Yankees feel ready to see their future now

NEW YORK — Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez was brought up from the Minor Leagues on Wednesday and inserted into the starting lineup as the designated hitter against the Mets at Yankee Stadium.

The move by manager Joe Girardi to play the right-handed Sanchez rather than Alex Rodriguez as the DH against Mets left-hander Steven Matz signaled a sharp turn for the Bronx Bombers toward the future.

And that’s a good thing.

With two months left in the season, the Yankees are still trying to win in the short term, Girardi said, but they definitely are in a rare development mode, eyeing what kids might be a good fit on the Major League club for the near future. And more youngsters are coming.

“I think that’s a possibility. It definitely is,” Girardi said.

This era of uncommon Yankees success is finally over. It happened in dribs and drabs. Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte and Derek Jeter all retired from 2011-14. A-Rod and Mark Teixeira are also near the end of their Yankee tenures with CC Sabathia not too far behind. It’s the normal aging process.

The vaunted Yankees haven’t won the World Series since 2009 and haven’t won in the postseason since Game 5 of the 2012 American League Division Series against the Orioles.

That’s a blink of an eye in baseball history, but a serious drought for a Yankees franchise that has won a record 40 pennants and a 27 World Series titles. None of the other 29 teams is even close.

Thus, with the Yanks mired around .500 for most of the season, it was time to move on. The door swung open before Monday’s 4 p.m. ET non-waiver Trade Deadline and Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller, Ivan Nova and Carlos Beltran went to other teams.

The young nucleus is solid, with general manager Brian Cashman having engineered terrific trades to shore up the middle infield by obtaining excellent young players in shortstop Didi Gregorius from the D-backs and second baseman Starlin Castro from the Cubs. …

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