Why else would he risk another bout of pro sports failure, one to bookend the blinding flash and precipitous fall that characterized his NFL life, when he managed to take the Denver Broncos to an unexpected playoff berth despite subpar arm strength and spotty accuracy, eventually playing his way out of the league when those shortcomings caught up to him? The former National Football League quarterback worked out for baseball scouts and the media during a showcase on the campus of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles last month.
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Alderson: “I voiced a little skepticism about (Tebow) at the outset. but after due diligence and scouting on my part, and others, we felt it was a great opportunity for him and the Mets”.
Tebow, the first sophomore to ever win the Heisman Trophy, might rank among the best college football players, ever.
The 29-year-old hasn’t played organized baseball since his junior year at Nease High School in Ponte Vedra, Fla.
The Mets, with this Tebow signing, are “associating with excellence”.
The Mets’ Class A affiliate in Columbia, S.C. already seems psyched to bring Tebow into the fold, and the Fireflies make sense for Tebow for a variety of reasons. Needless to say, this is a critical and very fundamental step toward his stated goal of making the major leagues.
Tebow is represented by CAA Baseball’s Brodie Van Wagenen, also the agent for Mets outfielder Yoenis Cespedes. The league runs from September to October. By most eyewitness accounts, Tebow looked big, powerful, athletic, weak-armed, and entirely unprepared for live pitching. I feel comfortable in the outfield. On a baseball field? If these two parties negotiated an arrangement to allow Tebow to continue his work for the SEC Network, then that’s fine.
But you can bet that if Jimmy Garoppolo were to be injured in Week 1, and the Patriots – for whatever unforeseeable reason – called and asked Tebow to bring his long throwing motion up to MA and play QB, he would tell ESPN that he was going to be taking a break for a while.
Players who have played in both the NFL and Major League Baseball include Bo Jackson, Brian Jordan and Deion Sanders. His pursuit is clearly a long shot, but the Mets are intrigued enough to find out for themselves.
Last week, the 29-year-old Tebow worked out for almost 50 scouts from 28 Major League Baseball teams, including the Mets, in Los Angeles as he embarked on yet another chapter in his unique athletic story.
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Tebow, who couldn’t play quarterback for the New York Jets four years ago, but still found himself in the news virtually every day and on the tabloids’ back pages, now will be doing it for the Mets. Tebow had preseason workouts with the New England Patriots in 2013 and the Philadelphia Eagles in 2015.
