Warthen fan Thor thrilled with Eiland

PORT ST. LUCIE — Noah Syndergaard lobbied for the incumbent pitching coach to return to the Mets last offseason, but quickly has come to respect the new one.

As Dan Warthen was nearing the conclusion of his tenure with the Mets in October, it was Syndergaard who most notably came to his defense, saying the veteran pitching coach deserved to stay. Warthen ultimately departed as part of a coaching-staff shakeup and was replaced by Dave Eiland.

“It’s been very seamless,” Syn- dergaard said Thursday. “We are going to miss Dan, but working with Dave is amazing, just a guy who has a different perspective on things. I think part of the reason I really wanted to help out Dan at the end of the year was he really was getting blamed for something he shouldn’t get blamed for.”

Syndergaard missed most of last season with a torn right lat after saying during spring training that his goal was to throw harder than he had in the previous season, when his fastball averaged 98 mph.

Syndergaard says he won’t focus on velocity this year.

“I think last year it wasn’t necessarily throw harder, it was just continue to push myself and want to become better,” he said. “If you don’t want to do that, then I get bored, I guess. Not necessarily [throw] harder, but make the game easier.”

Matt den Dekker was signed to a minor league contract and invited to camp. The 30-year-old, who previously played for the Mets — he was traded to the Nationals as part of the deal that landed Jerry Blevins in 2015 — is expected to begin the season in center field for Triple-A Las Vegas and provide organizational depth.

Jay Bruce was among the position players reporting to camp early. Bruce, who last month signed a three-year deal worth $39 million for a return to the Mets, said he is happy to have a job in this historically slow free-agent market.

“It’s crazy, I have never seen anything like it,” Bruce said. “I hope that no one is left without a chair when the music stops.”