Luis Robert Jr's Wake Up Call: From Benching To Bombs

Are we finally seeing the Luis Robert Jr that was promised?

When Luis Robert Jr was benched by Pedro Grifol for not hustling to first base on April 29th, the White Sox were in the midst of a ten-game losing streak. During that stretch, Robert had just four hits, and his season slash line sat at .213/.248/.407. These are not exactly the numbers you'd expect from the highly touted five-tool player.

Robert cited a sore hamstring as the reason he was dogging it to first and was left out of the starting lineup the following day. However, it seems like getting benched was the wake-up call he needed. Since then, he has found a groove at the plate and hasn't stopped hitting.

On Friday, he went 3-for-4 with two RBIs off a 418-foot go-ahead homer to center field. His two-run blast tied him for the team lead with seven homers on the year.

His batting average has also jumped up .23 points in May, improving his slash line to .236/.288/.463. More importantly, it helped secure a 5-4 victory over the Reds at Great American Ballpark. Turns out you don't need to hustle when you put it over the fence.

"Just doing Robert things," Elvis Andrus said after the White Sox victory. "We expect that every single night pretty much. The whole organization and the whole fanbase is expecting that; he's that good. He kind of went a few weeks battling offensively, but I love his mindset. He's not panicking. He knows that it's a long season. He just wants to be healthy, actually, and he knows a couple of good weeks, and he's back on track."

Robert's biggest issue this season has been plate discipline. His 27.8 strikeout rate is the highest it's been since his rookie season and is one of the worst in the MLB, placing him in the 22nd percentile of all MLB hitters. Because he is chasing bad pitches, his whiff rate is up, and he is struggling to draw hard contact.

But since the calendar flipped to May, Robert is riding a four-game hit streak that includes six hits, five RBIs, and three walks. His strikeout rate is still high, but the White Sox will happily take that as a tradeoff for his recent power surge.

While Robert's bat has been hot and cold this year, his defense has not. His Outs Above Average rank in the MLB's 98th percentile, according to Baseball Savant. The 25-year-old is looking to add another Gold Glove to his collection. His early work in center field includes multiple highlight reel plays.

He added another one on Friday in the ninth inning. With a runner on first and one out, he made a running catch on a line drive then fired the ball to first base to nail Jake Fraley for a double play before he could tag up.

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"I can't stress this enough every time we talk about this," White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. "You're going to go through stretches like this. It just so happened that he went through this at the beginning of the season. But everybody goes through this at some point. It's 11 games. He's performed in the past, he's going to perform again, he's an extremely talented individual that can show all five tools in one game at any time."

"He's putting the work in," Grifol added. "He's in a good spot. He went through a stretch, and everybody goes through that. You don't even have to be in baseball to go through stretches like that in real life, let alone in this tough game. I think he'll be fine."