For most of the summer and into the off-season speculation among fans has raged that the hot stove priorities for the Mets should be to go outside the organization to procure a power hitting corner outfielder and a shortstop. With a plethora of starting pitchers and a young and dynamic evolving bullpen, many Met fans believe their team is positioned to make some genuine progress should they add the offensive support the line-up needs.
With our abundance of pitching perhaps the Mets should steal a page from the Kansas City Royals and focus on building the positional side of their roster around defense and speed. After all, it costs far less paying for speed and defense than power. Everyone understands when it comes to available spending resources, the Mets have very little if any wiggle room.
If defense and speed were to legitimately become deciding factors in the decision making process, perhaps Mets management needn’t look any further than the current 40-man roster for one of the answers – at least where the outfield is concerned. Enter Matt den Dekker.
Speculation suggested den Dekker’s elevation from Las Vegas to Flushing during the final two months of the season was a de facto audition of sorts and if that was indeed the truth, from my point of view he came away this fall with a passing grade.
In evaluating Matt’s season, it’s not enough to simply examine his total offensive stat line. His time in New York came in two shifts, the first an underwhelming stay at Citi Field, and the second an almost complete turnaround from his early season profile.
In fact, it was far more than stats that leave me feeling positive about den Dekker. He was a changed baseball player during his second act in Flushing this summer and it bears a closer examination.
After the 26 year old’s early season meltdown with the big club, Met brass informed their defensively gifted outfielder that he needed to go back to Vegas and work on his batting approach. The Mets specifically wanted him to cut back on his high strikeout rate and concentrate on making more contact in the batter’s box.
Den Dekker took that message to heart. When he returned to Citi Field in early August after tearing up the Pacific Coast League, the Fort Lauderdale native sported an entirely different batting style and batting stance that was difficult to overlook. His shortened swing and brand new batting philosophy made for some interesting chatter during Mets broadcasts as he made quite an impression on Keith Hernandez, Gary Cohen and Ron Darling. “If he remains dedicated to this new approach, I see great things for this young man,” Hernandez said. “It’s a remarkable transformation,” added Cohen.
The new and improved Matt den Dekker was impressing both teammates and Mets brass with what looked like an entirely new skillset and lot’s of offensive promise to go with it. Such an immediate change is not an easy thing for a professional athlete to do, but it speaks volumes about the intangibles and the mental toughness that Matt brings to the table for the Mets.
For his entire baseball career from college through the minor leagues and now for the Mets, den Dekker has always needed time to acclimate to his baseball surroundings as he advanced to a higher level. He hit only .234 as a freshman in college, but rebounded to bat .333 with a .926 OPS in his sophomore season. And when the Mets selected him in the 5th round of the 2010 draft, he batted a college-high .352 with a .434 on-base-percentage, while smashing 13 home runs and knocking home 49 RBI’s as a senior.
Den Dekker continued to tear it up at Single-A Savannah (.346/.404/.471) upon signing with the Mets after completing his senior year of college. So impressive was his showing, that in 2011 the Mets had him start his first full season as a pro in High-A St. Lucie (.296/.362/.494) where he continued to rake. However, his performance cooled considerably after his promotion to Double-A Binghamton halfway through the season.
But, by the spring of 2012, den Dekker had figured it out in Binghamton batting .340 for the B-Mets before yet another promotion and a mid-season call-up to Triple-A Buffalo. Once again, Matt struggled during his transition and his batting average fell to .220 while at Buffalo.
Once again, Matt showed that same bounce back capability and in an injury shortened 2013 season at Triple-A Las Vegas, he batted .296/.366/.486. In 2014, he owned the PCL, batting .335 (not enough plate appearances to qualify for batting crown) with a .947 OPS.
That same pattern of needing time to acclimate himself at a higher level was on full display this year at Citi Field. MDD I paled in comparison to MDD II.
Stint 1 – .156 AVG, .224 OBP, .424 OPS, 4 BB, 13 K, 49 PA.
Stint 2 – .289 AVG, .392 OBP, .766 OPS, 17 BB, 21 K, 125 PA.
And Matt was just warming up as the season ended. He hit .245 in August with a .351 OBP, but was sizzling hot in September, batting .328 with an impressive .426 OBP.
Adding to the makeover was the unprecedented plate discipline den Dekker displayed in the batter’s box his second time around, something we haven’t really seen at any point throughout his baseball career.
Adding to his value is the possibility he might solve the Mets desperate need for a lead-off hitter. Perhaps sensing the Mets’ need for help at the top of the batting order, Las Vegas manager Wally Backman kept batting him more and more in the leadoff spot during his time in Triple-A last year. MDD didn’t disappoint batting .354 in 212 at-bats atop the 51’s lineup with a .434 on-base-percentage and .571 slugging percentage. In a very small sample size, he hit .313 (15-48) at the top of the batting order for the Mets. In the 32 games he started in August and September for the Mets, the outfielder got on base in 27 of them.
It would be hard to argue with the fact that Matt den Dekker brings an incredible defensive prowess to the team, but he also has great speed and strong base running instincts which also boost his value as a potential leadoff man. He is a dynamic baseball player who brings an aggressive, full throttle mindset to the team.
