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Tim Tebow gets an invite to Mets' major league spring training

Liz Roscher
·Staff writer

With his college football commentating duties finished for the season, New York Mets farmhand Tim Tebow can finally get ready for the baseball season. And he better start working hard, because the Mets have issued him a very special invitation.

The Mets have invited Tebow (and eight other players) to their major league spring training camp, where he’ll get to take swings next to Jay Bruce and Yoenis Cespedes, and maybe even face Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom.

The 2018 season will be Tebow’s second full season in professional baseball. He announced that he was transitioning from football to baseball in the summer of 2016, and 28 of 30 MLB teams sent representatives to his open tryout at the end of August. Tebow signed a minor league contract with the Mets in September and attended both their instructional league and the Arizona Fall League.

At the start of 2017, Tebow was assigned to the Columbia Fireflies, the Mets’ Class-A affiliate. Over 64 games, he hit .220/.311/.336 with three homers, 24 walks, and 69 strikeouts. That was good enough for the Mets to promote him to the St. Lucie Mets, their Class-A Advanced team. In 62 games for St. Lucie, Tebow hit .231/.307/.356 with five home runs, 19 walks, and 57 strikeouts.

Tim Tebow is still playing baseball, and he’ll be spending a little time in the Mets’ major league spring training camp. (AP Photo)
Tim Tebow is still playing baseball, and he’ll be spending a little time in the Mets’ major league spring training camp. (AP Photo)

It’s not likely that Tebow is going to be at major league spring training for the duration, or even more than just a few weeks. As spring training progresses and opening day grows closer, teams cut players from major league spring training and reassign them to the minor league edition. Tebow, who is definitely not expected to make the Mets’ major league roster on opening day, would be one of them.

They probably won’t cut him too quickly, though. Tebow’s mere presence on the Fireflies and the St. Lucie Mets helped their attendance numbers in 2017, and the Mets probably want to get their slice of the “Tebow effect” pie, too.

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Liz Roscher is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on twitter! Follow @lizroscher