Jeter’s retirement, after the 2014 season, left the team without its most recognizable face. That likeness will now be preserved with a plaque in the Bronx — another will surely follow in Cooperstown in 2020 — and no Yankee will ever again wear Jeter’s No. 2. The captaincy has also been vacant since he left.

This is not unusual; until Jeter’s appointment, the position had been vacant since Don Mattingly’s final game in 1995. What the team has really struggled to replace is the standing Jeter had as a compelling, must-see player, the kind so vital to sustaining the Yankees’ upscale brand.

For a while, the Yankees still had a certified celebrity on the roster: Alex Rodriguez, whose fame was partly notoriety. The wholesome and humble leading man — with attention-grabbing talent to match — is a rare find, but now the Yankees just might have him.

As they celebrate Jeter, the Yankees are suddenly thriving again, robust in the standings while generating positive buzz. Their record is 21-10. Aaron Judge, their soft-spoken, homegrown rookie slugger, is on the cover of the latest issue of Sports Illustrated. Another young cornerstone, catcher Gary Sanchez, even has his own fragrance, #IAmGary — at least in a playful mock ad produced by the Yankees’ social media team.

We’ll pause here to tactfully remind you that the Mets — whose young pitching stars have repeatedly embarrassed them this season — are not quite as adept at social media. (Just ask catcher Kevin Plawecki.) After two postseason appearances in a row, the Mets may be reassuming their secondary position in the city’s baseball hierarchy.

Jeter solidified the status of the two teams in 2000, as the most valuable player of the crosstown World Series. It could not have been anyone else. The Yankees were his team, and that was his stage. Nobody else seemed made for it in quite the same way.