Indians Lookback: Grady Sizemore, a Generational Talent Without a Prime

At the time, opening day 2005 felt relatively inconsequential for the Cleveland Indians.

A 1-0 loss to the Chicago White Sox. A two-hit effort from Cleveland’s offense. Not an ideal start to the year, but nothing impactful in the grand scheme of things.

In retrospect, Grady Sizemore’s contribution to said game feels significant when you consider how his role with Cleveland evolved from there.

On that day, he was a pinch hitter at the bottom of the batting order. Within a week, he was the starting center fielder. A month later, he was the leadoff hitter. By season’s end, he was worth more wins above replacement than anyone on Cleveland’s roster.

It’s difficult to summarize the height of the Grady Sizemore experience any better than that. In him, the Indians found their next star, a discovery which occurred in the blink of an eye.

Sizemore was a front office’s dream. A rare mix of extreme modesty and absurd talent. The kind of player who emptied the tank on every play, no matter the scenario, and did so solely through his desire to help his team any way he could.

At age 22, he was an everyday starter. At 23, he was receiving MVP votes. At 24, he graced the cover of Sports Illustrated.

At 29, he was gone.

Sizemore was a generational talent who almost immediately became one of the league’s best players. Sadly, what he’s often remembered for is the slew of injuries which completely robbed him of his prime years.

To be fair, Sizemore’s time with the Tribe began before his star-making 2005 campaign. Cleveland called him up after the All-Star break the previous summer, where he put forth a 43-game stint which was decidedly just fine.

Sizemore slashed .246/.333/.406 in 159 plate appearances, notching 24 RBIs and two stolen bases. It was a decent start for one of the key returns from the infamous Bartolo Colón trade.

That said, it in no way indicated a meteoric rise was right around the corner.

Yet, midway through the 2005 campaign, three months after that opening day pinch-hit appearance, Sizemore had become one of the Indians’ most productive players.

As of July 1, he led the team in hits (87), runs (48) and stolen bases (9), second only to Travis Hafner in RBIs (37) and OBP (.362). For the month of June, Sizemore slashed .377/.455/.642 with 12 doubles, four home runs, 16 RBIs and a 195 wRC+.

If there was any doubt about the impact he could have for Cleveland, he effectively erased it halfway through his first full season.

And did so at the age of 22.

Sizemore’s coronation, combined with a solid performance from the rotation and a torrid season from Hafner, helped Cleveland make a late-season surge and land just inches short of the final wild card spot that year.

Missing the postseason was certainly a letdown. That said, considering how quickly Sizemore established himself, the Indians’ confidence in the future was surely high.

It’s safe to say this confidence would’ve been even higher had they known that, over the next four years, Sizemore’s 2005 performance would represent his “worst” season.

While the Tribe failed to build off the momentum from the previous year, Sizemore continued to put up monstrous numbers. In 2006, increases were seen with practically every key metric.

He got on base more frequently (.375 OBP), generated more runs (132 wRC+) and was worth more wins (7.9 fWAR). Sizemore led the league in both doubles (53) and runs (134), while converting all but six of his 28 stolen base attempts.

Not that it needed to be said, but this season also marked Sizemore’s first All-Star nod.

By this point, it was clear Sizemore was becoming a league-wide phenom. If this wasn’t widely accepted by the start of 2007, his SI cover feature that May certainly helped hammer the point home.

Within Tom Verducci’s accompanying piece were two quotes which perfectly encapsulate Sizemore’s rise to fame.

For one, if Sizemore was even remotely overconfident despite boasting skills which gave him every right to be, he certainly wasn’t willing to show it.

"I think I drive my agent crazy with the [endorsements] I turn down," Sizemore told Verducci. "I just want to go out on the field and play. I'm not comfortable in front of the camera. I don't like seeing this mug on TV."

The most telling comment, though, came from then-GM Mark Shapiro.

“He is without a doubt one of the greatest players of our generation."

Again, this was being said about someone entering his second full season in the majors.

Yet, the Indians knew they’d found their wunderkind. The last heroes of the mid-90’s era had departed by this point. In Sizemore, they had their next big thing, a player who could become the face of the next stage of Cleveland baseball.

Calling Sizemore a generational great never felt like hyperbole. His combined numbers from 2005-2008 proved there truly was nothing he couldn’t do.

He could hit (.281/.372/.496), hit for power (.214 ISO), field (34.7 defensive runs above average) and excel on the basepaths (31.8 BsR). In each of these four seasons, Sizemore logged at least 22 home runs, 34 doubles and 22 stolen bases. Over this time frame, only three other players had a higher fWAR (27.3).

At this rate, the question wasn’t if Sizemore was on a path towards the hall of fame, but instead if he was going to get there on his first-ballot.

Which is why what happened next is still difficult to fathom.

Sizemore struggled throughout 2009, seeing substantial productivity drops across the board. The issue appeared to be a nagging elbow injury, which he elected to resolve with surgery that September. A week later, he underwent another operation, this time on his groin.

The hope was his struggles from ‘09 were the result of these ailments, that 2010 would represent a bounce-back for Cleveland’s marquee center fielder.

It very well could’ve been, had it not ended after 33 games. Microfracture surgery on his knee brought Sizemore’s 2010 campaign to an early close.

Such was life for Sizemore. Where he spent the first four years of his career becoming a household name, he spent the bulk of his next few under the knife. Literally every time Sizemore attempted to put an ailment behind him, another would pop up.

For the longest time, the Indians refused to give up on him. Much of the talent he played alongside during his early years was dealt away, yet Cleveland continued believing Sizemore could return to form.

Even after declining his option in the 2011 offseason, the Indians wound up re-signing Sizemore to a one-year, $5 million deal.

"I want to prove to everyone that I can stay healthy and I can perform," Sizemore said at the time. "I want to have a healthy year and get back to playing like I know I can."

He never stepped foot on the field that year.

Offseason back surgery and the ensuing setbacks kept Sizemore sidelined for all of 2012. By the end of the year, he was 30-years-old and out of baseball.

To his credit, Sizemore attempted a comeback. He signed with the Red Sox in 2014, hoping to revive his career. Instead, he bounced from Boston to Philadelphia to Tampa over the span of two years, rarely looking like the player he once was.

From 2005 to 2008, Sizemore played 639 games while becoming a phenomenon for Cleveland. Over the next seven years, he logged just 419 games, generating an fWAR of 1.5.

When recalling Sizemore, it’s easy to just remember the injuries which derailed his prime. One can only see a player head to the operating table so often before this becomes the most notable aspect of his career.

A simple look at the numbers from his early years is enough to tell you he was so much more than that.

He was three-time All-Star. A two-time Gold Glove winner. A Silver Slugger. An undeniably elite talent for an organization seeking the next face of the franchise.

Were it not for his inability to stay healthy, who knows what else he would have accomplished.