a long time.”
Getz said the Mets had displayed interest in Robert for “a while.”
“(Tuesday) morning is when they felt like they were at a decision point,” Getz said. “I don’t know what else they were working on. I’ve got a good relationship with (Mets president of baseball operations) David Stearns. When you sense urgency and know something is real, you usually want to engage on it.
“(Tuesday) morning it picked up. I know they have been active in the free-agent market and been able to convert on some moves. Perhaps they have missed on some players as well. You never know what’s going to affect the market. This weekend is when they connected with us, and (Tuesday) morning I felt like it was about to get pretty serious.”
In Acuña, 23, the Sox are getting a player who slashed .234/.293/.274 with seven doubles, eight RBIs, 30 runs and 16 stolen bases over 95 games with the Mets in 2025. He also appeared in 28 games with Triple-A Syracuse, slashing .303/.347/.385 with seven doubles, one triple, 10 RBIs, 16 runs and eight stolen bases.
Acuña — the younger brother of 2023 National League MVP Ronald Acuña Jr. — has a .248/.299/.341 slash line with nine doubles, one triple, three home runs, 14 RBIs, 36 runs and 16 stolen bases in 109 career games during parts of two seasons with the Mets. He has made 41 career major-league starts at second base, 13 at shortstop and one at third base.
He’ll be in the mix to play center field as part of an outfield that will have a new look.
While left fielder Andrew Benintendi returns along with versatile Brooks Baldwin, the remainder of the outfielders listed on the 40-man roster are Derek Hill, who joined the club in late September, and newcomers Everson Pereira and Tristan Peters. Pereira and Peters were acquired in separate trades this offseason with the Tampa Bay Rays.
“The thing that excites me the most is I will have the opportunity to keep growing and developing as a baseball player,” Acuña said through an interpreter during a videoconference call Wednesday. “But besides that, the most important thing for me is just to help the team in whatever capacity they need me to and I’m open for whatever they ask me.”
He is spending this offseason playing in his native Venezuelan Winter League. In 39 regular-season games for Cardenales de Lara, Acuña posted a .282/.397/.542 slash line with seven doubles, three triples, eight home runs (four in one game), 32 RBIs and 12 stolen bases. He has played 23 games at shortstop and 17 in center field.
“I know over in New York, talking to individuals over there, they did not want to get rid of him,” Getz said. “That’s because of how valuable he can be with a team. Now, he was on a roster that didn’t really allow him to go out there and show what he can do on a regular basis, and we’re going to be able to provide that.
“To get a chance at bringing in a player like that and gain some more flexibility with moving Luis seemed like something we needed to strike on and we went ahead and did that.”
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Pauley, 22, had a 2.08 ERA and three strikeouts in three starts for Class A St. Lucie during his first professional season in 2025. The Mets selected Pauley in the 12th round in the 2025 draft out of Harvard.
The Sox parted ways with Robert after six up-and-injury-related-down major-league seasons. He slashed .259/.313/.455 with 115 doubles, two triples, 102 home runs, 298 RBIs, 318 runs and 102 stolen bases in 577 games with the club.
Robert, 28, played tremendous defense, earning a Gold Glove Award in 2020. All of his talents were on display in 2023 when he was named an American League All-Star while finishing with 38 home runs and 80 RBIs.
But he has been slowed at times by injuries. Robert has played at least 100 games in three of the five possible seasons (there were only 60 games in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season), with 110 in 2025 being the second-most in his career.
“Obviously the talent is real,” Getz said of Robert. “Unfortunately he hasn’t had the consistency that he had hoped or we had hoped. I know that he cares about the game deeply, he wants to play well. It’s a challenging game. I know injuries have really held him back.
“If you can rewind the clock and look at his ’23 and prior seasons, they were really impactful for this organization, and he deserves a lot of credit for doing that. The last couple of years it just hasn’t been there. We felt like it was time to make this move, turn the page and continue this build forward.”
Getz said the trade gives the Sox some “financial flexibility now to continue to bring in talent.”
“We plan on being very active,” Getz said. “We’ve already been talking to agents and clubs and anticipate a roster that’s going to continue to evolve.”
