BALTIMORE – It will take several months to place the New York Yankees’ recent accomplishments into context. Playing in baseball’s most top-heavy division, in an atmosphere where World Series-or-bust is not an occasional goal but an organizational mantra, a fun and prosperous five weeks is ultimately meaningless when 115 games remain.

“We’ll look back on all this,” says manager Aaron Boone, “and make an opinion about that. We’ve been hyper-focused on the day. The guys have done that incredibly well to put us in position now to have a good season.

“But the bottom line is, we’re very early in this and there’s a lot of baseball to be played.”

Fair enough. And yes, by week's end they’ll have played 12 games against the worst-in-the-AL Baltimore Orioles, nearly twice as many as any other club.

Yet we would be remiss to not take a snapshot of these Yankees, who are now 30-17 and winners of 24 of their last 32 games, a run that began on April 16.

Four days later, All-Star slugger Aaron Judge played perhaps his final game of the first half, suffering a severe oblique injury that will sideline him into summer and confined him to a Yankees injured list with enough star power to win a division on its own.

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Deep breath: Pitchers Luis Severino, James Paxton, Dellin Betances and Jonathan Loaisiga, infielders Didi Gregorius, Miguel Andujar, Troy Tulowitzki, Greg Bird and the two boldest-faced names, Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, are among a group that’s missed all or significant parts of this season.

Gradually, most will return: Paxton will pitch a simulated game Friday. Stanton was set to return Monday from biceps and shoulder strains, but a calf strain will further delay his return. Gregorius should be back sometime in June, with Judge and Severino – who must overcome shoulder and lat injuries – hopefully following.

Yet as the infirmary overflowed, the Yankees flourished, and in the process allowed several players to redefine themselves.

A long-heralded talent who’s worked his way to the verge of superstardom. A spare pitching part now leading the majors in wins. And a once-historic reliever edging toward a return to his dominant ways.

Forty players have already donned the pinstripes this season. Here are three from each department who boosted the squad while others mended:

A star is born

Gleyber Torres is anything but a secret. When you’re a Chicago Cubs top prospect involved in a trade designed to put them over the top during a World Series run, and then viewed as the next big thing by Yankees fans, there’s little room to hide.

And while he announced his arrival with authority in 2018, slugging 24 home runs, earning an All-Star nod and finishing third in Rookie of the Year voting, Torres, still just 22, has taken it all up a notch this season.

Gregorius’ off-season Tommy John surgery prompted the Yankees to sign Tulowitzki as a stopgap until Gregorius’ return, ostensibly allowing continuity for Torres at second base. But since April 4, after Tulowitzki suffered a calf injury, the shortstop job belonged to Torres.

It was an opportunity for which Torres prepared diligently.

The Venezuela native lives in Tampa and spent a significant part of the winter at the Yankees’ facility there, with a priority on adding muscle to his 175-pound frame.

Mission, so far, accomplished: Torres has socked 10 home runs, produced an .875 OPS and 129 OPS-plus and has played capably at shortstop.

“My goal was to be healthy all year,” says Torres, who himself underwent Tommy John surgery in 2017. “I prepared really well in the offseason and really I just try to be confident, consistent every night and just help my team. That’s the most important for me.”

His teammates echo an oft-repeated sentiment regarding young talent: The game appears to be slowing down. Torres has cut his strikeout percentage by 5% and has produced hitting streaks of 10 and 12 games while inspiring comparisons to other greats.

“He’s so young. It looks like right now he’s just getting comfortable,” says reliever Zack Britton. “He’s playing really good shortstop right now. He reminds me a bit of when (Manny) Machado first came up. It looked like maybe he tried to do a little too much at first. Now it looks like he’s settling in, as Manny did after his first year.

“He’s taking really, really good at-bats. You don’t see that from a 22-year-old - a guy who knows the strike zone that well.”

Gregorius’ return will likely slide Torres back to second base, with Boone envisioning a scenario where five players – Gregorius, Torres, D.J. LeMahieu, Gio Urshela and Luke Voit – will rotate through four positions.

The future could provide another shift: Gregorius is a free agent after this season. If nothing else, Torres has passed his audition for the full-time gig.

“He’s been really steady for us at the position, and that’s been so good to see,” says Boone. “He did a great job preparing mentally this winter. He’s been rock solid at the position and obviously swung the bat well. We’d probably be talking the same way if he’d just been at second, too.”

The accidental ace

It’s been a decade since the Florida Marlins signed Domingo German out of the Dominican Republic, and nearly two years since he made an unremarkable debut for the Yankees. And when the club signed J.A. Happ and traded for Paxton this winter, German’s 2019 looked a lot like his first two seasons: Split between Class AAA and the Bronx.

Injuries to Severino and Paxton altered that course quickly. And suddenly German had a platform to blossom.

He ranks fourth in the AL in ERA (2.60) and WHIP (0.98) and his nine wins are tops in the major leagues. While he’s had his share of favorable matchups – three against the Orioles – his impeccable command would likely play against any opponent.

German, 26, has cut his walks per nine innings from 3.8 to 2.6 and in a hitter-friendly offensive environment is giving up less than a home run per game.

It all comes as nearly half the Yankee rotation is on the shelf.

“It feels good to cooperate with the team and help out any way possible,” German said through an interpreter. “Many pitchers have been out of the starting rotation and I feel like I’ve been given an opportunity, like a pinch-hitter: If that pinch-hitter comes in and gets a hit, he’s going to feel really good.

“I look at it the same way: I was given a chance, an opportunity here to help the team and I’ve been doing that.”

Whether he can maintain that through up to 30 starts remains to be seen, and his role could shift as the horses come back. But Happ’s under-performance (a 5.16 ERA) and the age and occasional health woes of CC Sabathia and Masahiro Tanaka may compel the Yankees to stick with German so long as he’s throwing the ball this well.

“Nothing would surprise me with Domingo,” says Boone. “I don’t want to put any kind of ceiling or obscene expectation on him, but the bottom line is, he’s a really talented pitcher who’s throwing the ball really well right now.

"He’s been one of the best pitchers in the league. Period. At a time when we’ve had Sevy out, Paxton missing some time, CC to start the season. To have him really do what he’s been able to do to this point has been really huge for us.”

Reliever resurgence

After Britton put together one of the greatest seasons ever for a reliever – 47 saves in 47 chances, a 0.54 ERA for the 2016 Orioles – his manager passed along some words of wisdom.

“I remember talking to Buck Showalter about it and he was like, ‘You’ll never see that again,’” Britton recalls. “I was like, ‘Really? This game’s been played a long time.’ It was his way of saying, just try to be as good as you were the years before.”

As if to prove Showalter’s point, Britton’s 2016 was waylaid by forearm soreness and he blew out an Achilles tendon in the winter of 2017, sullying his final year before free agency. He returned by midseason and was traded to the Yankees in July.

He was merely OK for the Yankees, posting a 4.08 Fielding Independent Pitching mark and striking out less than a batter per inning. But they saw enough to place a relatively large bet – three years, $40 million – that Britton would return to his old form.

He’s getting there.

For the first time since that epic 2016 campaign, Britton is averaging better than a strikeout per inning. He’s already racked up nine holds and a save in front of Aroldis Chapman, diminishing the loss of Betances and allowing fellow free agent reliever Adam Ottavino time to get his feet on the ground in New York.

Perhaps most important, an injury-free winter and spring enabled him to regain strength and see both the velocity and action on his devastating sinking fastball tick up.

“I feel completely different now,” Britton says. “It feels good trying to get into a nice groove, get into the routine I was on before surgery. I’m trying to get back to that mind-set and consistency I had in Baltimore.

“I’m a lot stronger now. Velocity is slowly creeping back to where it was. I’m in a pretty good spot right now, and just looking to continue that.”

You could say the same for the Yankees.