The jokes about Tim Tebow will come, and they will mostly be understandable. But I gotta say up front: the guy tried. He put in the work and the effort and the commitment for four years, and on that level, I respect it.
The success never came, however, and rather than come to Spring Training with the Mets as a non-roster invitee/celebrity, Tebow is hanging ’em up.
Tim Tebow is retiring from professional baseball. https://t.co/9C09gJKK7K
— New York Mets (@Mets) February 18, 2021
“I want to thank the Mets, Mr. Alderson, the fans and all my teammates for the chance to be a part of such a great organization,” said Tebow. “I loved every minute of the journey, but at this time I feel called in other directions. I never want to be partially in on anything. I always want to be 100 percent in on whatever I choose. Thank you again for everyone’s support of this awesome journey in baseball, I’ll always cherish my time as a Met.”
Tebow, 33, did improve a bit in his minor league time, posting an above-average offensive performance at AA in 2018. But that performance was built on an egregiously unsustainable BABIP in a small sample, came with little power and far too many strikeouts. The writing was probably on the wall then, but Tebow got the bump to AAA in 2019 to see what could happen, and there he may have been the worst player in professional baseball (.163/.240/.255, 26 wRC+). Tebow would’ve probably tried again in 2020 if not for the pandemic, but again, it was clear as of 2019 that this just wasn’t going to happen.
There was good. There was bad.
Never forget Tim Tebow hitting a home run in his first ever at bat in a Mets uniform.
A legend retires! pic.twitter.com/xnDRWeg9pD
— Bryan Schwartz (@WHSV_BSchwartz) February 18, 2021
Tim Tebow has retired from professional baseball. His legacy is tremendous: pic.twitter.com/RZiz9qzNYq
— BroBible (@BroBible) February 18, 2021
So that’s that. He’s all finished with baseball.
Now he’ll assuredly return to football, where the Chicago Bears will give him a tryout at quarterback, right?