No less than four teams placed a claim on Luis Robert Jr. despite his injury history, including the Padres and Rays. 

Tampa Bay obviously does a great job, but they got lucky here since the Orioles got the pain-plagued player (now out with a hamstring injury) by virtue of having the worst record of the four claiming teams and are on the hook for $5M ($3M in 2026 salary plus $2M buyout assuming they decline his $20M option). 

Still, it’s a positive sign for fans that new ownership in both San Diego and Tampa were willing to commit $5M for a month of Robert. 

It had seemed odd the Mets continued to play Robert mostly in center field when A.J. Ewing is their future center. But they were wise to show teams Robert could play both center and left since they were hoping someone would claim the talented, oft-injured former star.