The Cubs gave it a shot early in 2016. The Astros flirted with it for a little longer in 2017. And the Dodgers were left to wonder what might have been in 2020, had they played a full 162-game season.

Ultimately, none of those teams reached the pantheon of the 2001 Mariners.

But on Thursday, the Yankees will begin the second half of their season as the latest team trying to chase down the Mariners’ record of 116 wins. It’s a feat that only gets harder to keep pace with the deeper teams get into a season, when one mediocre stretch or one injury could derail the whole pursuit.

“That year we had was a unicorn year,” former Mariners Gold Glove outfielder Mike Cameron said on Tuesday. “Everything worked every single day.”

The secret, according to those who played a hand in it? A well-rounded team, good health and perhaps most importantly, a heavy dose of good luck.

“We were lucky in that we had no injuries and we stayed hot,” Seattle Hall of Famer Edgar Martinez said. “We were pitching and hitting the way we did … but we [also] had the confidence because we played well the whole first half and it carried over. At that point, what is so important is not having injuries and staying healthy. We didn’t have any major injuries. That’s huge.”

The Yankees entered the All-Star break as the best team in baseball, with a record of 64-28 — their .696 winning percentage putting them on pace for 112.7 wins. As recently as July 8, they were still playing at a .726 (61-23) clip, which had them on pace for 117.6 wins, before they lost four of their next six games.

In order to catch the 2001 Mariners, the Yankees would have to go 52-18 to close out the season. That’s the same record they posted through the first 70 games of this season during their blistering hot start.

“I think you just realize how tough it was to win 114 and then even 116, and you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, how’d these teams do it?’ ” said Jeff Nelson, a key part of the bullpen for both the 2001 Mariners and the 114-win Yankees in 1998. “But they have a shot.”

On the back of their No. 1 offense and No. 1 pitching staff, the 2001 Mariners had lengthy winning streaks of 15, nine, eight and seven games. On the flip side, they didn’t lose more than back-to-back games until they dropped four straight in late September — including a three-game sweep at the hands of the Athletics. They answered it by reeling off four straight wins.

While the Athletics tried to put a dent in the Mariners’ record, they also had a hand in fueling it. Oakland won 102 games that season, including a hot finish (29-4), and they stayed on the Mariners’ heels even if they never got closer than 14 games back after May.

It’s possible the 2022 Yankees could get that kind of push from the Astros, if not from their own tough division.

In addition to staying healthy — Cameron pointed out that four hitters played 150 games or more, which may not happen as often in today’s game with an increased value on staying fresh — the Mariners got standout years from up and down the lineup. That was the case from Martinez and Bret Boone (current Yankees manager Aaron Boone’s brother) to utility players such as Mark McLemore and Stan Javier, who Martinez said were so valuable. A rookie phenom named Ichiro Suzuki also took the league by storm, batting .350 with 56 steals on the way to winning the AL MVP.

The Mariners also used six pitchers to start 155 games, with Freddy Garcia (3.05 ERA), Aaron Sele (3.60 ERA) and Jamie Moyer (3.43 ERA) each throwing more than 200 innings.

And leading the way was manager Lou Piniella, the former Yankees outfielder and manager who wouldn’t let his team take its foot off the gas pedal.

“He expected us to win and give 100 percent every time and we walked out on the field like we were going to win and it was just carefree,” Nelson said.

Of course, the 116-win Mariners finally faltered in October, losing the ALCS to the Yankees. This year’s Yankees would certainly pass up the regular-season wins record for a better playoff fate than Seattle had in 2001.

Until then, the 2001 Mariners will be watching, just as the 1972 Dolphins do any time an NFL team goes unbeaten through the halfway point of the season.

“I do believe that it’s going to be broken,” Martinez said. “When? I don’t know. But it’s OK if they break it.”