If not for the meritocracy that rightly determines home-field advantage for baseball’s postseason, I’d take Aaron Boone aside early Friday afternoon and offer him some free advice:

“Take the weekend off.”

Yup, I’d urge him to urge his players to tank this rivalry series against the Red Sox, which kicks off Friday night at Fenway Park. Go full 1919 White Sox with the intentional incompetence, or just disappear a la Vince Vaughn in “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.” Anything that would push the defending champions further into this pennant race.

Because the Yankees would absolutely maul the Red Sox in a five-game series with Games 1, 2 and 5 at Yankee Stadium.

With a magic number of 12, the Yankees could clinch their first American League East title since 2012 on this 10-contest swing through Boston, Detroit and Toronto, at which point they can officially start discussing the playoffs. We at The Post, however, are ready to talk about it right now, so let’s tackle a topic we’ve addressed piecemeal heretofore: Which potential AL Division Series foes should the Yankees want to face, and which should they want to avoid?

From most appealing to least, here we go:

1) Red Sox. They look more haggard than Nick Nolte at the end of “48 Hrs.” Boston trails the A’s, the second wild-card team, by 6 ½ games, seven in the loss column. Even a 7-3 run barely moved the needle for the Bosox, and it sure didn’t eliminate the reality that their pitching is shot. They had allowed 5.07 runs per game, ranking them eighth in the AL, and ace Chris Sale (left elbow) is done for the year. They just can’t shake their post-parade hangover.

Now, if you anonymously polled Yankees officials, they’d probably pass on this opportunity to avenge last year’s ALDS loss. The risk of a second straight elimination at the hands of these guys wouldn’t be worth the reward of a victory.

2) Rays. With two games left in their season series, the Yankees own a 12-5 record against their division foes. There’s a comfort level here. The Rays, moreover, have dealt with a Yankees-esque flurry of injuries, with Yandy Diaz, Brandon Lowe and Blake Snell among those sidelined, compromising them to the point where they lost three of seven games to the awful Orioles over the last couple of weeks.

3) Twins. Intellectually, the Yankees’ history of postseason victories over the Twins (2003-04, 2009-10 and 2015) shouldn’t matter. Call me old-fashioned, but I still think it matters. All the more so when you factor in the Twins’ lack of postseason experience. They can swing the bats, as evidenced by their shattering of the all-time, single-season home run record set by last year’s Yankees, yet can they neutralize opposing hitters with pitchers that don’t miss bats exceptionally well (1,231 strikeouts, seventh in the AL through Wednesday)?

Their pitchers strike out even fewer guys than the Twins’, their 1,079 placing them 12th in the league, and they don’t score like the Twins. Nevertheless, they loom here because their home, the Oakland Coliseum, confounds the Yankees, who are 1-9 there in the Baby Bombers Era. Throw in a young, athletic lineup, and this is a matchup the Yankees would be best off avoiding.

5) Indians. Even with stud Jose Ramirez (right hamate bone) likely not healthy in time for the ALDS, they still possess a stellar pitching staff, an all-world player in Francisco Lindor, an accomplished veteran in Carlos Santana, a wild card in Yasiel Puig and the future Hall of Famer Terry Francona in the dugout. Enough trouble spots exist here to want to bypass the entire experience.

6) Astros. The doomsday scenario: The Twins surpass both the Yankees and the Astros and secure the AL’s top seed — an unlikely resolution, although definitely not impossible, with Minnesota trailing the Yankees by four games in the loss column as of Thursday. In this instance, the Yankees and favored Astros would face off one round earlier than the masses anticipate and desire. Sure, an upset is more likely in a shorter series. The Yankees would rather have someone else upset the Astros in the ALDS while they’re dealing with an easier challenge out of the gate.