A two-time Gold Glover and one time Silver Slugger, not many people know Grady Sizemore. The Red Sox signed him on a $750,000 contract and if he reaches his incentives for the season he is guaranteed $6 million dollars.

He certainly has the credentials to be a dark horse candidate for the AL Comeback Player of the Year and has been turning the heads of players and coaches.

“He looks pretty darn good to me,” Shane Victorino said. “As I told him before, four or five years ago, I looked up to you as a center fielder, to want to do what you did in center field. It’s obviously there; it’s just a matter of him physically feeling good about his body and going out there every day and doing it.”

Sizemore’s former hitting coach Derek Shelton said of him “He looks better than I probably expected, He’s moving good, he ran well, he looked good in the outfield”.

All the signs are positive for Grady Sizemore. If he is half of the ballplayer he was back in 05-08 this will be an excellent addition to the Red Sox who are looking to defend their title. Back in his prime (o5-08) he had 107 HRs  and 325 RBIs. His two Gold Gloves speak volumes of his fielding ability. He has a fielding percentage of  99.3% was one of the best center fielders before his many injuries.

Back in 2009 Sizemore elected to have surgery on his left elbow before seasons end to give it time to heal so he could return healthy in 2010. However, one week after the elbow surgery he had surgery on his lower abdomen to repair a hernia that was related to the groin injury which forced him from the World Baseball Classic.

In 2010 he played 33 games before he had a season ending microfracture surgery on his left knee. In 2011 after the surgery he came back and received a right knee contusion and his second sports hernia putting him back on the Disabled List again.

In 2012 he received microfracture surgery on his right knee and back problems led him to stay on the disabled list. He spent the 2013 season rehabbing and would not commit to a team unless he was one-hundred percent sure he was going to be able to play ball again.

The road ahead is dark for Grady Sizemore and it will be interesting to see how he fares in the 2014 season.