A move that’s long been rumored became a reality on Tuesday night.
In a late-night deal, the White Sox have traded center fielder Luis Robert Jr. to the New York Mets, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan. In return, the South Siders are receiving infielder Luisangel Acuna and right-handed pitcher Truman Pauley. This comes on the heels of the Mets signing Bo Bichette to play third base, but missing out on Kyle Tucker, who signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
It also appears that the Mets will be taking on the entirety of Robert’s $20-million salary for 2026.
Acuna, 23, is a former international free agent signing by the Texas Rangers and the younger brother of superstar Ronald Acuna Jr. He has appeared on Top 100 prospect lists as recently as 2024, but he hasn’t done much to be able to back those rankings up. In 109 games across two partial seasons, Acuna has hit .248/.299/.341 with a 6.0% walk rate and 18.5% strikeout rate. He ranked as a slightly above average shortstop in 2024 with +3 Outs Above Average (OAA) at the position and +1 OAA at second base in 2025.
Here was Baseball America’s 2023 scouting report on Acuna:
Acuna’s offensive impact will depend on whether he can tone down his aggression. He doesn’t swing and miss at an alarming rate, but he swings roughly 46% of the time and hits the ball on the ground at a rate higher than 50%… Acuna makes plenty of impact on contact, with a lot of high-end exit velocities hit at optimal angles. Defensively, there’s little chance Acuna sticks at shortstop because of fringy arm strength and an internal clock that doesn’t befit the position. He’d be fine at second base, though, and could be an intriguing option in center field… Acuna is an above-average runner, which helped him steal 40 bases in 49 tries.
Indeed, he has continued to struggle with hitting ground balls as he’s made it to the major league level, posting a 55.6% ground ball rate in 2025. At the same time, he did steal 16 bases in 95 games to make use of his 97th percentile sprint speed. Acuna does possess above-average bat speed, so we will see if the braintrust of Ryan Fuller and Derek Shomon are able to raise his average launch angle from 3.4 degrees so as to do more damage offensively.
Pauley, 22, was the 12th round pick of the Mets in the 2025 MLB Draft out of Harvard. He struggled in two seasons there, posting a 5.20 ERA across 114.1 innings with stints in both the bullpen (2024) and the rotation (2025). In his brief professional time last year, he posted a 2.08 ERA in 4.1 innings of work.
For Pauley, the stuff has always been there, as he owned a 28.9% strikeout rate at Harvard. Teams scouted him heavily, partially due to an explosive fastball that gets an extreme amount of riding life – 22.5 inches of induced vertical break on average. He also features a low-80s breaking ball with high spin rates in the 2,500 rpm range as his go-to secondary. He’ll also mix in an occasional mid-80s changeup. It also appears he’s tinkered with a cutter and splitter with the Mets.
All three of his outings with the Mets did come as a starter, so Pauley is likely to be given the same opportunity with the White Sox. However, Brian Bannister and Zach Bove’s first order of business will be to try and improve Pauley’s command, because at current, he poses plenty of reliever risk after walking over 15% of hitters in both of his college seasons.
With both Acuna and Pauley, the White Sox are hoping to take potential and some strong skills and develop them into impactful big league talent – both present plenty of risk and upside, with lots of development still to be done. All in all, when you consider the White Sox will seemingly not pay any of Robert Jr.’s $20-million salary for 2026, the team did get a reasonable amount of upside here. And, for Chris Getz, who has faced plenty of questions and criticism on how long he decided to hold onto Robert Jr., he did eventually find a team willing to meet his request for a return that recognizes the value Robert possesses while also factoring in previous season performances.
We aren’t likely to see Pauley anytime in 2026, though fans should expect to see plenty of Acuna throughout the coming season. Acuna is likely to take over the mantle of the team’s starting center fielder, as he’s been playing outfield throughout his time in the Venezuelan Winter League. He will face competition from both Everson Pereira and recent MiLB signing Jarred Kelenic, with the White Sox hoping that one of the three is able to become a true dynamic talent given the opportunity.
On a different note: this marks the end of an era on the South Side, as Luis Robert Jr. represented the last remaining piece of a White Sox core that once featured Yoan Moncada, Andrew Vaughn, Eloy Jimenez, Tim Anderson, and Jose Abreu as what was supposed to be a much brighter future on the South Side of Chicago.
The White Sox are now hoping Acuna and Pauley can be pieces of a better ending to the story of the team’s latest rebuild.
Follow us on social media @SoxOn35th for more!
Featured photo: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images
Such amazing potential, but such poor results. I think TLR ruined a whole crop of players by suggesting they did not need to hustle and, instead, needed to stay healthy. (Jimenez, Moncada.) The work ethic developed was not that of champions and Robert is the last to go. May the culture get back to the grinding ethos we expect on the south side.
Sweet mother of mercy!