The trait that made Matt den Dekker at least a long shot to break camp with the Mets this spring — an ability to track down just about anything in center field and, what’s more, a willingness to try — ultimately cost him about three months of his development.
Den Dekker broke his right wrist diving for a fly ball in a Grapefruit League game in late March. At the time, his dazzling defense had landed him in the Mets’ fifth outfielder conversation, but he was hitting just 9-for-44 (.205) with one walk and 16 strikeouts.
Those whiffs have been the bugaboo for the 25-year-old University of Florida product, who was a fifth-round pick in 2010. Den Dekker grades well on his outfield range and accurate throwing arm and shows decent pop from the left side of the plate with 17 minor league homers each of the past two seasons. Mets coach Tom Goodwin made the enviable comparison to Red Sox center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury, but with those power numbers came avert-your-eyes strikeout totals. Den Dekker fanned 156 times at High-A St. Lucie and Double-A Binghamton in 2011, 154 between Double-A and Triple-A last year, and observers pegged the problem to a lack of off-speed pitch awareness.
Then came a prolonged recovery from the fracture to his front wrist, delaying den Dekker’s second taste of Triple-A — in his second try at Double-A, for instance, he went from a .738 OPS to .960 — as another plus-defense prospect Juan Lagares leapfrogged to the majors. A 14-game stay at St. Lucie, starting June 17, served as den Dekker’s rehab before he arrived at Las Vegas, where he was 10-for-50 with 18 strikeouts against eight walks and three homers in his past six games going into the weekend.
It’s easy to envision den Dekker roaming the vast plains of Citi Field after a September promotion. But it’s hard to project him as more than a spare outfielder until a quarter of his plate appearances don’t end in strike three.
* Right fielder Tyler Austin, one of the Yankees’ premier prospects, was placed on the disabled list at Double-A Trenton because of a right wrist bone bruise. Austin, who told reporters the injury made it painful to swing, was slugging a career-worst .367 with a career-best 13.2 percent walk rate.
* While the Yankees’ top draft pick, third baseman Eric Jagielo, was making a smooth-swinging transition to the pros after three years of college ball at Notre Dame — batting .370 through 12 games at Staten Island — top Mets selection Dominic Smith, taken No. 11 overall out of high school in the Los Angeles area, was easing into the rookie-level Gulf Coast League. The 18-year-old first baseman had a .680 OPS in his first 20 games.
* A fun one Monday in Tampa: The High-A Yankees beat Bradenton in the 19th inning, 3-2, on Ben Gamel’s walkoff single. Utility infielder Dan Fiorito, a Yonkers native and undrafted signee out of Division III Manhattanville, earned the win with two scoreless frames.