Philadelphia Phillies sign Grady Sizemore to minor league deal

The Philadelphia Phillies have the best team ever. If only they had a time machine and could back to 2006.

Adding to a list of veteran players in the organization who used to be awesome, the Phillies signed outfielder Grady Sizemore, released recently by the Boston Red Sox, to a minor league deal on Tuesday. According to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports:

In reality this is a low-risk deal for the Phillies. It also allows them to give Sizemore another chance to continue his comeback from a stretch of seasons lost to injury. In doing so, they give Sizemore a chance to pick back up on one of the feel-good stories of spring training.

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Sizemore split time with Jackie Bradley Jr. in a decidedly underwhelming center field platoon for much of the season while with the Red Sox. Through 52 games Sizemore was only slashing .216/.288/.324 with two home runs and 15 RBI. His biggest problem was match-ups against left-handed pitching: in 52 at-bats against LHP Sizemore only managed a .154/.228/.231 slash line.

Here’s the saddest part of the situation, and also the thing that keeps Sizemore at the top of the list of guys to cheer for: he is only 31 years old still. At this point it feels like he’s closer to 40, especially considering how run down he looked this season compared to the multi-talented guy he once was. Hopefully he can generate some momentum with this chance with the Phillies and contribute again at the big league level.