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The Yankees are going to need to find someone to play third base, whether it's to play full-time when Alex Rodriguez gets suspended or part-time when Alex Rodriguez doesn't get suspended. For the last few years the Yankees have gone with injury-prone players like Eric Chavez and Kevin Youkilis to fill in, but so far it's been a mixed bag. While Scott Sizemore has had his share of injuries, he's also much younger.
At the age of 28, Sizemore is still looking to play a full season of major league baseball. He never had less than a 120 wRC+ at any level in the minors, but he was slow to progress through the Tigers' system before making his debut in 2010. The Tigers traded him to the Athletics after a disappointing 17-game streak, but then he thrived in Oakland. He hit .249/.345/.433 (118 wRC+), with 11 home runs, and a good 12.1% walk rate, all for a 1.5 WAR. Sizemore looked poised to become a regular in the 2012 lineup, but then injury derailed his career.
He tore his ACL in spring training and missed the entire 2012 season. The next year, he made the team and played in a total of two games before he tore the same ligament again, missing his second season in a row. Now he's heading into his age-29 season with only 598 major league at-bats.
There's very little sample size to analytically make a decision on his fielding abilities. He's played 820 innings at third, though most of that came in 2011, and he has 477.2 innings at second base and has provided negative value at both positions. He's probably not a very good fielder, but he really just needs to be league-average or just better than what Mark Reynolds can provide.
He can likely be signed to a minor league deal at this point in his career and can compete for a job in spring training. Worst case scenario, if A-Rod is suspended, the Yankees sign Sizemore and Reynolds to compete and then stash Sizemore at Triple-A. If he makes the team, he can be used as a right-handed bat off the bench against lefties.
