After Tim Tebow tried out in front of a bunch of MLB scouts in late August, the consensus seemed to be that, while the whole Tebow-playing-baseball thing made for a great story, the former NFL quarterback would not actually get a chance to play professional baseball. One scout went as far as to say that Tebow "looked like an actor trying to portray a baseball player" during his tryout. Ouch.
Sooooooo, that’s the end of that idea for Tebow, right? Er, wrong. As it turns out, not everyone hated what they saw at Tebow’s workout. The Braves reportedly thought long and hard about signing Tebow to a deal after seeing him on the field. So did the Rockies. And according to ESPN reporter Adam Schefter, the Mets thought enough of Tebow to offer him a minor league contract on Thursday.
Mets general manager Sandy Alderson reportedly made the decision to sign Tebow after meeting with the team’s co-owner Jeff Wilpon. The Mets confirmed the deal on Twitter:
This comes as a bit of a surprise when you consider that Alderson seemed to shoot down the idea of signing Tebow in early August, shortly after reports about Tebow attempting to play pro baseball first emerged. "That’s not something we’ve given a lot of thought to," Alderson said at the time. "I’d say it’s probably unlikely."
Mets fans sound stunned. Most didn’t see this coming:
The truth is that there’s a very small chance that Tebow will actually make it to the big leagues. But hey, there was also a very small chance that he would get signed by an MLB team after a tryout. So who knows? Either way, we all know who the big winner here is: The New York tabloids. No one is happier to see Tebow’s name associated with a New York team again more than them.
