Just a refresher on the early portion of Mariano Rivera’s career:

He was never viewed as an elite prospect. In his age-25 season, he both started and relieved for the Yankees without much distinction. Rivera began his age-26 season as the long man in the pen, but so consistently thrived that he stayed a reliever and his role grew in magnitude.

In a season (1996) when the home run record would be smashed, Rivera overpowered with a fastball that roared up in the zone, and became invaluable with his ability to pitch more than an inning while retaining dominant stuff.

By the way, did I just describe Chad Green’s career to this point as well?

Green in his age-25 rookie season (2016): 12 games/eight starts, 92 ERA-plus.

Rivera in his age-25 rookie season (1995): 19 games/10 starts, 84 ERS-plus.

Green in his age-26 season (2017): 13.65 strikeouts per nine innings, 2.28 walks, 233 ERA-plus.

Rivera in his age-26 season (1996): 10.87 strikeouts per nine, 2.84 walks, 240 ERA-plus.

Now, the chances Green replicates Rivera’s durability and persistent greatness in both the regular season and postseason is less than 1 percent. But, like Rivera in ’96, he is a gift the Yankees could not see coming.

“Chad Green is having that type of year,” said Brian Cashman, who was the Yankees’ assistant GM in 1996 and GM now. “He has been remarkable. This has been like Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances and Phil Hughes when he went to the bullpen when we won the World Series in ’09 and Mariano Rivera. We have seen some of this before.”

Joe Girardi, who caught Rivera in ’96 and now manages Green, wanted to avoid the pressure of any kind of comparison to Rivera, but did say, “He has had a similar first year as a reliever. He has become a key component in a bullpen like Mo in ’96.”

It is how Rivera flourished in ’96 that makes me see comparisons to Green. Before finding his cutter, Rivera manhandled hitters at the top of the zone with a fastball that seemed to have late life. Now we have a better understanding with spin rates why some fastballs seem to have more hop than others.

Green also is winning up in the zone. His 2,477 spin rate average on his four-seam fastball is tied for fifth among relievers (minimum 500 pitches tracked by Statcast) while Fangraphs ranks his fastball as the third-most effective among relievers, behind only Ryan Madson of the Nationals and Kenley Jansen of the Dodgers.

And like Rivera in ’96, Green retains that fastball for multiple innings. I remember in 1996 trying to make a Rivera AL MVP case before it was generally understood that relievers could have great value even without big save totals.

He allowed one homer in a year when the MLB record for long balls was smashed. Plus he led the majors in relief outings of two innings (35) and was 7-1 with a 1.23 ERA in those games and the Yanks were 28-7. For a team with a beleaguered rotation and a small margin of error to win, Rivera was an indomitable bridge.

Green is not as valuable because the rest of the bullpen is generally so good around him, but he has pitched more than an inning 25 times (tied for third-most in the majors) and has thrown at least two innings 15 times (fifth-most) with a 0.72 ERA, and within that strong pen, Green actually has the best numbers. Girardi said he specifically has managed to keep Green available for multiple innings.

As a reliever in 2017, only Boston’s Craig Kimbrel (49.8) and Jansen (42.5) have struck out a larger percentage of batters faced than Green (42), and only the Cubs’ Carl Edwards Jr. (.130) has a lower batting average against than Green (.131).

So do the Yanks mess with success? Rivera and Betances never went back to the rotation after relief success, Hughes and Luis Severino did, and Joba Chamberlain bounced between roles. Green and Luis Cessa were obtained from Detroit after the 2015 season because the Yanks had such a dearth of rotation options in the upper minor league levels.

If Masahiro Tanaka does not opt out and/or Shohei Otani is signed, the Yanks’ rotation should be in fine shape next season.

“We think without a doubt (Green) can start,” Cashman said. “When we called him up, we needed help in the pen and he has been so exceptional at it that right now it is a hard role to take him out of. He was not a failed starter going to the pen. But the future depends upon our landscape. We are set up to have a lot of high-end relievers next year. I would suspect for cover like (Adam) Warren we would have (Green) come in (to spring) as a starter. But I have not talked to anyone yet about that.”

“I’m not sure,” Girardi said. “There is so much value to what he is doing now.”