04/19/24
September 08, 2016
Tim Tebow Signs Minor League Contract with Mets: The New York Mets have announced that they're signing Tim Tebow to a minor league contract. The 29-year-old Heisman Trophy winner will start at instructional league in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Scouts were mixed after his public tryout. The good: batting practice power, above average speed. Bad: live hitting, weak arm.
I was hoping he got another opportunity in football but I will be thrilled to watch him fail at baseball. I'm already enjoying one scout's comment, "An actor trying to portray a baseball player" way more than I should.
posted by tron7 at 12:33 PM on September 08, 2016
Will Tebow kneel at the plate after he makes solid contact and drives one to the wall on a hop? I can see it now. Tebow is thrown out at first because he took so long to begin running. To be serious, his chances of getting past AA, if he even can get that far, are very slim.
posted by Howard_T at 01:44 PM on September 08, 2016
If he has any chance at all to get out of AA he made the right move.
I want a George Plimpton life for this guy, trying pro sports in sequence until he makes it.
posted by rcade at 02:48 PM on September 08, 2016
He's been a Jet, now a Met, next a Net.
posted by beaverboard at 06:23 PM on September 08, 2016
He could be a Jet again, too, if he wants to hit all four sports...
posted by MeatSaber at 06:36 PM on September 08, 2016
I'm not against Tebow trying to play and I'm not against a team signing him, but please spare us the "baseball decision" and "real prospect" stuff. The fact that the Mets would give a 29-year-old who hasn't played since 11th grade a $100,000 signing bonus while charging their own players to attend "voluntary" offseason workouts (and while MLB claims it's too poor to pay minor leaguers and therefore should be exempt from not just antitrust laws but minimum-wage laws as well) is absurd. We know it's a business, we know Tebow will sell tickets and shirts in Columbia next year, just get on with it.
As for Tebow himself, I'm sure he wants to play and will work hard and it's nice that he found someone to give him a hundred grand. But he's not actually "all-in" for baseball if he skips out of instructs to broadcast SEC football. No other minor leaguer, nearly all of whom are vastly more qualified, would get this kind of money or treatment -- and they are well aware of it. Maybe at least Tebow will buy his teammates dinner every once in a while.
posted by Mookieproof at 11:46 PM on September 08, 2016
Brilliant, Mookieproof!
posted by bo_fan at 08:24 AM on September 09, 2016
Not sure if wanting a Plimpton life for Tebow is meant to include all of GP's dalliances, robust sexual adventures, and deep connection to the spirits world.
posted by beaverboard at 08:39 AM on September 09, 2016
I didn't know Plimpton had robust sexual adventures. Tebow might not be the man for that job.
Mets GM Sandy Alderson said of the Tebow signing, "This was not something that was driven by marketing considerations or anything of the sort."
This comment makes me wonder whether any current GM in Major League Baseball would admit that marketing played a role in a player acquisition. It seems like the spirit of Bill Veeck has been completely exorcised from the game.
It would be refreshing if Alderson said, "We saw enough at his tryout to take a flyer on him and boost attendance at our minor league clubs."
posted by rcade at 12:11 PM on September 09, 2016
Current minor leaguers are unenthused.
It's also maybe worth pointing out that a serious(ly rusty) ballplayer might have spent the summer improving his game in an independent league -- I'm sure the Sonoma Stompers would have given him a look -- just as a serious football player might have chosen the CFL or arena football as a route back to the NFL. Fame has its own priorities (and rewards).
posted by Mookieproof at 06:03 PM on September 09, 2016
Tebow going to instructs Hahahaha have fun facing all the guys that throw 100mph and have absolutely zero idea where it's going
Andrew Cain (@acain123) September 8, 2016
posted by NoMich at 09:04 PM on September 09, 2016
I'm surprised there's open griping by minor leaguers about Tebow's contract. They can't be thinking there's an expectation of fairness in the money and hype that go to other players.
When I suggested the CFL for Tebow here in the past, I was told his passing deficiencies made him even more ill suited to that league than the NFL.
posted by rcade at 10:07 PM on September 09, 2016
I don't think it's so much a case as his fit as a Canadian Club QB as his unwillingness to adjust at all to make his NFL dreams a reality. He wasn't interested in Canada, he didn't want to try being a tight end . . . but now he's willing to give baseball a shot for the sake of what? If he were Deion Sanders, the complete lack of humility might not be so distasteful. And if I were a minor league journeyman struggling to make it I'd be pretty pissed about a guy getting a free shot and not even committing to it. Tebow is apparently not letting baseball interfere with his existing college football commenting gigs.
posted by yerfatma at 03:30 PM on September 12, 2016
I am hoping Tebow does something with this opportunity, as I did the last several opportunities he got in football.
Maybe I'm rooting too hard for a native son, or perhaps I just don't like him as a broadcaster.