The New York Mets have announced they have signed Tim Tebow to a minor league contract, and that he will participate in the Mets Instructional League.

After having spent three years in the NFL, including one year with the New York Jets, Tebow had gone off to various pursuits including being a commentator for SEC football games. This past year, the 29 year old Tebow dedicated himself to baseball and had a showcase on August 30th for interested MLB teams. Tebow decided to make this transition despite not having played baseball since high school.

Before the showcase, Gary Sheffield had called Tebow “a natural” and Mets hitting coach Kevin Long stated, “His swing is very simple. Not a whole lot of head or body movement. Chad and Tim did a nice job of simplifying and putting his swing together. It’s short and explosive.” (New York Daily News). Still, well before the showcase happened, Sandy Alderson joked the Mets weren’t interested saying, “Are you insinuating that we need a Hail Mary at this point? … I’d say it’s probably unlikely.” (Anthony DiComo)

At the showcase, Tebow showed raw baseball skills including the ability to hit for some power. The day after Sandy Alderson said about the Mets interest in Tebow, “We had a scout there, and we got a report back and understand there are some rough spots and deficiencies that you would expect from somebody that’s been away from the game,” We’ll see where it goes.” (Newsday).

Tebow decided to sign with the Mets over teams like the Atlanta Braves and Colorado Rockies who were also rumored to be interested in him.

By the way, it should also be pointed out that Tebow and Yoenis Cespedes share an agent.