Tebow unfazed by critics following minor-league promotion

Tim Tebow knows some people think he doesn't deserve his promotion to High-A St. Lucie - a move New York Mets general manager Sandy Alderson worked hard to justify Sunday - but those aren't his decisions to make, the former Heisman Trophy winner said.

"Well, I think, for me, that's not something that I have to answer," Tebow recently told FOX Sports. "I just go out there and try to work. It's a lot smarter, wiser people than me that make those decisions. I just try to show up and play hard every day."

Tebow, who's expected to join St. Lucie on Tuesday, struggled with the Columbia Fireflies of the Low-A South Atlantic League, hitting only .220/.311/.336 with a 28.3 percent strikeout rate in 64 games against players nearly eight years younger than him, on average. A learning curve was to be expected, though, said Tebow, who went nearly a decade without playing competitive baseball before signing a minor-league deal with the Mets last summer.

"For most of these guys, they've been doing it for years," Tebow said. "And for me, it's been a half-year, so you're still getting adjusted to it. It's not something that's home yet, but you're getting more and more comfortable."

Though Alderson pointed to things like improved exit velocity and strike-zone recognition to justify Tebow's promotion, he did concede the 29-year-old's ascent up the minor-league ladder is out of the norm.

"His on-base (percentage), isolated power, swing, exit velocity, a lot of different things have been much better in the last 15 games," Alderson said. "On the other hand, we recognize this is not the normal, usual circumstance, but we just felt that given everything involved, this was about the right time for him to move up to high A."