Ken Davidoff

Ken Davidoff

MLB

Unreal string of injuries turns Yankees inside out

It took The Post a while, but it finally hit us why the Yankees went so heavy on outfielders and so light on infielders during the offseason.

It turns out that using your outfielders to play the infield is the new market inefficiency.

Yes, as the Yankees wrapped up their 3-2 victory over the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, prevailing in the first Rivalry series of 2014, they had Carlos Beltran — who had built his Hall of Fame resume playing nowhere besides the three outfield positions and designated hitter — patrolling first base.

That first-ever appearance highlighted a wacky Yankees day, with myriad events underlining one stark reality:

The Yankees’ infield began this season as a mess, and it’s only getting messier.

“I would anticipate we’re probably going to make a couple of moves,” Joe Girardi said following the game.

Derek Jeter and Brian Roberts began the game injured — tight right quadriceps and lower back soreness, respectively — while Sunday’s starting first baseman, Francisco Cervelli, departed in the fourth inning with a right hamstring injury that appears certain to land him on the disabled list. Yangervis Solarte caused a scare in the sixth when he injured his groin from running into Boston first baseman Mike Napoli, but he stayed in the game — as did catcher Brian McCann, who nicked his right index finger when David Phelps hit A.J. Pierzynski with a pitch in the eighth.

Whew! It was a whirlwind of activity, and Girardi, while wanting to keep Jeter out of the game to rest his condition, said, “If McCann would’ve [gone] down, Derek was coming in.”

So expect Austin Romine to rejoin the Yankees as the backup catcher, and the club would have to tinker with its 40-man roster to promote either of their two experienced infielders, Russ Canzler or Corban Joseph, from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Stephen Drew of course still lurks in free agency, but to date, the Yankees have privately maintained that a) the payroll spigot has been turned off by Hal Steinbrenner, and b) Drew’s own injury history concerns them.

It’s chaos in The Bronx. Remember, Cervelli got involved in the infield mix only because Mark Teixeira went on the disabled list last week with a right hamstring strain. Teixeira hopes to return to active duty Sunday. That would be more meaningful if there were any sense of what the 34-year-old can provide to the Yankees this year in return for his $22.5 million salary.

Girardi described Roberts’ situation as “day to day,” although Roberts spent his last few years in Baltimore as more of a year-to-year guy. Jeter? Tuesday will be the tell. Forecasting his status requires you to pit his career-long resume of durability against his more recent past of brittleness.

No one ever accused this Yankees team of being brilliantly constructed. The clear strategy was to bank on the strengths to cover for the weaknesses, and the good news for the Yankees is that their strengths have emerged as hoped. Their starting rotation has largely delivered, and Ivan Nova contributed a very good outing Sunday night to allay concerns over his first two starts — one shaky, one terrible.

The outfield, too, has lived up to its considerable hype and payroll. Beltran delivered the game-winning, two-run homer in the third inning Sunday, and added a single and double. Jacoby Ellsbury has shown off his considerable talent while staying physically intact. And Brett Gardner has illustrated why the Yankees were smart to extend him. Even the forgotten Ichiro Suzuki, who took over in right field when Beltran shifted to first base, checked in with a big moment Sunday, leaping into the wall to snare David Ortiz’s eighth-inning blast.

The Yankees’ taking three of four from the defending World Series champion will numb their vast infield pain for now. We’re a long way from determining whether the Yankees can make their own World Series run with such an evident Achilles’ heel. Already, though, that endeavor has proven vastly entertaining.