CHICAGO — At 27, Luis Robert Jr. is already a relic of sorts, the last remaining player from the White Sox’s all-too-brief era of contention.

On the south side of Chicago, that era seems like a very long time ago. That’s how a pair of 100-loss seasons, including last year’s record-setting 121-loss campaign, can warp a baseball fan’s perception of time. In fact, it was only 3½ years ago when, on Oct. 12, 2021, Chicago was eliminated by the Houston Astros from the American League Division Series.

Seventeen players appeared in that game for the White Sox. Robert had a hit that day but had to leave early with leg tightness — one of a string of maladies that have bedeviled his career. He is the only one of those 17 still in Chicago.

The irony: If Robert was playing up to his potential, he wouldn’t be around, either. And if he regains his mojo, he’s as good as gone.

Robert has the chance to be the most sought-after position player in 2025’s in-season trade market. Pull up any speculative list of trade candidates and Robert is near the top. Executives around the league ask about him eagerly. Despite a lack of positive recent results — including a disastrous 2024 and a rough start to this season — it’s not hard to understand why.

“A player like Luis Robert always gets a lot of attention,” White Sox GM Chris Getz said when the season began. “We’re really happy where he’s at, and how he approached spring training and how he’s performing. We expect him to perform at a very high level.”

Robert’s tools are impossible to miss. His bat speed (93rd percentile in 2025, per Statcast) is elite. His career slugging percentage when putting the ball in play is .661, slotting him in the 89th percentile among all hitters. It’s the same figure as New York Mets superstar Juan Soto. Robert’s sprint speed (29.0 feet per second) is in the 94th percentile. When healthy, he’s a perennial contender to add a second Gold Glove to the one he won as a rookie.

Still, the allure of Robert is as much about his contract as it is about his baseline talent. Smack in his prime and less than two years removed from a 5.3 bWAR season, Robert will earn just $15 million in 2025 and then has two team-friendly club options, both at $20 million with a $2 million buyout.

No potentially available hitter has this combination: a recent record of elite production, a right-now prime age, top-of-the-charts underlying talent and a club-friendly contract with multiyear potential but plenty of off-ramps. That such a player toils for a team projected to finish in the basement has for a while now made this a matter of if, not when, he is moved.

“I didn’t think I’d be here,” Robert said through an interpreter. “But I’m glad that I’m here. This is the organization that made my dream come true. It’s the only organization that I know.”

The White Sox could certainly have dealt Robert by now, based on that contract/talent combination alone. But the luxury of the contract from Chicago’s standpoint is that it buys the team time to seek maximum return. First, Robert has to show he’s healthy — so far, so good in 2025 — then he needs to demonstrate the kind of production that would make an impact for a team in win-now mode.

“He’s just extremely talented,” first-year White Sox manager Will Venable said. “The one thing that I learned about him, and watching him practice every day, is he practices extremely hard. He’s extremely focused. He certainly has the physical ability, but he’s the type of player he is because he works really hard.”

Certainly, the skills are elite, but the production has been inconsistent and, for now, headed in the wrong direction.

When Robert broke in with Chicago a few years ago, he was a consensus top-five prospect. ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel ranked Robert fifth before the 2020 season, but in his analysis of the ranking, McDaniel noted one of the key reasons Robert is still on the White Sox five years later: “The concern is that Robert’s pitch selection is weak enough — described as a 35 on the 20-80 scale — that it could undermine his offensive tools.”

Since the beginning of last season, there have been 202 hitters with at least 450 plate appearances. According to the FanGraphs metric wRC+, only 15 have fared worse than Roberts’ 80. Only 10 have posted a worse ratio of walks to strikeouts (0.22). Only nine have a lower on-base percentage (.275).

Despite starting the season healthy, his superficial numbers during the early going are even worse than last year. As the team around him plunged to historic depths, Robert slashed to career lows across the board (.224/.278/.379 over 100 games). This year, that line is a disturbing .163/.250/.245.

There is real evidence that Robert is trying to reform. The most obvious evidence is a walk rate (10.3%) nearly double his career average. The sample is small, but there are under-the-hood indicators that suggest it could be meaningful. For example, Robert’s early chase rate (34.2%, per Statcast) is a career low and closer to the MLB standard (28.5).

For aggressive swingers well into their careers, trying to master plate discipline is a tall task. Few established players of that ilk have had a longer road to travel than Robert. During the wild-card era, there have been 1,135 players who have compiled at least 1,500 plate appearances. Only 17 have a lower walk-to-strikeout ratio than Robert’s career figure (0.21).

On that list are 133 hitters with a career mark of 0.3 W/SO or lower, who together account for 645 different seasons of at least 300 plate appearances. Only 26 times did one of those seasons result in at least a league-average ratio, or about 4%. Only one of those hitters had two such seasons, another 24 did it once and 108 never did it.

Still, 4% isn’t zero. To that end, Robert spent time during the winter working out with baseball’s current leader in W/SO — Soto.

“It’s no secret that one of the reasons why he’s one of the best players in the game is that he’s quite disciplined,” Robert said. “And that’s one of the things I want to improve.”

That’s easier said than done, and for his part, Soto said the workouts were mostly just that — workouts, though they were conducted with Robert’s hitting coach on hand. As with everyone else, it’s the sheer talent that exudes from Robert that caught Soto’s eye.

“Tremendous baseball player and tremendous athlete,” Soto told ESPN’s Jorge Castillo in Spanish. “He showed me a lot of his abilities that I didn’t know he had. That guy has tremendous strength, tremendous power. And he really surprised me a lot in everything we did.”

In this year’s Cactus League, Robert produced a .300/.386/.500 slash line, with four homers.

“If I’m able to carry on the work that I did during spring training, I’m going to have a good season,” Robert said. “Especially in that aspect of my vision of the whole plate. I know I can do it.”

Getz — who will have to determine if and when to pull the trigger on a Robert deal — lauded Robert’s efforts during the spring.

“Luis Robert is in an excellent spot,” Getz said. “The amount of three-ball counts that he had in spring training was by far the most he has had as a professional player. So that just speaks to his determination and focus to put together quality at-bats.”

It’s a bittersweet situation. The remaining vestige of the last good White Sox team remains the club’s most talented player. He’s in his age-27 season, often the apex of a hitter’s career. Yet if he reaches that apex, it’s only going to smooth his way out of town.

For the White Sox, all they can do is make sure Robert can stay focused on the field, while tuning out the trade chatter that isn’t going away.

“We’re going to support Luis,” Getz said. “I know that oftentimes he gets asked questions whether he’s going to be traded, but I’ve been really impressed with how he’s been able to remain focused on his craft. He’s very motivated to show the baseball world what he’s capable of doing.”

DURHAM, N.C. — Former football players from Duke and North Carolina have a hearing next week in lawsuits seeking additional eligibility from the NCAA for playing careers they say were derailed by injuries, ailments and personal difficulties.

Former Duke football players Ryan Smith and Tre’Shon Devones are plaintiffs in one of the complaints filed in Durham County Superior Court on April 3, while former UNC player J.J. Jones and former Duke player Cameron Bergeron are plaintiffs in a similar lawsuit filed the same day. Their complaints seek to prevent the NCAA from following its longstanding policy of having athletes complete four years of eligibility within a five-year window.

Their cases are now set for April 22 in North Carolina Business Court.

Specifically, the athletes point to lost potential earnings — $100,000 to $500,000, according to the lawsuits — from rules allowing athletes to profit from their fame through activities utilizing their name, image and likeness (NIL).

The complaints allege the NCAA and member schools “have entered into an illegal agreement to restrain and suppress competition” while also saying the waiver process allowing exemptions to its five-year rule is enforced “arbitrarily,” and that the process has denied them the ability to reach their “full potential.”

In February, former NC State football player Corey Coley Jr. filed a lawsuit with a similar argument in U.S. District Court in North Carolina.

“The NCAA stands by its eligibility rules, including the five-year rule, which enable student-athletes and schools to have fair competition and ensure broad access to the unique and life-changing opportunity to be a student-athlete,” the NCAA said in a statement. “The NCAA is making changes to modernize college sports but attempts to alter the enforcement of foundational eligibility rules — approved and supported by membership leaders — makes a shifting environment even more unsettled.”

Las Vegas Raiders standout pass rusher Maxx Crosby has been named the assistant general manager for the Eastern Michigan football program, the university announced Monday.

Crosby is the first active NFL player to hold the position. He will help Eastern Michigan evaluate high school and portal prospects, manage its NIL budget and also serve as special assistant to the fundraising, alumni relations and student-athlete support.

“There is no place more important to my personal and athletic development than Eastern Michigan University,” Crosby said in a statement released by the school. “It truly is an honor for me to not only be named the Assistant GM of the EMU, but together with my wife Rachel, make another donation aimed at creating opportunities for other athletes to be impacted by the EMU program, community, students and alumni.”

Crosby is one of the best defensive players to ever come out of Eastern Michigan. In three seasons, he set the program record with 20 career sacks, and his 41 tackles for loss are the third most in school history.

Crosby, a fourth-round pick in 2019, has recorded 59.5 sacks in six seasons with the Raiders. He was rewarded by the Raiders this offseason, signing a three-year, $106.5 million contract extension in March.

In addition to his role as assistant general manager for EMU, Crosby also launched the “Maxx Match,” which is a fundraising challenge in which he will personally match all donations to the Eastern Michigan football program, up to $100,000, made before the end of May.

In 2023, Crosby and his wife Rachel donated $1 million to the football program.

“Maxx Crosby’s return to EMU in this leadership role is a transformative moment for our football program,” athletic director Scott Wetherbee said in the release. “His passion, vision, and generosity are inspiring, and the Maxx Match is a powerful example of that. … With him on board, we’re building a better football program and a stronger future for EMU athletics.”

While Crosby is the first NFL player to take an administrative job with an NCAA team, he is not the only athlete. Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry became the assistant general manager at Davidson College, his alma mater, last month.