SEATTLE — Mike Trout, for sure. Babe Ruth, sort of. Shoeless Joe Jackson, maybe.

Extensive imaginary research by The Post (I just went through some of the most obvious guys) reflects how few rookie players soared to great heights and just stayed there. The above trio unofficially forms the tiny exception to the rule.

Drilling down to the modern-day Yankees, we saw this phenomenon last year with Aaron Judge, who dominated, faded and dominated once more. And now, to the Yankees’ delight, we’re seeing it with Gleyber Torres.

The freshman infielder contributed a ninth-inning sacrifice fly and a pair of singles Saturday night to the Yankees’ 4-2 victory over the Mariners at Safeco Field, extending his hot streak and moving further away from the tired-looking guy who wore a Yankees uniform for about a month as the Yankees maintained their 3 ½-game lead over the A’s for home-field advantage in the American League wild-card game.

Remember the mental errors in the field and the outs at the plate that became commonplace for Torres last month? Your memory represents your only chance of retaining those images, since they seem to have gone away.

“He’s just a really good player,” Aaron Boone said Saturday of Torres. “That’s not an easy at-bat right there [in the ninth] and to just kind of use the big part of the field, go the other way to get us an insurance run, that was a pro at-bat right there.”

The sac fly did serve as a seamhead’s delight, as Torres fell into an 0-and-2 hole against Mariners reliever Ryan Cook, fouled off a pitch and then reached for a slider and got enough on it to make it easy for pinch runner Tyler Wade to tag and score an insurance run from third.

“Hitting is not that easy, for sure. We face the best pitchers of the world,” Torres said late Friday night. “I’m just trying to be focused right now. Some days it’s really good, some days [it’s] bad. Stay humble and try to do my job. If I don’t hit, I try to be really good on defense.”

Funny he should mention defense, as we learned during Didi Gregorius’ stay on the disabled list that Torres is best off staying at second base. Yet the 21-year-old has halted the head-scratching moments in the field that he displayed in conjunction with his banjo hitting, and as he made 13 starts at shortstop in Gregorius’ absence, Torres also rediscovered his bat.

In his past 22 games, Torres has put up a .364/.438/.571 slash line with five homers and 17 RBI, advancing his case for AL Rookie of the Year in an intense competition with his Yankees teammate Miguel Andujar and Angels dynamo Shohei Ohtani.

When Torres went on the disabled list with a right hip strain in early July, he had put up a terrific .294/.350/.555 slash line in his first 63 big-league contests, earning a ticket to the All-Star Game in the process. Then, in his first 19 games after getting activated in late July, he hit a lousy .145/.250/.290. He drew 10 walks and 22 strikeouts in 80 plate appearances.

“After the DL, I think I tried to do too much,” Torres said. “Everybody threw me everything and I swung at everything. Now I’m just being relaxed a little bit and taking the game a little more slowly and enjoying it.”

The Yankees’ second straight victory here resulted from a group effort, with July trade acquisition Lance Lynn, August trade acquisition Andrew McCutchen and backup catcher Austin Romine all contributing. Yet if we’re projecting this Yankees team into October and beyond, not to mention their long-term aspirations of perennial contention, Torres’ turn in the right direction means more. With his 100th hit Friday, he became the fourth-youngest Yankee ever to reach that milestone, trailing only Mickey Mantle, Ben Chapman and Joe DiMaggio.

“I feel really good for that. I’m proud,” Torres said. “I just stay focused every day and try to do my job.”

He is doing it quite well, again. While plenty more tests will come his way, Torres has passed what very well might prove to be his toughest initiation.