GM’s joke about Mets media guide reveals truth behind the Tebow ‘baseball decision’ – CBSSports.com

Tim Tebow. 

Uh oh, I’ve gone and done it. The Internet will now melt with all the hot takes on both sides of the fence. 

But seriously, this one is actually fun. 

Look, most of us are smart enough to know that the Mets signed the former Heisman Trophy winner as a publicity stunt. Sure, there was a small minority of Tebow die-hards who thought for some reason he could pick up a bat after 12 years of not playing since high school and hit .270 in the majors (seriously, someone on Twitter told me specifically that he would hit .270 in MLB in 2017), but most people in the know saw what was going on. Still, Mets general manager Sandy Alderson at the time of signing Tebow called it a “baseball move.” 

He came clean on Friday. In discussing player bios in the Mets’ media guide — which includes the scout who signed the player — Alderson offered up the following. Via Newsday:

“The guy we sent to see him in California did not exactly send back a glowing report. I knew immediately he would not want his name as the signing scout.

“Ultimately,” he added, “the guy that we put down was the director of merchandising.”

So the “scout” who signed Tebow was the director of merchandising. More: 

“Look, we signed him because he is a good guy, partly because of his celebrity, partly because this is an entertainment business. My attitude is ‘why not?'”  

No argument here. Tebow definitely appears to be a great guy and this is certainly the entertainment business. The Mets can do this if they want. At least now the Tebow Truthers know the score. 

For those interested, Tebow is hitting .231/.326/.356 with four home runs and 72 strikeouts in 225 at-bats between Class A and Class A-Advanced this season. He’s only been in High-A for four games, but he’s 5 for 11 (.455) there and made one notably excellent defensive play, which you can see at the top of this post.