Indians hire Grady Sizemore as front-office advisor

Grady Sizemore has a new job with the Cleveland Indians ahead of spring training, but it won't be on the field.

The Indians have hired the former All-Star center fielder as an advisor to the club's department of player development, with the possibility of expanding to other opportunities within the team's baseball operations, according to MLB.com's Jordan Bastian.

"I kind of just want to absorb as much as I can," Sizemore said Tuesday. "I don't know anything other than playing, so I'm going to learn a whole lot at once here, but it's fun."

From 2005-08, Sizemore, then playing for the Indians, was one of the best outfielders in the game. During the aforementioned four seasons, he slashed .281/.372/.496 and averaged 27 home runs while missing just nine out of a possible 648 games.

His MLB-best 53 doubles in 2006 marked the start of three consecutive All-Star seasons before elbow and hernia surgeries in 2009 ended his campaign early. He never matched his peak levels again, however, and Sizemore went on to play short stints with the Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, and Tampa Bay Rays after eight seasons in Cleveland.

Though he never officially announced his retirement, Sizemore didn't play in 2016, and Indians general manager Mike Chernoff sees coaching potential in the 10-year veteran.

He's asking a lot of questions right now," Chernoff told Bastian. "So I think we want to just expose him to as much as we can. He'll be another body on the field to help with coaching with some of the numbers that we have, but also hopefully get to view spring training through a different lens, as a coach."