Jon Santucci: Appreciate Tim Tebow's baseball career for what it is

Watching Tim Tebow play baseball is like going to a second-tier summer movie.

It’s not a blockbuster sure-fire hit. It’s in that next level down where it has a big-name star who looks miscast in the role from the first few seconds of the preview. Think Will Smith in "After Earth."

You buy the ticket not expecting a whole lot, but hoping for the best.

Every 30 minutes or so, you might see something cool or hear a line that has you laughing out loud, but it offers little more than that.

And that’s OK.

Because for a few hours, you get to (mostly) isolate yourself from the outside world and be entertained watching people play a game.

It just so happens that the St. Lucie Mets will have one of the University of Florida’s greatest football players wearing their uniform on Tuesday night.

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It will be the former Heisman Trophy winner’s first appearance with the New York Mets’ high-A affiliate since his promotion Sunday.

The 29-year-old Tebow hit .222 with three home runs and 69 strikeouts in 64 games. Those are hardly the numbers of a top-tier prospect.

But Tebow isn’t an elite prospect.

Let’s call this situation what it is.

It’s a brilliant economic move for an organization that hasn’t made a lot of good decisions since trading for Yoenis Cespedes.

Tebow has been a hit at the box office and concession stands everywhere he’s gone (think Michael Jordan during his brief baseball stint). The Mets certainly have had a great return on the investment when they gave Tebow a $100,000 signing bonus and a minor league contract nine and half months ago.

But that deal probably was 99 percent cash grab and 1 percent baseball. And those numbers might be too favorable on the baseball side.

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Tebow is a guy who turns 30 in August (it’s the 14th if you wanted to get him a card) and didn’t play baseball for about 12 years.

This isn’t Tebow bashing. It’s just facts.

The truth is Tebow’s a great human being. Whether you agree with his religious beliefs or not, he’s not a guy who’s embarrassing himself or his employer by his actions off the field. And while his baseball skills have been dissected and ridiculed, no one has ever questioned his work ethic.

Seriously, so what if he struggled in low-A ball?

If someone handed you a $100,000 check to play professional baseball, would you turn it down? He’s living the dream of so many kids – and adults.

He’s playing a kids game for a living. Maybe it will only last a year and the Mets will cut bait. Maybe they hang on to him for a little bit longer and see if he ever can be more than a sideshow.

Even if he’s not, it’s a great year for Mets fans to have a distraction from the big club.

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This year has been rough from the start: Captain David Wright hasn’t played in more than a year because of neck and shoulder injuries; Matt Harvey hasn’t seemed like the Dark Knight since Game 5 of the 2015 World Series and has made headlines for all the wrong reasons; Asdrubal Cabrera said over the weekend he wants out; and the team's injuries keep mounting.

But Tebow?

He’s been a feature attraction. His flying bat earlier this month got more replays than any of the Mets' home runs this season.

Just enjoy having Tebow in town while he’s here. And don’t be surprised if he finds himself getting called up to Queens in September.

The Mets are going to milk this thing for all it’s worth, and Tebow’s along for the ride.  

Just appreciate it for what it is.

By the way, if you didn’t know Will Smith was in the movie "After Earth," that’s OK. In a decade, you probably won’t remember Tebow as a baseball player, either.

Jon Santucci is a multi-media journalist for TCPalm.com/Treasure Coast Newspapers. Follow him on twitter @JonSantucci.