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Video: Why Tim Tebow has no chance to make the big leagues

Mike Oz

Tim Tebow will take his first step toward an actual career in baseball Tuesday. He’ll workout in front of scouts from upward of 20 MLB teams, hoping that one will see the same talent that his agent, his trainer and Gary Sheffield have raved about, then sign him to a contract.

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Tebow is obviously a well-built and powerful athlete. He’s said to have a good swing. And he’s popular enough that some team will sign him just for the novelty — heck, one club in the Venezuelan league already made him an offer, according to Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan.

The true test for Tebow is whether he can find a sustainable career in baseball beyond gimmicks and novelty. As much as I love an underdog story, here’s a hard truth for all you Tebow believers, it’s just not going to happen.

I tackle The Tebow Experiment in the latest installment of my Open Mike video series. To make things perfectly clear, my skepticism with Tebow has nothing to do with his religious beliefs or his public image and everything to do with how hard it is to make it in baseball.

Tim Tebow has spent a good part of the past year training to be a baseball player. (AP)
Tim Tebow has spent a good part of the past year training to be a baseball player. (AP)

If Tebow wants to be a minor-league baseball player, making below minimum wage, riding the bus to play in dusty stadiums and soaking in the least glamorous life in pro sports, well, he’ll probably get the chance. For no other reason than the merchandise sales that come with putting his name on a jersey. But if he expects to play in the big leagues anytime soon, he should probably go have a conversation with Michael Jordan.

Every year baseball teams draft upward of 40 players, in addition to all their international signings. Now think about this? How many of them actually make it to the big leagues? At the most, a big-league carries 40 players, but most of the season it’s 25. The numbers alone are overwhelmingly against Tebow.

Add to this that his competition for a big-league job are guys who have been playing baseball every day for the last 10 years while he’s been playing football and sitting in a broadcast booth, and it’s fairly obvious why Tebow’s chances amount to a sliver.

If he wants to chase that sliver and prove his doubters wrong, more power to him. But Tebow — and his fans — should know the odds he’s facing.

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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!