Tim Tebow retires from baseball after five years as a minor at the New York Mets.
The 2007 Heisman Trophy winner returned to baseball in 2016 for the first time since his high school years and reached Triple-A, encouraged by then-general manager and current team president Sandy Alderson.
Tebow, who works for ESPN’s SEC Network as a football analyst during the off-season, played 77 games at baseball’s highest minor league level in 2019 and batted 0.163 with four home games. He finished his career averaging .223 over 287 games.
“I want to thank the Mets, Alderson, the fans and all my teammates for the chance to be part of such an amazing organization,” Tebow said in a statement on Wednesday. ‘I loved every minute of the journey, but at this moment I feel called in other directions.
“I never want to experience anything in part. I always want to be 100% part of whatever I choose. Thanks again for everyone’s support of this wonderful journey in baseball, I will always cherish my time.”
The 33-year-old is a campaigner who has hit left, and was invited to the league’s spring practice this season. He took one of 75 spots in New York after Major League Baseball was limited to the size of the spring, as a coronavirus precaution. Position players will only report to the Mets’ spring complex in Port St. Paul next week. Lucie, Florida.
Over four major league training sessions, Tebow batted .151 in 34 games and beat his first and only homer last year before closing out camps.
“It was a pleasure to have Tim in our organization because he was a perfect career during his four years at the Mets,” Alderson said. “By reaching the Triple-A level in 2019, he far exceeded expectations when he entered the system for the first time in 2016, and he should be very proud of his achievements.”
Tebow’s baseball career started with a bang – he noticed in his first professional bat during an instructional league game against the St. in the front row of Tebow’s Arizona Fall League debut.
The former NFL quarterback was an All-Star at Double-A in 2018, when he batted .273 with six homers in 84 games. He struggled at Triple-A the following year and his season was cut short by a tear on his left hand.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.