JUNE 1: Philadelphia has announced Sizemore’s release.
MAY 29: The Phillies announced today that they have designated veteran outfielder Grady Sizemore for assignment in order to clear a roster spot for Cody Asche, who will return from Triple-A and presumably see the bulk of playing time in left field as he transitions away from third base.
The 32-year-old Sizemore returned to baseball last season after missing two full seasons due to knee and back injuries. After a slow start with Boston got him released, Sizemore latched on with the Phillies and hit well enough in 60 contests — .253/.313/.389 with three homers — that Philadelphia re-signed him to a one-year, $2MM extension back in October.
The early returns on Sizemore’s second season in Philly haven’t been pretty, however, as he’s batted just .245/.288/.296 and displayed questionable defensive skills in the outfield corners — perhaps to be expected after enduring the type of injuries that he’s dealt with since 2010.
Sizemore, of course, was one of the game’s truly elite players early in his career Cleveland. From 2005-09, he batted .276/.368/.488, averaging 25 homers and 28 steals per season to go along with a penchant for highlight-reel catches in center field. Baseball-Reference pegs him at 26.8 wins above replacement in that stretch, whereas Fangraphs was even more bullish, crediting him with 29.4 WAR.
Injuries have derailed what looked to be one of the game’s most promising young talents, however, and he’ll now step aside in large part so that the Phillies can give extended tryouts to two young talents of their own. Asche’s move from third base to left field was necessitated by the emergence of Maikel Franco as an option at third base, and Philadelphia will hope that both can settle in as regulars and contribute for years to come.
Well, that escalated quickly. Sorry Grady, maybe you’ll get another shot on a minor league deal somewhere.
Maybe playing every day could help. He seemed to lack power, perhaps trying to make contact and hit for average, rarely driving the ball in the gap. In 104 PA, only 5 2B, no 3B or HR. His defense wasn’t aggressive or close to replacement level. Phillies fans didn’t see him as an upgrade over the struggling Dom Brown, and he didn’t even legitimately win the job out of spring training. So, I’m not optimistic for a big rebound by Sizemore.
He’s gone full jason bay, steroid testing starts, and the numbers vanish…
The Phils need to begin the massive rebuild NOW..difficult with Utley & Howard I understand…but anybody 30 or over should be moved for prospects.
Both have 10-5 rights and I’m pretty certain Utley has said he is not leaving Philly. Also, neither player is going to bring back significant prospects, especially Howard, regardless of how much salary the Phillies eat.
Phillies started there build last off season, now its just waiting and continuing to sell of pieces .The only current pieces that are gonna be worth anything are papelbon,hamels,harang and maybe revere.
Ruiz to Altana , Howard to Rays, Utley to Yankees !
Atlanta is rebuilding, the Rays have Jaso and Utley isn’t any better than Drew right now
They have been, Houston and Chicago didn’t move everybody immediately.
Rouscher…good analogy, the Phils as we’ve stated have the disadvantage of the high salaries, so it’s a little trickier. Hamels as terrific as he is, mayn’t get the prospects, the Phils might ordinarily garner, as other teams know, there is a partial salary dump involved.
To the Nats maybe?
Also, random note – I like that the # of comments a topic has is showing up again on the main page (maybe I’m the only one who just liked it, don’t ask why LOL)
Why would the Nationals want him?
To fill in for Bryce Harper the next time their Playing the Reds.
The Indians absolutely ruined this guy. Still only 32 years-old.
Let him run into fences to make Sportscenter; diving constantly in the OF to try to cut off meaningless singles – often playing them into doubles and triples; batting him leadoff while allowing him to swing as hard as he could and try to pull every pitch with power instead of learning to use the entire filed and take advantage of his speed (he never scared any opposing team on the bathpaths – was fast, but a terrible baserunner); constantly among the league leaders in K’s – not something you want from a leadoff hitter; and pretty much allowing him to do whatever felt good. I’ve often wondered what he would have been playing in the Cardinals organization with Tony La Russa, or anyone of another half-dozen quality baseball organizations. This young man could have been a borderline Hall Of Famer.
How is it the Indians fault? In 2005, he played in 158 games. In 2006 and 2007, he did not miss a single game. In 2008, he played in 157 games.
He has suffered numerous injuries since and that’s the Indians’ fault?
Teams such as the Royals today, Cardinals, Nationals and others would have squared him away.
Point blank – Sizemore was a crowd-pleasing hot dog. He could have been a very good ballplayer.
And he Was a very good ballplayer until he was hurt. You can also say the Indians, in a way, saved him. He wanted to play in the 2009 World Baseball Classic and the Indians did not want him to go there. Unfortunately he got hurt in ST but he very well could have gotten hurt at the Classic, and you can very well say they ruined him by letting him play in it.
Injuries are not predictable. They did not ruin him.
I think you need to reread my initial post.
I’ll leave it here.
I don’t think I have to read your initial post when the first sentence pretty much sums it up.
I read it anyway and that’s just a player working hard. Explain what’s wrong with that? He never got hurt until 2009 in Spring Training
You mention the league leader in K’s. Know who was the American League leader in K’s last year? The MVP Mike Trout. Should the Angels do something about him now?
FYI – Trout and the Angels coaches have been working with him since ST to bring his K’s down.
Look at how the Nationals have handled Harper. He could have been given his way, and he played hard – including missing long stretches of games after injuring himself.
An organization has an obligation to it’s players to make them the best they can be, and have a long career. Boras recently complimented the Cubs on how they’re bringing Bryant along. Most organizations don’t do that. The good ones do.
“FYI – Trout and the Angels coaches have been working with him since ST to bring his K’s down.”
I’m sure they have, but how do you know the Indians were not doing the same thing with Sizemore?
“Look at how the Nationals have handled Harper. He could have been given his way, and he played hard – including missing long stretched of game injuring himself.”
Apples and oranges. Harper got Hurt. Sizemore did not (until 2009)
1. Trout is a run producer. They K more. Sizemore was never remotely a run producer. He wasn’t really a lead-off hitter either.
2. Not apples and oranges at all. The Nationals were on Harper BEFORE he got hurt, and stayed on him. I read comments here last year complaining when Matt Williams sat him down numerous times.
Grady Sizemore is 32 years old. He should be a force in MLB today.
“Trout is a run producer. They K more. Sizemore was never remotely a run producer. He wasn’t really a lead-off hitter either.”
Sizemore led all of baseball in 2008 in Runs Created with 131. That is not even his career high, his career high was 140 back in 2006. His 4 highest seasons with RC/G were 7.8, 7.4, 7.2 and 5.7.
And his career OBP leading off was .363. That’s excellent.
So he’s never a good run producer, and not a good baserunner, and struck out a lot. So… average? But he should be an elite force in MLB? You seem to contradict yourself a lot in your arguments.
Vandals….as of 2 yrs ago, you wouldn’t have considered the Royals or the Nats model franchises.
False on the Nats comment! It was when they promoted Mike Rizzo to GM, in 2009, when they started building properly. That’s more than just the “last 2 years”.
You are correct with the Royals though. They were floundering with DM until they traded for Shields, as well as all the other moves that’s worked out for them since then.
Colored Paper…actually I partially agree, the Nats were starting to rebuild a little sooner, yet if they don’t tank (sorry) for Strasburg & Harper, they’re not where they are now. I struggle with portraying them as a model franchise, from say using your example from 2009-2015…when we have the Cardinals, Giants, Tigers, & A’s ( I realize they’re a mess now) .
Mandatory PED testing started when?
What does that have to do with what I said?
I disagree he’s just got a lot of hype playing around CC and Martinez and then later on Lee….
Eh, Sizemore was a lot more than hype for a good stretch, he put up some really, really good years.
He could have put up much better years, and could still be putting them up. My point all along.
Your point all along is that its the indians fault, which it isnt
You’re blaming the Indians for letting a guy play hard?
As for his baserunning ability — Sizemore was worth 34.6 runs from 2005-09, which was ninth in baseball and trailed only Ichiro, Figgins, Willy Taveras, Rollins, Utley, Crawford, Pierre and Jose Reyes. Also, Sizemore struck out at a 19.2 percent clip over those seasons, which was 90th out of 361 qualified hitters.
There’s no reason to place the blame on the Indians for a guy developing chronic knee issues, and your recollection of his alleged deficiencies seems to be skewed.
I watched him quite a bit and to say he had bad habits was an understatement. His fundamentals and baseball IQ were terrible. He was an injury waiting to happen. And they did.
I’ll stop here.
Bryce Harper learned from his face plant. He controls his effort now so as not to get injured. Grady made a lot of spectacular dives and lunges that were unnecessary. I say that as someone who watched almost all of his games with the Indians. Someone should have told him to play with more control.
As for his injuries, the Indians were less than candid about them for years. You can read Hoynsie’s columns where posters asked straight out what was wrong with him and got no answer. I understand HIPPA. But we don’t know if everything was done correctly with his injuries.
I guess we need to blame the Nationals for not letting Harper play hard.
One other note – I watched Matt Williams play. He was the epitome of a hard-nosed player. But there is a difference between being hard-nosed and playing dumb. Williams will get the best out for Harper for his entire career. Sizemore was this generations Pete Reiser.
As a whole it was a baseball philosophy to play hard every play. Now that the statheads are taking over it is realized more that the value of years is more important than a run saved. He was a legitimate great player for 4-5 year stretch though.
Also, it’s the Indians fault for Travis Hafner. He kept getting hit in the head with fastballs. They should have recognized that and told Hafner not to get hit in the head with 96 MPH pitches. What a terrible organization.
I hope the Brewers pick him up. We need new players and I’ve always liked Grady as a player
Reminds you of why we shouldn’t blame players who look for long-term contracts. You never know when injuries will cut you down.
Conversely it also reminds you of why we shouldn’t blame owners for not wanting to give those long-term deals as well. Arte Moreno excluded of course.
It’s simply business. If you want a top-tier player, you have to bid for him. In the case of really talented players, you have to pay a lot for a long time. I don’t blame owners who want to be frugal/prudent. They have to run a different type of organization that is able to sign younger players and take the most out of them when they are still cost controlled. The only team ownership that really troubles me are the teams that deliberately tank to get better draft picks, those who tank and collect a lot of revenue sharing, and those who fail to make enough efforts to be competitive, while taking free and subsidized stadiums from the taxpayers. I think teams have an obligation to try to be successful on the field.
Good Guy, wish him well when he not playing against Boston.Value as 4th outfielders in Question now!
cubs could use him.
Huh? How and why? Their starting OF is not great but good. In the wings they have Szczur at Iowa, and Denorfia coming off the DL, and Almora up by 2016 or 2017.
Sizemore is still better than most of the outfielders on the Mariners
Had to look. Outside of Cruz, some anemic looking batting averages, there
Time to go back to Washington to start enjoying your civilian life.
He’ll have to wait to clear waivers to get another job. Phillies had him on $2M guaranteed plus $3M in Plate Appearance incentives. No team is likely to pick up that contract, so he and the Phillies have to hope he gets a ML minimum gig somewhere, afterwards.
Grady, good luck in finding another MLB team to join this year. It is a shame that injuries messed up your career.
I think it’s time Mr. Sizemore hung up the cleats. But, damn, was he ever fun to watch in his prime.
Could the Astros take grady
Can Sizemore play 3B or SS? Maybe the Indians can get him back.
Hes lefthanded, so no. Hes an outfielder his entire career.
Ha. It was sarcasm.