LET’S PLAY TE-BALL!
Yankees will attend Tebow showcase in L.A. on Tuesday
Tim Tebow will show off his baseball skills in front of at least 20 MLB teams in L.A. on Tuesday, but it remains unclear if Mets scouts will attend.
Will the Mets or Yankees scout Tim Tebow’s showcase for Major League Baseball teams next week?
The Yankees are planning to attend Tebow’s workout, according to a source, in which the former Heisman Trophy winner hopes to prove he’s worth a pro contract. The Mets, meanwhile, are either a no or are undecided. One source said the Mets were not going to be there but another said they had not decided yet.
Tebow, the former Florida quarterback who played 35 games in the NFL, is now a 29-year-old left-handed hitting outfielder. He will work out in front of interested teams next Tuesday in Los Angeles, a source said.
The Red Sox, Brewers, Cardinals, Twins, Rays, Angels and Phillies are among the teams expected to send scouts, according to media reports. The Dodgers are likely to be there, too, which is not a surprise – they had Tebow in for a tryout before the season. ESPN’s Adam Schefter, who covers football, reported that 20 MLB teams were confirmed to attend.
Typically at a showcase like this, players run a 60-yard dash, field, throw, take batting practice and then take at-bats against live pitching while talent evaluators watch. Tebow’s workout will be closed to the public.
Tebow has been working out with former Yankee Chad Moeller at Moeller’s baseball facilities in Arizona. He has not played baseball regularly since he hit .494 as a junior at Nease High School in Ponte Vedra, Fla.
Tebow won two national championships as a quarterback at the University of Florida and was a first-round pick of the Denver Broncos. He played for Denver for two years and also saw action in 12 games with the Jets in 2012. Since then, he’s played preseason for the Patriots in 2013 and the Eagles in 2015.
Tebow’s baseball dream has been met with plenty of skepticism. Some in the game believe that an 11-year layoff from baseball is impossible to overcome.
But Moeller, a former catcher who played 11 years in the majors and was a Yankee in 2008 and 2010, is convinced the 6-2, 265-pound Tebow has ability. “He’s obviously a physical player,” Moeller told the Daily News earlier this month. “He’s going to be a power hitter. The thing I think gives him the best chance to succeed is that he can drive the ball the other way very well and hits it very hard. He has good discipline at the plate.” Moeller sent video of Tebow’s swing to Kevin Long, the Mets’ hitting coach for evaluation. Here’s what Long told Feinsand about it: “His swing is very simple. Not a whole lot of head or body movement. Chad and Tim did a nice job of simplifying and putting his swing together. It’s short and explosive.” Still, Tebow is facing a challenge. Russell Wilson, the Super Bowlwinning quarterback of the Seahawks who played two years of minor-league ball in the Rockies’ system, knows all about it. Asked recently by the MMQB if he had any advice for Tebow, Wilson replied, “Hope he can hit a curveball.” Wilson, who was a fourthround pick out of college in baseball, batted .229 over two seasons of Class A ball. “Baseball’s pretty hard,” Wilson told MMQB.