The Tigers remain on the lookout for a starter, which could lead to a Chris Tillman signing, Jon Heyman of FanRag tweets. Tillman threw for the Tigers on Saturday, Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun adds (via Twitter). Both Heyman and Encina note that Tillman is deciding among three teams and likely to sign within the next day or two, and they agree that a return to the Orioles is a legitimate possibility.
More from Baltimore and a few notes on the two New York franchises:
- The Orioles will more likely sign a left-handed-hitting outfielder than trade for one, GM Jim Duquette told Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com and other reporters Sunday (Twitter links). A move is unlikely to come today, however.
- The Mets’ Jason Vargas signing will likely conclude their heavy lifting for the offseason, general manager Sandy Alderson suggested Sunday (via Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, on Twitter). “With Jason’s signing, we’re pretty much where we want to be,” said Alderson, who has been rather active in free agency since last season ended. Vargas was the sixth big league signing of the offseason for the Mets, who previously added or re-upped Jay Bruce, Todd Frazier, Anthony Swarzak, Adrian Gonzalez and Jose Reyes.
- The Yankees would buy themselves an extra year of control by having infield prospect Gleyber Torres spend at least 16 days in the minors this year, but that’s not going to factor into whether he earns a roster spot, according to GM Brian Cashman (via David Lennon of Newsday). “It’s not part of my evaluation process,” Cashman told Lennon. “We’re trying to win. If we feel that somebody could benefit from more time in the minors, we’ll make that decision at the end of camp. But I’ll take all the information from what I see and factor that into the evaluation. Every win for us is valuable.” Torres, one of the game’s top prospects, may well emerge as the Opening Day second baseman for the Yankees, who lack an obvious solution there. That would be especially impressive given that Torres is still just 21 and has only totaled 235 plate appearances above the High-A level. He raked over that sample size last year, with a .287/.383/.430 line between Double-A and Triple-A, before undergoing season-ending Tommy John surgery on his left (non-throwing) elbow in June. Torres has fully recovered from the procedure.
- The Mets actually have “modest expectations” that minor league outfielder Tim Tebow will eventually earn a major league call-up, Alderson revealed (Twitter link via James Wagner of the New York Times). “He’s great for baseball. He was phenomenal for minor league baseball last year,” Alderson said of the former Denver Broncos starting quarterback and ex-University of Florida football star. Prior to last season, which the 30-year-old divided between Single-A and High-A and hit .226/.309/.347 in 486 PAs, Tebow hadn’t played organized baseball since high school.
Poor Mets fans.
Are the Angels in talks for Chris Tillman??
Another starter could do with getting out of the AL East. he’s a decent guy and could probably do better in the NL really tho.
Gleyber’s slugging in 2017 was .480, not .430
Yeah I was going to say in what universe is a .813 OPS considered raking but then I double checked his stats and saw it was actually .863. Which still isn’t raking; it is fantastic when you factor in his age, but the numbers have to be huge to describe it that way. The AFL 2016 is where he actually raked, 1.158 OPS.
Pitchers park for a middle infielder? I have no issue with the term.
Unleash
Tim Tebow
Let him go
It’s time
Turn him loose
Let him play
youtube.com/watch?v=mUUPNzF3-2Q
All he does is win all he does is win games
He should bring back the tebowing whenever he hits a home run
xabial I hope to God your joking.
For not playing for all those years to getting 486 plate appearances in his first year, much respect Tebow
“He’s great for baseball. He was phenomenal for minor league baseball last year,”
Translation: We sold a lot of tickets to people who just wanted to watch the washed-up-ESPN-darling-QB sideshow!
More to the point, jerseys, jerseys, jerseys. You think Tebow got promoted for hitting .210 & fielding like Big Papi trying to play SS? They wanted to sell Mets Spring unis, Firefly unis, AND St. Lucie jerseys. This coming year, they’ll sell Rumble Ponies jerseys, 51s jerseys, and if the Mets are out of the race again, Mets jerseys. Then he gets released. The end.
Maybe so, but good for those teams he played on. Those minor league affiliates, on several nights out of the year, have to have outrageous and quite frankly ridiculous game promotions to see more tickets and get fans in the stands…If it helps that city’s team, and the surrounding businesses by drawing in more fans, then I cannot see what all the fuss is about…
Tebow draws haters everywhere, for some rational and irrational reasons, but if he’s helping these teams make money, then what is the harm??
He certainly isn’t going to hold back any legitimate player, nor will he take away a roster spot from a deserving player…There are minor league veteran, organization fillers ALL up and down every franchises affiliates…
People need to get over it…
My criticism has nothing to do with tebow. If they did this with colin kaepernick or johnny manziel I’d be critical of it too. He’s just on the field because of his celebrity status. Why not Brad Pitt at 1st and Justin Bieber in LF? Maybe Barack Obama would like to try DHing for a season, thatd sell tickets
C’mon, man! Bieber has CONSTANTLY shown that he can’t hit an outside fastball!
And the Oscar goes to……Brian Cashman, for “Pretending the Yankees Won’t Declare Torres Needs ‘a Little More (16 days) Seasoning'”!
Well if he comes out and says it he can probably face a grievance (and lose), so I don’t know why they even bother asking that question.
Any other news on Minor League OFs with marginal talent who may or may not ever make the majors? Or just Tebow, as if he’s relevant in 2018.
I call bs on Cashmans comments. Not that I would expect him to say otherwise but it would be foolish to start Torres anywhere but AAA.
Cashman is absolutely lying through his teeth – but he has no other choice.
Any inkling whatsoever, that he might be held back for service reasons, and the MLBPA will be all over it like a rash.
Cashman can’t be serious about Torres. If he doesn’t get an extra year of control, he’s not doing his job.
For sure……..plus Yanks don’t need Torres that early as they handily win the division. Boston’s rotation is a firm “sell” if it were a stock. Sale is great, but hits a wall toward last month of regular season and don’t be stunned if this is the year his arc heads the wrong direction. That would be tough w/Price bloated contract and Porcello nothing special.
Remembering Bryant for the Cubs… let’s speculate now about what will be said when Torres is called up after the additional 20 days or so worth of “seasoning” in AAA…
Tebow should be playing indie ball if he wants to play baseball. He’s not Michael Jordan, he doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt.
Tebow was” phenomenal for minor league baseball last year” hitting 220? By that standard there are close to 2,000 minor leaguers who are phenomenal for the minors. Yeesh. Talk about overvaluing a “prospect”.
should have said “phenomenal for attendance” Sellouts at practically every game his team had, home or road. Teams with maybe 1,000 on a good night turned into mad houses.
This will explain the ridiculousness of the Tebow experiment,ESPN is actually having a segment about him on sportscenter. ESPN hardly covers baseball much but this sideshow gets airtime. Thank god they covered the MOONSHOT MEN(Stanton and Judge)first!!!
I’m guessing that takes the Orioles out of the running for Corey Dickerson. He wasn’t the best fit but I thought there was a pretty decent chance,
Yeah. They have some good talent fomenting in the minors—but not enough to part with.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Tebow is called up later this summer in September.
It will be a few months earlier Fisher40. As soon as the rest of the Mets roster starts to crumble for age; Reyes, a-Gon and normal injuries; Cespedes and a few pitchers Mutt and Jeff will be pulling the GM control stick to bolster attendance in the face of a tanking team.
Waiting for the day Tebow finally comes out…and I don’t mean of the dugout.
Railroading a baseball discussion to talk about male homosexuality, is a bit suss. Is there something you want to tell us?
Even if Tebow posts a .850 OPS in a full season of AA, at the age of 30, he wouldn’t warrant a September call up. It would only be for the ratings and attendance pump.
And he’s not going to do that itself. You don’t got from a .650 OPS in high A to that. It’s gonna take massive improvements quickly for him to be big league caliber
Tebow is a publicity stunt. We all know that.
Tillman pitching in Comerica Park could very well cure what ails him. It would be a good first challenge for new pitching coach, Bosio.
Mets should not be done. They need to sign LuCroy. They also need another lefty in the bullpen.
The Orioles need to get Dickerson.
Alderson writing a new chapter in the PT Barnum playbook. The Tebow Factor.
This has already been WAY MORE Tebow MLB discussion than there ever should have been…can we please just end this facade?
Rooting for Tebow! That article was a great read. People hate him bc they ain’t him.. He is the type of person who will be successful in whatever he chooses to do.
no, they hate him for making a mockery of the sport they love, and they hate the Mets for indulging his delusions. and hate the writers who insist on playing along with the farce. and especially hate all the fanboys who think his carefully crafted ‘aw shucks’ image somehow makes him immune from the criticism every other player has to face about their performance…
outside of college football, Tebow hasn’t been that successful at anything… his actual performance in baseball to date has been dismal, and his first career in football ended with nobody wanting to put him on the roster… and yet somehow people are wasting the time of serious baseball fans to talk about a dismal minor leaguer…
i don’t want to be Tim Tebow…. i’d rather be somebody who’s good at his job….
nailed it
.650 OPS in A ball at age 30. Yeah, successful by whose standards?
“He is the type of person who will be successful in whatever he chooses to do.” which is why he is in the NFL
Ha, exactly.
I, like many other people, like Tebow as a person, but The Mets are just using him to sell tickets. If they promote him to The Majors next year, they’ll do it just to have a few sellout games, over he can be a productive member of the team.
I totally agree with everything you say. Tim Tebow is a great athlete and an even greater person ! However… he really should have swallowed his pride and converted to TE or FB in the NFL.
I don’t “hate” him, but I find him incredibly phony. I don’t buy into his “good guy” rhetoric. There are plenty of guys in the world who are upstanding, dignified guys that don’t have to use that as a marketing tool. With that said, I don’t blame him at all for giving baseball a go. I do, however, think it’s a disgrace that the Mets would make their young guys have to deal with this circus show just to sell tickets because they know he will NEVER make it to MLB. Whether he’s blocking anyone or not, he’s still a distraction.
Tebow just OPS’s .656 in the low minors as a 30 year old. The Mets comments are ludacris, there’s nothing to warrant optimism of a major league call up. What a gimmick. I feel bad for Mets fans, ownership and management just seem horrible, looking in