DON’T WRITE OFF TEBOW
Mets’ Class AA player says he’s ‘a work in progress’
TRENTON, N.J. – When the rain let up Sunday as if for Tim Tebow’s own benefit, he walked to the plate, and the press box at Arm & Hammer Park came alive.
“The sun puts on sunscreen when Tim Tebow walks out,” cracked one wise guy.
“I’m surprised there’s not a rainbow over Delaware River,” quipped another.
“Google couldn’t find something, so they called Tebow,” deadpanned one more.
But whether it’s at Arm & Hammer Park, home of the New York Yankees’ Class AA affiliate, or anywhere else Te-
“He clicked for that week and a half where he was really on fire.” Binghamton manager Luis Rojas
bow is playing baseball, the question that no one, including Google, seems to have an answer to is this: Will he ever make it the major leagues?
Before the peanut gallery in the press box was finished joking about Tebow — a left fielder for the New York Mets’ Class AA affiliate, the Binghamton (N.Y.) Rumble Ponies — he had grounded out to third. But despite an army of skeptics and critics, there’s no need to give up on Tebow’s baseball experiment.
He is batting a modest .241 in 166 atbats in Class AA and has struck out 73 times, second most in the Eastern League. But Tebow’s second season in the minors isn’t even half over, and he has shown signs of improvement.
His on-base percentage is a respectable .332, and since May 1 he has a .726 OPS, including hitting three of his four home runs during a 11-game stretch last month.
“He clicked for that week and a half where he was really on fire,” Binghamton manager Luis Rojas told USA TODAY. “Now he’s battling, he’s doing good. But that week, week and a half,
two weeks, he was on fire.”
Rojas cites that surge as if explaining why Tebow still has a chance to make it as a major leaguer. Yet it does appear Tebow, who will be 31 in August, is approaching a crossroads with baseball. Speculation persists that if the Mets fall out of playoff contention, they might call up Tebow to help boost attendance. Then again, he might have to earn his way to the big leagues. And that, as has become clearer, might take longer than Tebow is willing to wait.
Last week, when essentially asked if he needs to set a timetable for getting to the bigs, Tebow replied, “I think it’s a really good question. I think that it’s something I’ll have to figure out, pray about it and see where my heart’s at with everything. It’s hard to necessarily put a timetable on a dream or ambitions or heart.”
Even so, the likes of Mark Shreve, cofounder and editor of the baseball scouting website 2080 Baseball, said he sees no chance of Tebow developing into a major leaguer. Shreve’s staff at
2080 Baseball includes Dave DeFreitas, who scouted for Cleveland and the Yankees, and Ted Lekas, who scouted for Toronto and Baltimore.
Of Tebow, Shreve said, “While the numbers may show a player adapting to Double-A pitching to some degree, the incredibly high strikeout rate, lack of pitch recognition and overall approach at the plate do not project his hit tool beyond his present level.”
Tebow last played organized baseball in his junior year of high school. Instead he focused on football, winning the
2007 Heisman Trophy and two national titles at Florida before playing three mostly disappointing NFL seasons.
Then in August 2016, at 29, he proclaimed he was done with football and wanted to play baseball in hopes of reaching the majors. Signed by the Mets after an open workout, he hit his first pitch as a professional for a home run.
He also homered in his first at-bat in Class A and homered again in his first at-bat in Class AA.
“That’s kind of surreal,” he said with a smile last week.
But in between the Roy Hobbs-like moments, there have been too many strikeouts, too many groundouts and too few homers.
“I would say that I’m a work in progress,” Tebow said, “but I feel like I’m improving every day.” He is not alone.
‘Why he’s not moving up’
Rojas is trying to help Tebow get to the same place Rojas wants to go — the big leagues. As a manager, Rojas has major league pedigree. He is the son of Felipe Alou, who managed Montreal and San Francisco and in 1994 was National League manager of the year.
Rojas, 36, is in his eighth season as a minor league manager. He said he first met Tebow at spring training in 2017. When asked last week about Tebow’s progress since then, Rojas replied, “Right now it’s night and day.”
Added Rojas, “We’re just trying to keep developing everything in all the areas in order for him to achieve the final goal.”
In February, during spring training, Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said he thought Tebow eventually would play in the majors. No sane baseball expert who has watched Tebow play has proclaimed Tebow has a major league swing. But Rojas said Tebow has enough bat speed and raw power to make it.
The Mets’ focus, Rojas said, is on improving Tebow’s point of contact — when bat meets ball.
“We want him to go out front a little more,” Rojas said. “Start early, catch the ball a little more, and that’s going to put the ball in the air, also to his pull side a little more. So we’re working toward making that consistent, and he’s aware of it and we work on video.”
But since that surge in May, Tebow has hit .210, without a home run. Tebow’s lower body could make all the difference, according to Rojas.
“All the timing mechanism comes primarily from your lower half,” he said. “That’s the first thing, that either you have a leg kick or you have a toe tap. ... That’s the starting point.”
It also could be the ending point. Unless Tebow improves his point of contact, Rojas suggested, it will be hard for him to hit enough homers and offset his high strikeout rate.
“That’s one of the reasons why he’s not moving up,” Rojas said. “That’s one of the reasons that may keep him from advancing from level to level. It’s our responsibility as coaches, and himself too, to develop that part. Because he’s got raw power.”
An American League scout who watched the weekend series here agreed that Tebow should not be written off.
“I think the bottom line is repetitions,” said the scout, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he said he is not authorized to speak publicly. “Game-speed repetitions. Now how many he can get in before it clicks is the $64,000 question.”
A future in coaching?
When the gates opened Friday at Arm & Hammer Park, fans scampered in hopes of getting Tebow’s autograph during warm-ups.
“I try not to get too high or low with how the fans respond,” Tebow said earlier. “You can have some cheering for you, and all of a sudden you miss two or three in an autograph line and then they’re booing you pretty fast. So I try not to be too affected by it.”
Though Tebow and the other Mets prospects were playing on Yankees turf, Tebow was cheered when he stepped to the plate. And the Thunder stocked their merchandise store with 100 Tebow T-shirts, at $22 apiece.
“Is that something the Yankees are allowed to do,” Tebow said before laughing. “I’m just kidding. I guess that’s cool, yeah. Are they Mets jerseys?”
Told it was Rumble Ponies gear, Tebow replied, “I guess the hatred’s not there as much.”
On Saturday, midway through the second game of the series, the T-shirts had sold out.
With Tebow jerseys from a variety of teams he’d played on easy to spot in the stands, the three games drew an announced attendance of 21,548, a 36% increase from the teams’ three-game series in 2017.
“It’s been a hot ticket wherever he goes,” Thunder GM Jeff Hurley said.
But where is Tebow headed, if not the major leagues? Coaching, perhaps?
“Um, I don’t know, maybe,” Tebow said. “I like teaching, and I like sharing, and I like being able to give what I’ve been able to go through and what I’ve learned to people that might go through it.
“But at the same time, there’s a lot of things that I want to do with my life. And I feel like in a lot of different areas I’m just getting started with that.”
He remains active with his foundation, has co-written four books and in 2017 signed a multiyear contract with ESPN as a college football analyst. So it’s worth noting what happened at the conclusion of the series here in which Tebow went 2-for-10 with a double, two runs scored and three strikeouts. He boarded the team bus.
The Rumble Ponies headed home to Binghamton.
Tim Tebow’s ride continued with no clear end in sight.