MLB

Move Rivera ahead of Mantle on Yankees’ all-time list

SEATTLE — All that’s missing is the monument.

Mariano Rivera is much more than the greatest closer of all time. Put him right up there with the greatest Yankees of all time. This is baseball’s most hallowed ground, and Rivera is part of the Yankees’ Fantastic Five in my all-time record book.

Just call him Monument Mo.

VOTE: ALL-TIME GREATEST YANKEES

You have to start with Babe Ruth; forever he will be No. 1. The Iron Horse Lou Gehrig, who called himself the “luckiest man on the face of the Earth,” is next. No. 3 is Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio. Then comes Derek Jeter, Mr. 3,000. Rounding out the Fantastic Five is the incomparable Mariano Rivera.

Where would the Yankees be without Mariano — still one save behind Trevor Hoffman’s all-time saves record after he spent last night’s 2-1, 12-inning loss in the bullpen ­— and his magical cutter? All those Joe Torre championships would not exist, and the new Yankee Stadium world championship No. 27 would not be possible without Mo.

No. 42 owns 42 postseason saves.

It hurts deeply for a kid who grew up a Mickey Mantle fan to move The Mick out of the top five, but this is the new Yankees reality. Time marches on, and Mantle, for all his greatness, does not make my final-five cut. If he had stayed healthy, it would have been a different story. Go cry to Billy Crystal.

Jeter — with all his championship rings, his heady play at shortstop through the years, his 3,075 hits, the most hits in Yankees history — deserves a top spot, too.

But this day, this week, this honor belongs to Rivera, who picked up his 600th save in Tuesday night’s 3-2 win over the Mariners at Safeco Field. Welcome to Mo Time.

Closers have rightly earned their spots in the Hall of Fame in recent years, and Rivera is the greatest closer of them all and deserves one of the top five spots in the Yankees’ Monument Park for pitching in the beast of the belly that is the AL East.

It’s that simple.

Rivera is the most important piece of the puzzle. As Alex Rodriguez noted after Mo’s 600th save: “One hundred years from now, they’ll be saying we all saw the greatest closer of all time.”

Yes they will. The greatest closer on baseball’s greatest stage. That has to count for something. That reserves your spot in this ring of honor.

Hoffman is clinging to the all-time save record, but Mo is about to close the book on Hoffman. Soon this record will belong to Rivera, but there is so much more to Rivera than a big number. There is his class.

In a quiet corner of the clubhouse, A-Rod told The Post that it is Mo’s leadership that is as valuable as his cutter. Championship teams need leaders. That’s where Jeter stands tall as well. Rivera has given the Yankees the kind of quiet, dignified leadership that has been essential to their success.

“The one thing that most people don’t know or can’t see is what a tremendous leader Mo is and what an influence he has had on me and so many other players that have come through here,” Rodriguez said. “That’s the one thing you can’t see in the 600 saves, his leadership ability. You can’t measure that with a number. Mo has been a great friend, a brother to me.”

Rodriguez reached out to another sport to make this strong point.

“Going against him was like going against Muhammad Ali,” Rodriguez said of the challenge of facing Rivera. “Mo is the Muhammad Ali of baseball.”

Except Rivera never has had to shout, “I am the greatest.”

He doesn’t need to shout. His work says it all.

Mariano Rivera is one of the greatest five Yankees of all time. Put No. 42 right up there with golden numbers — 3, 4, 5 and 2. Someday there will be a monument for him. He is the stuff of Yankees legends.

Monument Mo was built one brick, one cutter, one save at a time for all-time.

kevin.kernan@nypost.com