Mets Manager Wants Tim Tebow to Pursue Pro Baseball Despite Scouts' Bad Reviews
Despite negative scouting reports from those who've watched his progression in the Arizona Fall League, New York Mets manager Terry Collins wants Tim Tebow to continue his professional baseball pursuits in spring training.
The Mets signed the 29-year-old former NFL star to play in the AFL on the Mets' minor league team, the Scottsdale Scorpions. After a decade of not playing baseball, Tebow proved to be rusty by taking 13 at-bats to get his first hit.
At the end of 19 games in the AFL, Tebow registered 12 hits — three doubles — in 62 at-bats. While a number of scouts blasted his efforts, Collins said he's going to make sure Tebow returns to work with his organization.
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"I certainly hope we'll see Tim Tebow in some of our games," Collins said Tuesday at baseball's annual winter meetings held in National Harbor, Maryland. "If he's not in our camp, I'll get him over."
The Mets manager went on to explain why he believes Tebow would be an asset to the organization.
"He's not into himself. He's into being a teammate," Collins said in an interview with USA Today. "A tremendous teammate. He's won wherever he's been."
However, some haven't seen the same potential in Tebow's baseball career. ESPN writer and former professional baseball scout Keith Law had some harsh words about the former Heisman Trophy-winning college football champion's transition into baseball.
"Tebow the baseball player is not a baseball player; he's a washed-up quarterback who has size and nothing else. His swing is long, and he wields the bat like someone who hasn't played the sport in more than a decade, which he hasn't," Law wrote in an assessment of Tebow's skills on ESPN.
"In short, there's absolutely no baseball justification for Tebow to be here. Chasing celebrities is no way to run a player-development department, an organization or a league."
According to the New York Post, other scouts have called Tebow's stint in the AFL "ugly." However, Tebow has been vocal about his pursuit of baseball being less about what people think and more about the pursuit of his life long dreams.
"I can look back 20, 30 years from now and be able to look at this time and say, 'You know what? I gave everything I had to football. I gave everything I had to baseball,'" Tebow said on ESPN's "First Take" in October. "'I was able to live out some dreams.' In my opinion, that's pretty awesome."
