Tim Tebow learns where he'll start his baseball season
With the college football season wrapped up, Tim Tebow’s attention has no doubt shifted from working as an analyst for ESPN to his other job: professional baseball player. With one month until spring training begins, there’s already some good news for Tebow.
The Mets announced Friday that the former Heisman Trophy winner is among nine minor league players being invited to their major league spring training camp.
We’ve invited nine players to major league #SpringTraining including: Peter Alonso, P.J. Conlon, Kevin Kaczmarski, Patrick Mazeika, Drew Smith, Corey Taylor, Tim Tebow, David Thompson and Adonis Uceta. #Mets
— New York Mets (@Mets) January 19, 2018
Tebow, who is about to start his second season as a professional baseball player, also played with the Mets during spring training last season. At the time it was his first experience playing pro baseball, besides a brief stint in the Arizona Fall League.
Understandably, he struggled somewhat before being assigned to the minor leagues for the regular season.
Tebow began the season with the low Class A Columbia Fireflies, where he started out well before falling into a slump in May.
The former NFL quarterback batted .220 with three home runs and 23 RBIs in 64 games before being assigned to the High-A St. Lucie Mets.
The change of scenery seemed to benefit Tebow, who got off to a hot start in St. Lucie despite playing against stiffer competition.
After cooling off a bit, most of his time in St. Lucie was an up-and-down affair. Most importantly for a rookie like Tebow, he showed improvement.
In his final six games of the season he managed to bat .375, a clear sign of progress.
Now Tebow will take what he learned last year and attempt to show that he belongs as a professional baseball player.
“I think it will be easier from that standpoint, mentally, knowing what to expect,” he told reporters last August. “As far as baseball goes, I think it will be a huge year for me.”
His second big league spring training will be an opportunity to make an impression on Mets management. It is highly unlikely Tebow will start the season in New York, but if he plays well in spring training and has a dynamite season in the minors, a late-season call-up isn’t out of the realm of possibility.
It’s important to remember that before last year, Tebow hadn’t played competitive baseball in well over a decade.
In theory that means he should have plenty of room for improvement over the next several years.
Either way, for fans of Tim Tebow, it should be a very interesting spring training.
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