Chicago White Sox Center Fielder Luis Robert Jr. Not Starting Tuesday, Wednesday

CHICAGO – The White Sox are giving center fielder Luis Robert Jr. time off this week as he works through adjustments at the plate.

Manager Will Venable explained the decision prior to Tuesday's game against the Detroit Tigers.

"He’s continued to work really hard on making adjustments to get right," Venable said. "As he continues to do that, similar to Vargas earlier in the year, where he’s taking on some real adjustments, just not having him do that with also dealing with the results of the game."

"So I just think that today and tomorrow we'll give Luis the day off and not be in the starting lineup. He'll be available, but not in the starting lineup, just to give them an opportunity to really dial in some of these adjustments without just feeling the pressure of having to go out there and perform. So he's in a good spot physically. And just want to give him a couple days here to lock in some of these adjustments."

Robert, a former All-Star, Silver Slugger and Gold Glove winner, has performed far below his career standards in his sixth major league season. Through 221 plate appearances, he's slashing .177/.266/.286/.553 with five home runs, 21 RBI, 24 walks and 68 strikeouts. Despite his struggles at the plate, he's leading MLB with 21 stolen bases and has played strong center field defense.

Venable said Robert's response to getting back-to-back days off was positive.

"He wants, more than anything, to be the best version of himself and has been extremely committed to doing that," Venable said. "He is putting in a ton of work and working extremely hard all throughout the day to try and get this thing right. He agreed that it would be a good idea just to press pause on the games, just for a couple of days here. But again, he's going to contribute and be around and obviously someone that we can use to run and play defense, so still be available for us."

White Sox third baseman Miguel Vargas made a noticeable adjustment earlier in the season, holding his hands higher in his batting stance. It worked wonders, as Vargas was arguably the team's best hitter over the last month.

Venable anticipates Robert's adjustments to be more subtle.

"I don't think it's going to be something really big that we see," Venable said. "I know Vargas’ is pretty apparent with where he's setting the bat as he gets going. But I don't think it's going to be some big hand position move for Luis or anything like that. We'll see."

Robert missed Wednesday's game against the Mets with knee soreness, which also held him out of two games against the Marlins in the second week of May. Venable addressed whether that is still affecting Robert.

"There's some soreness, but I think that it's not more than any soreness that all these guys feel during the course of the summer and playing hard out there every day," Venable said. "So I don't think it's limiting him in any way."