BOSTON — The idea was to double down on a skill set. The Yankees already had Brett Gardner — speed, defense, on-base skills — when they signed Jacoby Ellsbury to a seven-year, $153 million free-agent deal following the 2013 campaign.

In the best-case design, the Yankees envisioned a distracting 1-2 atop the lineup in front of their RBI muscle and two fleet outfielders covering huge terrain to rob extra-base hits.

It hasn’t worked as imagined. Ellsbury has been hurt a lot and never could sustain elite play. Plus, the sport went through a launch-angle transition that made it more difficult to simultaneously play two outfielders who lacked power.

The Yankees doubled down on a skill set again this past offseason in the outfield. They traded for Giancarlo Stanton to pair with Aaron Judge, two mammoth righty sluggers and the only major leaguers — even in a year when the all-time homer record was smashed — to better 50.

Is there some chance that this is going to be Ellsbury/Gardner II — not in style, but in failing to mesh in the way the Yankees envisioned? Is it possible diversification in skills is more valuable in a position group than duplication, even if the duplicates are as immensely talented as Judge/Stanton? Is it possible that already the game could be shifting in a way to minimize some of the Judge/Stanton impact?

I don’t know the answers, but 11 games of watching that duo together led me to wonder about both short- and long-term implications of this twin-tower alignment.

On Wednesday, the Yankees faced a lefty starter (David Price) for the fourth time in 2018. In each, the Yanks have batted Judge/Stanton two-three. I think the Yanks have to separate them. The most voluminous subset in the current game is righty relievers with big fastballs and power breaking stuff. Every team has multiple options in this genre, plus more and more that lefty starter — like all starters — is being removed after two orbits of the lineup.

There had been talk that having Judge and Stanton back-to-back would allow the second in line (Stanton) to see how his doppelganger is being worked and get a quick scouting report. But this works to the pitcher’s benefit even more so. What unsettles Judge is likely to do the same with Stanton.

In big RBI spots, pitchers generally would rather face even great power hitters, but those with big holes, than a more contact-oriented hitter. Judge and Stanton pose huge threats, but also provide a way for a pitcher to escape a jam with strikeouts.

Bench coach Josh Bard explained the Yanks would split up Judge and Stanton even against a lefty starter if they saw in pregame analysis opponents with righty relief that served as enough of a deterrent. That has yet to happen, he said. “These [Judge/Stanton] are special righty hitters, even against righty pitching,” Bard said.

But to me Didi Gregorius has grown enough as a hitter to put between the two big righties even when a lefty starts. Gregorius has among the majors’ lowest strikeout rates over the past two years and, thus, in clutch situations forces an opposing manager to consider an intentional walk or to bring in a lefty to attack between Judge and Stanton. It just makes the Yankees tougher to deal with late.

But the concern here is about more than present lineup construction. By obtaining a player with 10 years left on his contract such as Stanton, the Yanks are committed for a long while to the Judge/Stanton dynamic. At this moment, clubs are still generally accepting big strikeout totals as long as they get big homer totals. Through Tuesday, the major league average for a team was 8.8 strikeouts per game, which would mark the 13th straight year that stat has risen.

However, the Astros led the league in scoring last year and were last in strikeout percentage. This season the top four teams in average runs per games (Pirates, Angels, Braves and Red Sox) also represent the top two teams in each league in lowest strikeout percentage.

Perhaps that is small sample size. But what if the game is shifting as it once did away from an Ellsbury/Gardner model? What if the value to put the ball in play is rising and large homer totals are becoming negated to a more significant degree by 400-ish combined strikeouts coming from just two hitters in the same lineup?

Brian Cashman said he was not worried. The general manager explained that Stanton was obtained for what the Yankees calculated to be his value not just this year, but moving forward.

Again, it is early. I mainly have questions, not many answers. But I am wondering if one is good, then two is better sounds like a worthy baseball theory in 2018 — yet isn’t.