Catching up with last year’s big spring training story, Grady Sizemore

CLEARWATER, Fla. — The excitement of spring training is a little different this time around for Grady Sizemore.

The outfielder who showed the Red Sox enough last spring to get an Opening Day start despite not having played major league ball for two years, is now with the Phillies, vying for a job in left field.

A year ago, Sizemore was a topic of conversation every day. Now he sits almost anonymously in the Philadelphia clubhouse, just trying to build off a 2014 campaign which saw the 32-year-old play in a combined 112 games with the Sox and Phils.

“There were moments where you feel like it’s coming back and then there were moments where you kind of feel a little lost,” said Sizemore, who hit .216 with a .612 OPS in 52 games with the Red Sox before being released. “I think it’s more of being away from the game for so long. There were some bright spots and some down spots. Just being able to find that comfort zone where you’re not going through those long stretches where you feel you don’t have it.”

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How Grady Sizemore finally landed with the Red Sox

Rangers Indians BaseballA few weeks ago, the likelihood of Grady Sizemore jetting into Logan Airport — just ahead of Tuesday night’s snowstorm — seemed unlikely. And to think that the 31-year-old might actually leave town as a member of the Red Sox appeared to be even more far-fetched.

It wasn’t that Sizemore was unattainable. After all, he hadn’t played a major league game since Sept. 22, 2011, having undergone micro-fracture surgery in both knees, a sports hernia procedure and treatment for back issues.

It was just that the Red Sox weren’t exactly diving into the Sizemore market like some other teams.

The interest level expressed by the World Series champs at the winter meetings in early December was tepid, with the outfielder already possessing a major league contract offer by the time things broke up in Orlando. And even when the holidays rolled around, the Red Sox weren’t considered truly in the mix.

But then Dan Dyrek showed up in Arizona.

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