Tim Tebow News: Quarterback-Turned-Outfielder Ends First Season
Former National Football League (NFL) quarterback-turned-outfielder Tim Tebow wrapped up his first minor league season on Sunday as a St. Lucie Mets Advanced Class A player. He went 0 for 3 in his final game.
Tebow went 0 for 3, including a walk and a strikeout. He finished with an average of .226 in 126 total games in his first year as a professional baseball player.
"In looking back, it's a lot of ups and downs, a lot of learning moments," Tebow said. "Almost every day there's something I've never been through before that you're learning, whether it's something on base or something in the outfield or something at the plate. Or it's getting to go over something again because of the way someone's pitching you."
Since he started the season playing for the Columbia Fireflies in Class A before transferring to St. Lucie, he achieved three homeruns and an RBI (runs batted in) of 23. He also had a .220/.331/.336 batting line. In his 62 games with St. Lucie he got five homeruns, 29 RBIs, and a batting line of .231/.307/.356.
The former Heisman quarterback had a total of eight home runs, 52 RBI, 43 walks, and 126 strikeouts. When Tebow was promoted, he managed to reduce his strikeout rate.
As of now, the Mets have yet to confirm if he will join the Arizona fall lineup although it is possible. According to Tebow, he would like to take the time off from playing games to train.
Tebow intends to return to the Mets next season as a stronger player. According to him, applying what he has learned from training merely a few hours before an actual game is quite hard. He says that he needs a couple of days to build up muscle memory.
Given that the last time he has played baseball competitively was in high school, Tebow has shown a lot of progress in a short period. A little extra time for training should further improve his skills.
More updates on Tim Tebow should follow.