Adam Ottavino was one of the Yankees’ most important acquisitions during the offseason, no doubt with this time of year in mind.

So it was somewhat jarring to see the right-hander enter an ALDS game, face one batter and immediately get pulled.

Yet that happened twice during the Yankees’ three-game sweep of Minnesota, leaving some to wonder what his role might be in the ALCS against either Tampa Bay or Houston.

Aaron Boone cautioned against looking too much into the right-hander’s usage.

The manager noted during a conference call Wednesday that both times Ottavino got a quick hook, he had come in to face Minnesota’s most dangerous hitter, Nelson Cruz.

“A little bit has been made of that with [Ottavino],’’ Boone said. “Part of that is where he was in there against Cruz, obviously a guy that we respected and feared. We’re going to put our best matchup against him. But our starters got enough [length] to where I was at a point in the game where I felt like we were covered.’’

In the fifth inning of Game 1, Ottavino got ahead of the right-handed hitting Cruz 0-2, but walked him before Tommy Kahnle came in to face lefty Eddie Rosario and got out of the inning.

Ottavino then pitched a perfect eighth inning in a Game 2 rout before he entered Game 3 — again to face Cruz in the fifth inning of a close game.

Ottavino walked Cruz on four pitches and then was replaced by Chad Green, who retired Rosario thanks to the superb defense of Gleyber Torres and DJ LeMahieu.

Ottavino’s lefty/righty splits are noteworthy, since he limited right-handed batters to a .558 OPS and lefty hitters had a .753 OPS against him.

Kahnle, also a righty, is significantly more effective versus lefties than Ottavino and Green has also been slightly better.

“I wouldn’t read so much into, ‘Oh, we just don’t want him facing a particular hitter,’ ’’ Boone said of Ottavino. “It’s more, ‘We’re at the really high-leverage point of the game where we feel like we can aggressively match up.’ That factored into it more than anything.’’

Boone added Ottavino could be used differently in pressure situations moving forward.

“At different parts of the game, he’s going to go through a three- or four-batter stage,’’ Boone said. “Where [he] came in these games, I felt like we had the coverage we needed to get to the end of the game and not be stressed out on it, especially in Game 3 where I brought him in behind Kahnle. I knew I had [Green] for length, then [Zack] Britton and [Aroldis Chapman] behind him.’’