Tebow gets nod from former Yankees star: Call him up, 'he knows how to win'
Tim Tebow has been on a tear lately for the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, hitting .375 over his last 10 games to raise his season average in Double-A to .261.
Now, he has a big-league advocate suggesting the New York Mets should call him up.
Johnny Damon, who built his legend first as a member of the 2004 “Curse of the Bambino”-breaking Red Sox and later with the Mets’ crosstown rival Yankees, spoke to TMZ Thursday at C.C. Sabathia’s charity softball game at Yankee Stadium.
Asked if the Mets should call up Tebow, the former MLB All-Star responded in the affirmative.
“If they want to sell tickets and have someone who knows how to compete to win on any given basis — whether it’s on TV, whether it’s on the baseball field or the football field — he knows how to win,” Damon said.
And this isn’t just a Red Sox and Yankees guy putting a Trojan Horse idea into the heads of Mets management, either.
Indeed, Damon grew up a Mets fan and wants to see the team do well.
Since starting the season on fire and sitting at 11-1 on April 13, the Mets have gone 21-45 since. If they had the same winning percentage in their first 12 games as in their last 66, they’d be heading into the halfway mark of the year on pace to go 51-111 for the whole season.
And it’s not like players who might not look major league ready coming out of Double-A tearing it up in the majors is without precedent.
After all, the Washington Nationals just called up a 19-year-old prospect out of that level of baseball earlier this season.
That guy, Juan Soto, is sitting on an OPS of 1.000 and, in the ultimate display of respect and healthy fear, already has been intentionally walked twice; guys are pitching around him.
Now granted, Tebow is not Juan Soto. Soto was and is considered one of the hottest prospects in baseball, a guy who, had he been given more minor-league seasoning, was all but assured of not just making the Nationals roster but tearing up the league in 2019 or 2020; he just had his timeline accelerated by the needs of the big club.
Tebow, meanwhile, hit .194 in the Arizona Fall League in 2016, .226 in Single-A, and before June 16, when his hot streak started, .234 in Double-A.
His .733 OPS won’t scare anyone in the bigs, and he still strikes out far too often (88 whiffs in 236 plate appearances).
But, as Damon pointed out, he’s a great clubhouse guy, someone who’s going to lead the prayers and handle the media and bring a winning attitude. Tebow is, on some level, a mascot in player form, a spiritual center who brings “intangibles” to the team.
Just don’t count on him to deliver a clutch hit against a big league closer.
Then again, many didn’t think he had any chance of success in the NFL, and he has a playoff win to his name.
Besides, the Mets can’t get any worse short of hauling the 1962 squad via time machine to 2018, so why not lose in a way that’s entertaining?
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