Robert knows being shut down was 'best decision'

MINNEAPOLIS -- Luis Robert tried to play through the pain in his left hand/wrist.

The White Sox center fielder still would like to be out there with his teammates for these final seven regular-season games, despite the preseason American League Central favorites having lost eight straight following an 8-4 setback to the Twins on Wednesday night at Target Field.

Chicago was officially eliminated from the postseason Wild Card race with Seattle's 3-1 win over Texas.

But Robert is at peace with the organization’s decision to shut him down by putting him on the 10-day injured list on Saturday, giving Robert a chance to fully and properly recover.

“I think it was the best decision that we could make, especially after you saw how I tried to help the team during those games,” Robert told reporters on Wednesday through interpreter Billy Russo. “I tried and the team realized that even with my best effort, it wasn’t enough to help them in a good way.

“Yes, I asked them to let me try to play, but I also think it was my mistake because I didn’t realize at that moment that trying to do that, I wasn’t helping them. I wanted to play because the team was in a very good position. We were making a push to make the playoffs and I wanted to be part of that and help the team. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do it.”

Robert, 25, sprained his left wrist sliding into second base during a home game against the Tigers on Aug. 12, then was hit by a Logan Gilbert pitch during a loss in Seattle on Sept. 6. Robert finished the season with a .284 average, 18 doubles, 12 home runs, 56 RBIs and 54 runs scored in 98 games.

Since Aug. 25, Robert was 1-for-28 with nine strikeouts and he was often seen swinging one-handed due to the discomfort. Robert said the hit-by-pitch didn’t really affect him adversely, but admitted bad habits were developing as he tried to swing through the pain.

“That kind of backfired on what I was trying to do. Again, I think that was my mistake. It’s something I learned from,” Robert said. “I’m very confident, as soon as that discomfort goes away, I’m going to be able to swing the bat the way that I do without the bad habits. The thing that developed the bad habits was in my mind.

“If for whatever reason, I swing the bat in a bad way, I thought the pain will increase. It was something unconsciously I developed that bad habit trying to avoid that increased pain in my hand.”

Catcher Seby Zavala told Robert about previously dealing with discomfort in his hand and because of that pain developed bad habits with his swing plaguing him for two years. It was another point reinforcing the importance of being shut down this season.

Surgery did not appear to be totally off the table, as Robert is scheduled to visit another hand specialist in “two weeks or so.”

“They are going to check me up,” Robert said. “Then if I’m feeling good or depending on the results of that checkup, then they will let me know what we are going to do.”

“He’s one of the horses on this team,” White Sox acting manager Miguel Cairo said of Robert. “When he goes, we go. He and TA [Tim Anderson], one of the other horses. We miss them both but that’s part of the game, you get injuries. Hopefully they will come next season ready to be part of something good.”

In parts of three big league seasons, Robert has yet to play 100 games in a single campaign. In 2022 alone, he dealt with the hand/wrist issue, COVID-19, blurred vision and a groin injury. The immense talent remains in place, and Robert hopes to show a full season’s worth under what could be his fourth White Sox manager in four years.

As a team, Chicago (76-79) needs to go 6-1 to simply finish over .500. Johnny Cueto (7-10) struck out seven, but he allowed six runs on 10 hits and one walk over 5 2/3 innings during Wednesday’s defeat.

“There’s nothing else that I can say that I haven’t said before. This is baseball,” Cueto said through Russo. “We’re trying to do our best. They were better than us and we just have to keep going.”

“Today, we got better at-bats. We got some hits,” Cairo said. “We got some runs. But they got more than us.”