It looks like this is the end for Grady Sizemore's Big League career, after his release by the Phils, the worst team in baseball.
Sizemore had one of the great What If careers in the Majors, ruined by the macro effects of micro surgery.
Perhaps you're recalling the glory days of 2005-08, when Sizemore was a five-tool monster for the Indians, averaging 27 home runs, 41 doubles, 8 triples and 29 steals, a .372 OBP, a gold glove in center field and an All-Star berth. One of the true stars of the game, he piled up 24 wins against replacement by the age of 25.
On top of all that, he's Hollywood good-looking, humble and articulate. The year after his debut, female TV viewership of Tribe games tripled. Through his fourth full season, Grady Sizemore was Barry Bonds, without the scowl.
But even before the snow melted in the winter of '09, Sizemore's career was crashing to Earth.
Prior to Spring Training, he suffered a hernia that hobbled him through practice and into the season. An elbow injury plagued him from May on, absenting him from 55 games, hampering his production and requiring surgery in October.
And it only got worse. From May of 2010 through 2012, Sizemore suffered all 10 plagues but locusts. Microfracture surgery on his knee and disc surgery on his lower back relegated him to the sidelines for all but 104 games over the next four years. The Red Sox gave him a chance last year, but he hit .214 and drifted to the containment area for damaged veterans in Philly.
Shockingly, though not surprisingly, Ruben Amaro, Jr. handed the 32-year-old a $2 million contract for the 2015 season and Sizemore rewarded him with about what you would expect -- below replacement-level output before his dismissal this weekend.
Remember the 24 wins over his first five full seasons? He's cost his teams a win over the last six years.
So a sad goodbye to Grady Sizemore, whose body failed him and whom the scalpel forsook. For a brief glimpse, he was all that and more.
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