In the mid-2000's, Grady Sizemore was one of the elite players in baseball.  At the age of 23, he had a season where he played a very good CF, hit 28 HR, stole 22 bases, posted a .903 OPS and led the AL with 53 doubles.  He seemed ticketed for sure superstardom.  He followed that season with two more very good seasons, though he never exceeded his age 23 year's results.  Then things all went wrong. 

Since that time, Sizemore has been frequently injured with a variety of ailments.  His performance has been severely diminished.  The past two years he's combined to play in 104 games while posting a combined OPS of around .660.  He's clearly lost speed as a result of the leg injuries and has only stolen four bases during that time.  And yesterday the Indians cut him loose by not picking up his $8M option.

Should the Cubs sign him and let him try to reclamate his career in Wrigley Field?

First off, no team signing him should expect him to be the same player he was in 2006-08.  For one thing, he'll likely never have the same speed he had back then.  Age, in addition to injuries, have surely slowed him down during that time.  He also may be better suited to a corner OF position at this point than CF.

However, there's also a lot of upside to the gamble.  Sizemore is still only 29 years old, so there is still time for him.  At this point in his career, he was likely going to have to start transitioning away from a speed game to more of a power/patience game, anyway.  He's a player that walked a combined 199 times in his last two healthy seasons, so he can definitely fit the new mold the Cubs are trying to put on the field.  When he was healthy in April of 2011, he showed that he can still hit for power.  If he moved to a corner OF position, he may be able to focus on building some additional strength and bulk to augment that aspect of his game.

The Cubs can offer two things that Grady will likely be looking for when choosing his destination (other than cash, of course).  First, they can offer him a full-time role.  They could make that happen by holding Brett Jackson down in AAA to continue work on making additional contact at the plate or by trading Soriano / Byrd.  Also, they can offer him an attractive hitting environment in Wrigley Field combined with a well-respected hitting coach in Rudy Jaramillo so that he can maximize his results in order to get his next contract.

So should the Cubs persue him?  Fundamentally, it comes down to two things:  1) whether or not the Cubs feel he can get past the injuries and 2) how high the bidding war will go.

But I know I'd love to see the Cubs get involved in the bidding.  Share your thoughts in the comments below.