Play Brian Cashman. Act like you are the Yankees GM and have to come up with someone to manage a win-now team in New York.

Brad Ausmus probably checks the most boxes. He was born and raised in the Northeast, in Connecticut (a Red Sox fan), drafted by the Yankees, a smart guy who went to Dartmouth, played in many markets including a big market (Dodgers) for Joe Torre and has managing experience (fired after this past season by the Tigers).

Yet, in Detroit, Ausmus was not beloved by his clubhouse and came off publicly as snarky and arrogant. Ausmus’ friends will tell you that is not him, that he is self-effacing, wry and collaborative. It is possible that no one — not an amalgamation of Tony La Russa, Casey Stengel and Joe McCarthy — would have had success with a veteran team on the decline set in its ways without a good farm system and way behind in analytics like the Tigers were.

Bob Geren has many similar positives. He played for the Yankees and coached for Terry Collins with the Mets, including on a team that went to the World Series. He has been the Dodgers bench coach the past two years, so he is steeped in the large umbrella of modern analytics. He managed in Oakland for Billy Beane, who is one of Cashman’s best friends.

But, like Ausmus, when Geren managed he was unsuccessful, did not seem to win over his clubhouse and did not relate well with the media in a small market.

I work with Mark DeRosa at the MLB Network and know how smart and personable he is, but I actually have told him how scared I would be to hire someone who doesn’t even have coaching experience to his first manager’s job for a win-now New York team. The same would go for Aaron Boone, also smart and personable.

Raul Ibanez has at least been working for the Dodgers, but has told folks he has a young family and may not be ready for the obsessive work of being a manager. I covered Ibanez and like him. But I found him as a player to be like Tony Clark — available and smart, but when I walked away I realized he had not actually said much. Was that a sign of being crafty with media, or was that a sign of a guy without much to say to anybody?

I’ve been told Jason Giambi has a third child on the way and is not looking to manage now. Jerry Hairston Jr. has been mentioned as a candidate, but he also has no coaching/managing experience. He is a broadcaster doing pre- and post-game work for the Dodgers, and when I was in Los Angeles, I asked a bunch of folks who deal with him if they thought he was ready to manage, and no one jumped up and said yes. One described him as “Dave Roberts Lite,” and not as a compliment in comparison to the outstanding Dodgers manager.

Sandy Alomar Jr. coached with the Mets, so he has New York experience, has been a bench coach with the Indians, was their interim manager for six games in 2012 and has served mainly as Terry Francona’s first base coach in recent years, so he has seen a master at work. But he has been passed over for so many jobs, I wonder what happens in interviews. Also, the Mets picked Indians pitching coach Mickey Callaway to be their manager; do the Yankees want to be in the position of also grabbing from that staff with the perception that they did not get into the game quickly enough to land Callaway and instead wound up with the guy who hit the most important homer ever off Mariano Rivera?

These are far from the only aspirants, and Cashman said he would interview both internal and external candidates. But I keep hearing he is leaning toward outside. Vitally, Cashman already understands, “There is no perfect person that checks all the boxes.”

He is going to have to trust the background work, interviews and — eventually — his instincts on which person has the most good qualities to follow in the successful line of Buck Showalter, Torre and Girardi.

What teams want now is from the mold of the World Series managers, Roberts and Houston’s A.J. Hinch. Both benefited greatly from having worked in front offices and, therefore, being intimate in how decision-making is done above them. They also both are personable, great with the media and portray calmness in stressful times. They also connect and communicate well with players, which Cashman cited as a failure with Girardi and led to his not being offered a new contract.

At this late date, with the Yankees the last team without a manager for 2018, Cashman will try to find someone who checks the most boxes for a win-now team in New York.