Yankees Hunter Dietz knows he still has a lot of potential to unlock after being first-round pick

Entering his redshirt sophomore season at Arkansas, Hunter Dietz had thrown just 1 ²/₃ innings in his college career because of a stress fracture in his left elbow.Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.

But across 16 starts this spring, the left-hander gave the Yankees plenty of reasons to be excited about drafting him with their first-round pick (No.35 overall) last weekend and betting on his upside as they try to inject more talent into their system.“There’s a lot of gears that I can hit in my game going forward,” Dietz said Thursday on a video conference call after signing for a reported below-slot value of $2,497,500.

“There’s a lot of potential that I need to unlock.I just feel like this staff is perfect for me, once I start my buildup, just to get ready for next year and the coming outings that I’m going to have.

I feel like it’s just perfect for me as a player.”Unbeknownst to Dietz, the Yankees have actually been following him since he was in high school at Calvary Christian — not far from their player development complex in Tampa — but then this spring saw him become “what we thought he would be out of high school,” vice president of domestic amateur scouting Damon Oppenheimer said this week.The 6-foot-6, 235-pound Dietz pitched to a 3.57 ERA for the Razorbacks while striking out 131 in 85 ²/₃ innings.“I feel like it just shows who I am as a pitcher, finally getting healthy after the one injury at the end of my freshman year and struggling mechanically my sophomore year,” Dietz said.“Piecing it all together and having a great year, I feel like this year was just kind of the floor for me.

I’m just going to keep getting better and better, especially with the Yankees staff by my side.”Dietz said he has gotten comparisons to current Yankees lefty Carlos Rodón, who he recently got some advice from after meeting him in...