New York Mets: Tim Tebow Not Invited to Spring Training
By Graeme Carey
Former NFL Quarterback Tim Tebow is not invited to the Major League camp for the New York Mets during spring training. What does this mean for the future of his baseball career?
The New York Mets released their list of spring training invitees on Wednesday. Noticeably absent from it was Tim Tebow.
This just a month after manager Terry Collins expressed his support for the former two-time BCS national champion.
Before you go labelling the Tim Tebow baseball experiment a failure, keep in mind that players from the Arizona Fall League, which is where he played in 2016, often don’t get invited to spring training.
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Tebow made headlines in August 2016 when he announced that he would be trying his hand at professional baseball. At the age of 29, he is more than four years older than the average MLB rookie, and 10 years older than the average Rookie league player.
Tebow turned down offers from independent league teams and a Venezuelan Professional Baseball League team in the hopes of attaining a minor league contract. On August 30, he held a tryout at the USC baseball stadium for all 30 MLB clubs (representatives from 28 showed up), and he was eventually offered a contract by the Mets.
The Mets assigned him to their instructional league affiliate, the Scottsdale Scorpions, where he hit a home run on the very first pitch of his first at bat. In 70 plate appearances in the Arizona Fall League, he hit .194 with 20 strikeouts.
Before pursuing a career in baseball, Tebow played three seasons in the NFL. In 2011, he passed for 1,729 yards with 12 TDs and 6 INTs to go along with 660 rushing yards for the Denver Broncos.
In 2012 he was traded to the Jets, where he was used sparingly, completing just six passes for 39 yards. He was released in 2013 and hasn’t played a regular season game since.
This is not the end of Tebow’s baseball career just yet. He will be reporting to the Mets minor league camp in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
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Still, he has a long way to go before he fully realizes his dream of playing in the majors. In August 2016, USA Today estimated that his chances of making a big league roster were 250-to-1.