Yankees take Arkansas lefty Hunter Dietz with No. 35 pick in MLB draft after getting docked 10 spots

PHILADELPHIA — The Yankees are accustomed to not selecting in the top half (not since 1993) or even the middle (no pick in the teens since 2017) of the first round of the MLB draft.But landing early round talent is only growing in difficulty, with the club now getting used to selecting in slots kicked so far back that they are only technically first-rounders.For a second consecutive year, the Yankees’ top pick was docked 10 slots because of their previous season’s salary.

Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.So after sitting around for about 2 1/2 hours as other clubs made their first selections — and the White Sox, Giants, Rays, Cardinals, Royals and Diamondbacks picked twice — the Yankees used No.

35 to select lefty Hunter Dietz from the University of Arkansas.The selection came minutes after the Mets drafted Dietz’s staff-mate, Carson Wiggins, with the Razorbacks.Dietz is 6-foot-6 — another big body for an organization that values them — and pitched to a 3.57 ERA with 131 strikeouts in 85 ⅔ innings this season, during which he was a redshirt sophomore.The Yankees will hope that Dietz grows into a late find after their original No.

25 pick was punted back for exceeding the second threshold of the competitive balance tax.The Yankees’ pick was penalized last year, too, when they selected high school infielder Dax Kilby at No.39.

Kilby shined in his taste of Low-A Tampa last year but has barely played this season because of injury.Year after year, the Yankees are tasked with finding hidden gems because their success and recently their spending work against them in the draft.They haven’t picked before No.20 since grabbing Clarke Schmidt at No.

16 in 2017.Since then, VP of domestic amateur scouting Damon Oppenheimer & Co.have generally succeeded in turning late first-round picks into legitimate prospects but not into standout major lea...