Tim Tebow signs minor-league deal with New York Mets

Tim Tebow’s dream of making the majors — in Major League Baseball — took another step forward on Thursday. The New York Mets announced they have signed Tebow to a minor-league deal early Thursday morning.

Terms of the contract will likely not be disclosed, because no MLB team would ever disclose terms of a contract for an average 29-year-old returning to baseball after more than a decade away from it. But MLB teams typically do not sign players whose signings they can tout with glamour headshots, much less announce those signings to the fanfare of thousands of retweets and favorites.

Tebow has not played organized baseball since high school, but made headlines earlier this summer when he announced he would pursue a professional baseball career. That pursuit has continued to make headlines, and dozens of MLB teams — and seemingly more reporters — attended a showcase he held in late August, the rare event written up on both MLB.com and NFL.com.

After that showcase, a number of teams showed interest in Tebow, with the Atlanta Braves publicly reported as one of his lead suitors. Instead, Tebow has chosen to begin his baseball career with their NL East rivals, the defending NL champions.

Tebow is regarded as a long shot to make the MLB ranks, and is starting at one of the lowest levels possible. He will likely play in the Florida Instructional League this September and October. The league uses Grapefruit League facilities, but it is unclear which MLB teams will even field teams in this year’s league; also, the Florida State League playoffs, featuring minor-league teams that use many of those same Grapefruit League facilities, are ongoing, so Instructional League play likely won’t begin for at least another week.

When the league’s 2016 format is released, you can be sure that the bright lights of media attention will be on Tebow once more.