Tim Tebow retires from baseball after five years as a minor minor in the New York Mets.
The 2007 Heisman Trophy winner returned to baseball in 2016 for the first time since his freshman year of high school and came to Triple-A, encouraged by then-general manager and current team president Sandy Alderson.
Tebow, who works on ESPN’s SEC Network as a football analyst during the offseason, played 77 games at the highest level in minor league baseball in 2019, hitting .163 with four homers. He finished his career averaging .223 in 287 games.
“I want to thank the Mets, Alderson, the fans, and all my teammates for the opportunity to be part of such a fantastic organization,” Tebow said in a statement released Wednesday in New York. “I loved every minute of the trip, but right now I feel called in other directions.
“I never want to be partially involved in anything. I always want to be 100% involved in whatever I choose. Thank you again for everyone’s support for this fantastic baseball trip, I will always love my time.”
A player on the left, the 33-year-old was invited to major league spring training this season, securing one of New York’s 75 places after limiting the size of the league’s spring roster. Major League Baseball as a precaution against coronavirus. Position players will not be performing at the Mets Spring Resort in Port St. Louis. Lucie, Florida, until next week.
During four major league spring training sessions, Tebow hit .151 in 34 games, connecting for his first and only win last spring before closing out the fields.
“It’s been a pleasure to have Tim in our organization as he’s been a consummate professional during his four years with the Mets,” Alderson said. “By reaching the Triple-A level in 2019, it far exceeded expectations when it first entered the system in 2016 and should be very proud of its achievements.”
Tebow’s baseball career began with a big bang: he got his first professional bat-bat during an instructive league game against the St. Louis Cardinals. Louis Cardinals in the fall of 2016. Later that fall, he made headlines by consoling a fan who was having a seizure. in the front row of Tebow’s debut in the Arizona Fall League.
The former NFL quarterback was All-Star in Double-A in 2018, when he hit .273 with six homers in 84 games. The following year he fought in the Triple-A and was cut short by a laceration in his left hand.
The information from The Associated Press was used in this report.