The defending World Champion Red Sox have taken a very tentative approach to free agency this offseason. Rather than chasing after the big free agents and handing out large contracts, which contributed to their 2012 last place finish, they have remained focus on keeping their core together, while bringing in players like A.J. Pierzynski and Edward Mujica on short-term deals.
One of the lingering question marks for Boston, though, is how the team will handle its outfield after the departure of center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury to New York. The only real certainty seems to be that Shane Victorino will, again, be the everyday right fielder. Left field will likely be platooned by Jonny Gomes and Daniel Nava, but Mike Carp is also more than serviceable to mix in there and at first base.
Center field poses the biggest question mark. For the last year, Red Sox fans have been largely expecting Ellsbury to leave, and the understood plan was for prospect Jackie Bradley, Jr. to take the reins. But Red Sox General Manager Ben Cherington produced another option from out of nowhere on Wednesday night.
Cherington signed Grady Sizemore to a one-year, $750 thousand deal. Sizemore has been out of baseball for the last two years dealing with injuries, including a knee microfracture, back surgery, and a sports hernia. He and his agents had been negotiating with teams throughout the offseason, declaring that Sizemore was ready to get back to the field.
He is still only 31-years-old, but he hasn’t played a full season since 2008. That year ended an extremely successful four-year run with the Indians that included three All-Star Game appearances, two Gold Gloves, and a Silver Slugger Award. During that stretch, he hit .281/.372/.496. He averaged 116 runs, 180 hits, 41 doubles, 8 triples, 27 home runs, 81 RBI, 29 steals, and 82 walks per year.
It was following that season that Sizemore began having problems. He managed to play in just 210 total games from 2009-2011, and even when he did play, it was not at a high level. His slash line of .234/.314/.413 was significantly lower than when he was getting MVP votes in the not-too-distant past. His power suffered, with just 28 total homers in those three years, while his K:BB ratio went from 1.73:1 from 2005-2008 to 2.45:1 in the three later years.
That’s the last the baseball world has seen of Sizemore. Since that 2011 season, he’s been trying to get back to playing form and be healthy enough to get teams interested in his services. That time has finally apparently arrived as the Red Sox decided to bring him in. On a conference call with reporters tonight, he said Boston was among several teams trying to sign him.
“Honestly, I was talking with multiple teams and I was kind of exploring every option that I could,” Sizemore said. “In the end, I thought the Red Sox gave me the best opportunity to succeed and that’s why I went with these guys.”
Among those opportunities the Red Sox apparently presented is the potential for significant playing time. He said he was looking for a place that would provide him with a chance to play regularly, so that turned out to be Boston, which may indirectly indicate the team’s plans for the season.
If the Red Sox offered him the chance for significant playing time, that would have to come at the expense of someone who is already penciled in to the team’s outfield. It isn’t going to be Victorino, and Gomes and Nava are already going to be splitting time in left field. So maybe Cherington isn’t so content to roll with Bradley as the full-time starter as he had had been indicating.
Boston fans have been calling for Bradley’s promotion since breaking out in spring training last year. He did start the year with the club, but struggled. Through five different stints with the team throughout the season, he hit just .189. In his 80 games with Triple-A Pawtucket, he hit .275/.374/.469, which is only slightly below his three-year minor league average.
Reading between the lines of the Sizemore signing, it feels like Cherington would prefer to have Bradley ease into a starting role at Fenway. Soxprospects.com ranks him the organization’s second-best prospect and he is third in Baseball America’s rankings, but he is still just 23-years-old and has yet to prove himself at the major league level. Relying on him to inherit center field at Fenway is a risky proposition.
So at the very least, Sizemore provides a low-risk, high-reward alternative to Bradley in Boston’s quest to find a suitable heir to Ellsbury. If he is truly healthy and can resemble something like the ‘05-’08 version of himself, the Red Sox may have struck gold. If not, which may be more likely, they’re out less than a million dollars. They’ve made far worse investments on middle relievers, let alone a potential impact position player. In 2013, the Red Sox won the World Series following an offseason of smart signings. This could turn out to be another.
