Mets Promote Tim Tebow, Bringing His MLB Dream Closer

Tim Tebow is getting a promotion the New York Mets announced Sunday. He is currently playing for the Mets’ low-A farm team in South Carolina, the Fireflies, and will move to the Class A-Advanced St. Lucie Mets in Florida.

"Tim brought an incredible amount of experience and leadership to our clubhouse," Fireflies President John Katz said in a statement Sunday. "His contributions, both on the field and in our community, have made a tremendous impact on our team, the city of Columbia and the entire South Atlantic League. We wish Tim the best as he continues his journey to Citi Field."

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Tebow, 29, has played 63 games for the Fireflies and has a .222 batting average. The outfielder has hit three home runs, earned 23 runs, forced 23 walks and struck out 69 times in 212 at-bats.

"It's not like he's tearing up the league, but at the same time, all of the indications are positive in terms of various things we look at -- chase rates and exit velocity," Mets general manager Sandy Alderson told ESPN Sunday. "The bottom line is the average isn't there, but he's improving."

Tebow signed a minor league contract with the Mets in September. He hit a homerun on his first pitch as a Firefly.

Before switching to baseball, Tebow had an illustrious college football career. He won two national championships as the quarterback for the Florida Gators. Tebow also won the Heisman Trophy in 2007. He was a finalist for the award in 2008 and 2009. Tebow racked up a number of other accolades during his college career, several coming from the Gators’ division, the Southeastern Conference.

Tebow was selected in the first round of the NFL draft in 2010 with the 25th pick by the Denver Broncos. He signed a five-year contract worth up to $33 million, with $8.8 million guaranteed. Tebow was with the Broncos through the 2011 season, during which he beat out Kyle Orton to be the starting quarterback. Tebow also won a first-round playoff game against the Steelers that season before getting bounced in the next round by the New England Patriots.

The Broncos signed big-name free agent Peyton Manning that off-season and traded Tebow to the New York Jets. In 2013 the Jets cut Tebow. He finished his only season there with just eight passes. Tebow spent time on the rosters of the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles in the next two preseasons but never made it to a regular season roster.

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Tebow worked as a broadcaster with ESPN and the SEC Network after his football career.

In August 2016, Tebow announced that he wanted to pursue a professional baseball career and invited all 30 MLB teams to an open tryout. Tebow had not played baseball full-time since his junior year of high school.