CHICAGO (AP) — The busy New York Mets acquired Luis Robert Jr. in a trade with the Chicago White Sox late Tuesday night, filling a hole in center field.
New York sent speedy infielder Luisangel Acuña and minor league pitcher Truman Pauley to Chicago for Robert, who has struggled with injuries and inconsistency since a stellar 2023 season.
“I think step one is, we’ve got to do everything we can to help Luis stay on the field,” Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said Wednesday in New York.
"This is an enormously talented player. All of the underlying skills and tools are there. The same skills and tools that were there when he had his monster season a couple years ago. So that is really encouraging and that’s what attracted us to him. And now we’ve got to put him in an environment where he’s comfortable, where he’s supported. Sometimes just a change of venue helps, and I think it might here.”
The Mets had been looking for outfield help since they traded Brandon Nimmo to the Texas Rangers for second baseman Marcus Semien. They were in the mix for Kyle Tucker before he agreed to sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The trade was announced after New York finalized a $126 million, three-year contract with Bo Bichette, a two-time All-Star shortstop who is moving to third base with the Mets.
Robert hit a career-low .223 with 14 homers, 53 RBIs and a career-best 33 steals in 110 games last year. Despite the shaky performance, the White Sox exercised his $20 million option for 2026.
"Unfortunately he hasn't had the consistency that he had hoped or we had hoped," White Sox general manager Chris Getz said. “Injuries have really held him back.”
Robert's contract also has a $20 million club option for 2027 with a $2 million buyout.
“We're going to be very active,” Getz said. “An opportunity to be really creative with the flexibility that we have.”
New York is looking to return to the playoffs after it faded to an 83-79 record last year. Popular slugger Pete Alonso and star closer Edwin Díaz departed in free agency, but the Mets signed closer Devin Williams, reliever Luke Weaver and infielder Jorge Polanco.
The 23-year-old Acuña hit .234 with eight RBIs and 16 steals in 95 games with New York last season. Acuña, who can play second base, third base, shortstop and center field, was acquired by the Mets in a July 2023 trade with the Rangers for pitcher Max Scherzer.
“One of the younger, exciting players in our game. Hasn’t really gotten a runway at the major league level,” Getz said. “We have opportunity here and we can provide that runway to show off his talent and his ability and his ceiling.”
Acuña joins a promising group of young position players in Chicago that also includes Colson Montgomery, Kyle Teel and Chase Meidroth. The White Sox finished last in the AL Central last year with a 60-102 record, a 19-game improvement from the previous season.
Acuña has been playing center field and shortstop in the Venezuelan winter league. He is a brother of Atlanta Braves star Ronald Acuña Jr.
“My brother’s always giving me advice,” Luisangel Acuña said through a translator. “He has more experience than me and he’s always trying to take care of me.”
Pauley, 22, was a 12th-round pick in the 2025 amateur draft out of Harvard. He had no record and a 2.08 ERA in three starts with Class A St. Lucie last year.
“Any opportunity to bring in a Harvard kid, I think add some intellectual firepower to an organization,” Getz said.
Robert, who turns 29 in August, made his major league debut with Chicago in 2020, winning a Gold Glove and finishing second to Kyle Lewis in balloting for AL Rookie of the Year. He made the AL All-Star team in 2023, when he hit .264 with 38 homers, 80 RBIs and 20 steals in 145 games.
Robert got off to a tough start last year, batting .190 with nine homers, 35 RBIs and 93 strikeouts in his first 79 games. He was believed to be on the market ahead of the trade deadline, but the White Sox opted to keep the slumping slugger from Cuba.
He was much better after the All-Star break, hitting .298 (34 for 114) with five homers and 18 RBIs in 31 games. He was placed on the 10-day injured list Aug. 27 with a left hamstring strain, ending his season.
“We were in contact with the White Sox for a long period of time. Went through a variety of different concepts, ideas," Stearns said. "That’s kind of the fun thing about trade discussions is just bouncing ideas back and forth. And we finally got to one yesterday that got over the line for both sides.”
AP Baseball Writer Mike Fitzpatrick in New York contributed to this report.
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FILE -New York Mets' Luisangel Acuña (2) warms up before a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Sept. 23, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley, File)
FILE -Chicago White Sox center fielder Luis Robert Jr. catches a fly ball for the out on Kansas City Royals' Mike Yastrzemski during the seventh inning of a baseball game, Aug. 15, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel), File)
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — In two decades of kicking in doors for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Joseph Bongiovanni often took on the risks of being the “lead breacher," meaning he was the first person into the room.
On Wednesday, he felt a familiar uncertainty awaiting sentencing for using his DEA badge to protect childhood friends who became prolific drug traffickers in Buffalo, New York.
“I knew never what was on the other side of that door — that fear is what I feel today,” Bongiovanni, 61, told a federal judge, pounding the defense table as his face reddened with emotion. “I've always been innocent. I loved that job.”
U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo sentenced the disgraced lawman to five years in federal prison on a string of corruption counts. The punishment was significantly less than the 15 years prosecutors sought even after a jury acquitted Bongiovanni of the most serious charges he faced, including an allegation he pocketed $250,000 in bribes from the Mafia.
The judge said the sentence reflected the complexity of the mixed verdicts following two lengthy trials and the almost Jekyll-and-Hyde nature of Bongiovanni's career, in which the lawman racked up enough front-page accolades to fill a trophy case.
Bongiovanni once hurtled into a burning apartment building to evacuate residents through billowing smoke. He locked up drug dealers, including the first ever prosecuted in the region for causing a fatal overdose.
“There are two completely polar opposite versions of the facts and polar opposite versions of the defendant,” Vilardo said, assuring prosecutors five years behind bars would pose a considerable hardship to someone who has never been to prison.
Defense attorney Parker MacKay noted the judge had acknowledged Bongiovanni as a “beacon” of the Buffalo community. The government's request for a 15-year sentence, he added, was “completely unmoored to the nature of the convictions.”
“As Mr. Bongiovanni told the judge at sentencing, he is innocent, and we look forward to continuing to work with him to prove that,” MacKay told The Associated Press.
A jury in 2024 convicted Bongiovanni of four counts of obstruction of justice, counts of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and making false statements to law enforcement.
Prosecutors said Bongiovanni's “little dark secret” caused immeasurable damage over 11 years. They likened him to Jose Irizarry, a disgraced former DEA agent serving a 12-year federal sentence after confessing to laundering money for Colombian drug cartels.
Bongiovanni upheld an oath not to the DEA, they argued, but to organized crime figures in the tight-knit Italian American community of his North Buffalo upbringing. During sentencing, Bongiovanni’s family dissolved into tears on the front row of the packed courtroom in downtown Buffalo.
Prosecutors said Bongiovanni's corruption involved as much inaction as calculated coverup. They pointed to a turning point in 2008 when Bongiovanni could have acted on intelligence about traffickers he knew whose operation would evolve into a large-scale organization with links to California, Vancouver, and New York City.
He also was accused of authoring bogus DEA reports, stealing sensitive files, throwing off colleagues, outing confidential informants, covering for a sex-trafficking strip club and helping a high school English teacher keep his marijuana-growing side hustle. Prosecutors said he brazenly urged colleagues to spend less time investigating Italians and focus instead on Black and Hispanic people.
“His conduct shook the foundation of law enforcement — and this community — to its core,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Tripi told the judge. “That's what a betrayal is.”
The ex-agent's downfall came amid a sex-trafficking prosecution that took sensational turns, including an implicated judge who killed himself after the FBI raided his home, law enforcement dragging a pond in search of an overdose victim and dead rats planted outside the home of a government witness who prosecutors allege was later killed by a fatal dose of fentanyl.
It also involved the Pharoah’s Gentlemen’s Club outside Buffalo. Bongiovanni was childhood friends with the strip club’s owner, Peter Gerace Jr., who authorities say has close ties to both the Buffalo Mafia and the violent Outlaws Motorcycle Club. A separate jury convicted Gerace of a sex trafficking conspiracy and of paying bribes to Bongiovanni.
The prosecution also cast a harsh light on the DEA after a string of corruption scandals prompted at least 17 agents brought up on federal charges over the past decade. Last month, prosecutors charged another former agent with conspiring to launder millions of dollars and obtain military-grade firearms and explosives for a Mexican drug cartel.
The DEA did not respond to a request for comment on Bongiovanni's sentence.
Joseph Bongiovanni, center, leaves federal court with his wife, Lindsay Bongiovanni, right, after being sentenced to 5 years in prison on corruption charges, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Jim Mustian)
Joseph Bongiovanni, left, leaves federal court with his wife, Lindsay Bongiovanni, after being sentenced to 5 years in prison on corruption charges, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Jim Mustian)
