Let’s get the easy part out of the way: Of course the Yankees should invite Joe Girardi to return as their manager. No sign exists that they won’t do just that.

So the question gets flipped to one usually not contemplated in the sports world when it comes to managers and head coaches: Should Girardi agree to return after 10 years on the job?

While stipulating it’s presumptuous if not downright arrogant to put oneself in another’s shoes — hey, it’s gotten me this far — it would seem one factor above all favors his return to the Yankees dugout.

Time.

Girardi, having just turned 53, should have time to pursue other interests down the road. And, in light of a thrilling season that just concluded with a seven-game American League Championship Series loss to the Astros, this sure looks the Yankees’ time to rise again.

Could Girardi, at this juncture of his career, really pass up a chance to be part of something this special?

In the minutes following the 2017 Yankees’ final game, he did not sound like such a person. He shared that he had just told his players “how proud I was of them. How this hurts.”

“I understand,” Girardi said. “I’ve been through it as a player. I’ve been through it as a manager. And how it really needs to be the motivating factor during the winter and spring training to get better because I believe this club can even get better. And that was basically the message.”

Is Girardi’s divulgence of that basically his message he wants to stick around? For sure, it marked his strongest words to date that he wants to keep going.

Doubt existed because of the way Girardi attacks this job with a seriousness that by each autumn usually has him looking as wiped out as Griffin Dunne at the end of “After Hours.” Because he appeared so tranquil back in spring training as he chaperoned the Baby Bombers into prime time, you wondered whether he already had decided this would be his swan song and he’d take 2018 off to hang out with his family and recharge.

Really, the right time for Girardi to jump ship would have been four years ago, when the Yankees missed the playoffs, saw their farm system flounder worse than Megyn Kelly’s current talk show and faced ongoing headaches such as Alex Rodriguez’s legal battles with the team and Major League Baseball and imminent headaches like Derek Jeter’s 2014 retirement tour (let us never speak of that again). At the time, though, Girardi’s family was firmly ensconced in Westchester, and the Yankees’ extension offer ($16 million) stood as too generous to turn away, even with the Cubs also looking for a skipper.

The Cubs would have to be the one team that would appeal down the road to Girardi, an Illinois native and Northwestern graduate who signed with the Cubs as a 1986 draft pick and spent two stints with them. It’s hard to envision him managing anywhere besides The Bronx and Wrigleyville. It’s easy to see him making a lucrative, low-stress living as a broadcaster, a job at which he succeeded in the past for FOX Sports and the YES Network, and corporate/motivational speaker down the road.

One wild card: How about a job in MLB’s central office? As illustrated by Girardi’s involvement in baseball’s Competition Committee, he possesses a real passion for improving the game.

For now, though, the Yankees’ future is too bright. Girardi, having just overcome his worst night (the non-challenge in AL Division Series Game 2) by upsetting the Indians, has too much to offer this group and too many big names in Yankees history to leap. With another four years, holding 910 regular-season Yankees wins, he could pass Joe Torre (1,173) and Casey Stengel (1,149) for second place all time behind Joe McCarthy (1,460).

Time rests on Girardi’s side to put off his other dreams. Plenty of dreams can be accomplished by staying right where he is.