Mets promote Tim Tebow to Double-A despite poor spring

Tim Tebow is getting a promotion, and he’ll now be a Rumble Pony.

Despite going 1 for 18 with 11 strikeouts in the New York Mets big league spring training camp, Tebow is being promoted to Double-A Binghamton. The Mets announced they had assigned the 30-year-old outfielder to the Eastern League to start the season.

Tebow split last season between Class-A Columbia and Class-A St. Lucie, where he hit a combined .226 with eight home runs and 52 RBIs in 126 games.

He has yet to find offensive success since signing with the Mets in September 2016. He hit .194 in the Arizona Fall League that year before being invited to last year’s spring training camp. The former Heisman Trophy winner and NFL quarterback went 4 for 27 (.148) with no extra-base hits, one walk and eight strikeouts in nine games last spring.

Tebow is not on the Mets’ 40-man roster, but it’s possible the club is eyeing a late-season call up when rosters expand in September. For now, he’ll begin the year with the Rumble Ponies, who open their season at home against the Portland Sea Dogs on April 5.