Mets' Spring Training Invite Keeps Tim Tebow's Flickering MLB Dream Alive
Maybe you wrote it off back in 2016 when the former Heisman Trophy winner and NFL quarterback signed a minor league deal with the New York Mets. You might have scoffed disdainfully as he rose through New York's MiLB ranks, achieving occasional success and frequent setbacks.
Yet, at the age of 32, Tebow earned a third straight spring training invitation from the Mets, per MLB.com's Anthony DiComo.
.jpg?w=256)
It's a non-roster invite, to be clear. His odds of making the 25-man roster out of camp are long, to put it kindly. But he'll be there playing ball.
On the off chance you're unfamiliar with his journey, Tebow transitioned from his role as a former professional football player and college football commentator to an aspiring baseball player (a sport he hadn't played since high school) a little more than three years ago.
He inked with the Mets after a highly publicized showcase and slashed an abysmal .194/.296/.242 over 19 games in the Arizona Fall League.
Prospect analyst Keith Law offered the following scathing observation for ESPN in October 2016:
"Tebow the baseball player is not a baseball player; he's a washed-up quarterback who has size and nothing else. His swing is long, and he wields the bat like someone who hasn't played the sport in more than a decade, which he hasn't.
"The Mets' decision to sign Tebow for $100,000 as, essentially, an undrafted 29-year-old free agent, where any other player would be lucky to get $1,000 and a plane ticket, was a craven, mercenary move befitting an independent-league team desperate for the added revenue from ticket sales, not something a major league team with postseason aspirations should be doing."
Ouch with a capital "O."
The next year, Tebow rose to High-A St. Lucie, where he hit .231 with a .664 OPS. In 2018, he hit .273 with a .734 OPS at Double-A Binghampton and made the league's All-Star team.
By 2019, he had been promoted to Triple-A, though a pinkie injury cut his season short, and he finished with a .163 average in 77 games.
What does all of that mean? Nothing, maybe...or perhaps everything.
Tebow is much older and far less experienced than most minor leaguers with a prayer of sipping a cup of coffee at the highest level. But the narrative that the Mets are keeping him around solely as a publicity stunt doesn't really hold water.
New York finished just third in the National League East last season. However, the Queens contingent employs two-time reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom atop a deep rotation and also features reigning NL Rookie of the Year Pete Alonso, who mashed 53 home runs in 2019.
The Mets haven't made enough additions to become a Senior Circuit powerhouse, but they're not a tanking squad looking for attention at the expense of results. The fact they gave Tebow a chance to compete in the Grapefruit League means they believe he's got potential. Flickering potential, maybe, but potential nonetheless.
I interviewed Tebow in 2016, shortly after he agreed to terms with the Mets. He was predictably humble, often evasive, consistently polite and kind of boring.
But he gave one answer that stuck with me when I asked whether he was pursuing this improbable baseball dream because he believed it was doable or merely as a publicity stunt:
"This isn't a publicity stunt, and it's definitely not for money. This is a pay cut for me to do this. I understand how hard this is and that a lot of people think it's impossible. But [I am] passionate about the game of baseball. I love it, and I want to pursue it. Are you going to let the fear of failure or not making it get in the way of that? For me, failure is not going after it and letting the chips fall where they may. I want to be someone who goes all out and pursues what I love."
Don't bet your mortgage or college tuition—or even your piggy-bank coinage—on Tebow becoming a major league baseball player.
But, somehow, this is a patently ridiculous notion that refuses to die.
The dream isn't over.
All statistics courtesy of Baseball Reference.
.jpg?w=480)
