As it now stands the 2020 MLB season is scheduled to start
on July 23rd The Mets have left Tim Tebow off of the 60-man roster. The
commissioner enacted a plan for a sixty-game schedule. That is a start. A short
while ago the 2020 year for all professional sports looked bleak when there was
talk that all of the sports leagues were going to cancel the rest of their
seasons.
The NBA was thinking
about canceling the rest of their season. If they made that decision, then the
other sports teams would have done the same thing. The concern was a scenario
in which players and those connected to the sport would have been placed at risk.
There are many hurdles baseball would have to jump over just
to start the season. Once they do start the season, there is also the chance
that a problem can occur if a player tested positive on his team during the
season while it was going on. There is a possibility that some of the fans
might not come back once the season finally gets underway which will add to the
financial crisis of the teams. We’ll see what happens. Only time will tell.
Tebow’s goal since
day one was to make the team roster, which will now be a big challenge for him
to accomplish. Unless MLB puts in a rule change due to the nature of the
season, the Mets will have to decide this offseason whether to add the
33-year-old Tebow to the 40-man roster or leave him unprotected during the Rule
5 draft. He isn’t going to walk away. There is no quit in him. He is still determined
to give it his best shot.
Some might ponder, since the team is in win now mode, they
should leave him unprotected in order to fill a roster spot with a veteran that
has playoff experience. At the same time, would another team claim him and
place him on their roster? If nobody claims him, he could return to the Mets,
but would Tebow want to go back to minor league life?
Perhaps he could go to a
non-contending American League team and be a DH. He started off good when he
made the All- Star team in Double A ball, but injuries took its toll on him
recently. The likelihood of another team being interested in Tebow remains to
be seen.
6 comments:
I am thrilled with leaving the puppies back in the cage this season.
Broadie's signing of 5 past stars can bring options to pinch hit but little else. No late inning defense stars here.
Tom said that one 60-man roster Met has now tested positive for COVID.
His name will have to be made public when they put him on the COVID DL.
There will be more.
Seems that they still could put Tebow on the 60 man, deserving or not, unless I am missing something - article on Mets.com said this:
"Absent from the Mets’ player pool is outfielder Tim Tebow, who did not make the initial roster of 45 players that the Mets submitted Sunday to MLB.
Van Wagenen indicated that Tebow remains a “consideration” to take up one of the team’s remaining 10 spots after five more were added Monday.
It would be near impossible for the Mets’ baseball operations department to justify using a spot on Tebow, considering he was cut from camp early in Spring Training and has hit just .233 with a .638 OPS over the first three seasons of his professional career. But Tebow, if nothing else, is marketable. If the Mets don’t feel they need all 60 slots for baseball reasons, they could perhaps carry Tebow with plans to activate him if they fall out of contention. If the Mets don’t place Tebow in their 60-man player pool, they won’t be able to change their mind unless they keep an open spot for him."
But, to your point, another team might snatch him for publicity, although his main appeal is fannies in seats, which is not a 2020 happening. Anyway, could he be worse than Chris Davis? Last 2 seasons, .175/.255/.310, 331 Ks in 874 PAs.
If Tebow's only value is to draw fans to the stands but fans are prohibited, then he's at very best a marginal choice. Then again, the team is not exactly ripe with outfielders so there could be room as the final ten are counted.
The 5 past stars can help with their experience,
It is surprising that Chris Davis's statistics haven't been good recently.
If Cespedes health doesn't hold up maybe Tebow will be called.
I agree, the Mets don't have that much outfield depth.
Tony, when I think of the awful OF days of Colin Cowgill, Eric Campbell, and other wimpy hitters of fairly recent times, to have Nimmo, Conforto, Cespedes, Davis, Smith, McNeil, and Marisnick available to play the outfield for a 60 game season is, bat wise, impressive to me. Fielding, we'll see.
Tom, good point, these guys can hit, hopefully, the fielding will come around.
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