Tim Tebow Signs With New York Mets

That’s the headline everywhere, but Tebow was actually signed to one of their minor league farm teams. Via the Washington Post:

New York Mets fans awoke on Thursday morning with their beat-up team somehow back in a race for the National League playoffs. And then there’s this bit of side news: Tim Tebow will be theirs, too.

According to a person with knowledge of the process, the former Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback will sign a minor league deal with the Mets. Terms of the deal weren’t immediately available, though baseball executives expected Tebow to sign for something in the low six figures.

The move, which was first reported by ESPN, will have no impact on the N.L. playoff race; the wannabe outfielder is considered by scouts to be several steps away from the majors. But it will be hard to keep Tebow off the back pages of New York’s tabloids even as the major league Yankees and Mets make September interesting with late playoff pushes.

From the New York Daily News:

Well, credit Sandy Alderson for keeping an open mind. The Mets GM seemed to be holding himself back from chuckling almost a month ago when the question was thrown at him at the end of a press conference.

“Are you insinuating we need a Hail Mary at this point?” Alderson quipped on Aug. 9 when first asked about the former Jets quarterback. “That’s not something we’ve given a lot of thought to. I’d say it’s probably unlikely. But that’s without any real information on his baseball background. But we’ll keep an open mind.”

Industry sources confirmed that the Mets agreed to a minor-league deal with Tebow Thursday morning. The team announced the deal around 8 a.m. and Tebow is expected to address the media at some point during the day, according to his representatives. Seriously, credit Alderson and the Mets for taking an open mind.

Tebow hasn’t played baseball since he was a junior in high school. He made national news last month when he visited a Pulse massacre survivor who’d attended that school with him. And then there was the hilarious flap about him speaking at the GOP convention.