Even an unplanned year off in his early-30s hasn't deterred Tim Tebow from attempting to reach the major leagues.
There wasn't a 2020 minor league season because of COVID-19, and it's currently unclear whether there will be minor league baseball in 2021. Like the rest of the world, MILB continues to wait on a vaccine. However, it does sound as though Tebow is training to play baseball at some point in the next calendar year, perhaps with hopes that it could be at the major league level for the New York Mets:
Asked multiple times about playing for the Mets in 2021, Tebow left the door open for his eventual retirement, saying “it’s not something that I want to do forever … because there’s a lot of other things that are in my heart that I want to pursue."
“But it is something that is still in my heart today,” he continued, adding that he is training with the intent of reporting to Spring Training in February. [via Anthony DiComo of MLB.com]
Tebow has twice appeared at major league spring training as a non-roster invitee, so it stands to reason that if there isn't a COVID-19-induced crunch on the amount of players that can be at big league camp, he'll be there. His path to actually making the team, or reaching the level at any point, is much less clear.
Sure, Tebow was a Double-A All-Star that slashed .273/.336/.399 two seasons ago, but he hit a wall at the Triple-A level in 2019. In 77 games for the Syracuse Mets, Tebow hit just .163 and posted an unsightly .495 OPS. The worst possible thing for his development was the lost year of 2020. Now, he's 33 years old, and the last action he had playing the sport doesn't leave you with a good taste in your mouth.
Certainly, it's admirable that Tebow, a former Heisman Trophy winner that fizzled out in the NFL, was able to pick baseball back up and flash any semblance of talent. But if we're going simply off of merit, Tebow won't make the Mets out of spring training, and the odds are stacked against him ever doing so.
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