TAMPA — The most fascinating position battle in Yankees camp has reached the very top of the team’s hierarchy. 

Hal Steinbrenner is just as thrilled as Yankees fans as he watches Anthony Volpe and Oswald Peraza compete for the starting shortstop role.

He will have more input than the average fan, though. 

The shortstop competition, which appears now to only tangentially include incumbent Isiah Kiner-Falefa, will be judged by GM Brian Cashman, manager Aaron Boone, the front office, coaching staff and player-development folks — as well as the owner of the club. 

Steinbrenner is not afraid to channel his father and bang on a table if he feels passionately about who should win. 

“If I really, really feel strongly about something, then I’m probably going to make sure it’s done,” Steinbrenner said Wednesday in his annual spring news conference. “But that doesn’t mean I’ll feel that strongly about any decision that’s made in this regard, but I will be involved.” 

Steinbrenner is not ready to publicly say either young prospect has won the Opening Day shortstop gig, but count him among the many impressed with both. 

Peraza is viewed as the stronger defender at shortstop, while Volpe has dazzled more offensively in the Grapefruit League. 

Peraza has climbed through the system ahead of Volpe.

Can Volpe, with just 22 games of Triple-A experience, leapfrog Peraza and actually break camp with the major league Yankees? 

“Anything’s possible,” said Steinbrenner, who said service time will not play a factor in the decision. “[Volpe] has certainly shown, at least on this spring training stage, that he can handle it and play well and do a lot of different things. 

“We’re always concerned about our minor league players: Are they truly ready? Because this is not New York. … And this is not the regular season. So we’ll just have to see. It’s going to be a long discussion, which I’ll be a part of.” 

With about two weeks until Opening Day, Steinbrenner expects those roster conversations to accelerate in about a week. 

Steinbrenner cited a Feb. 22 game — in which Volpe stole second and third base on back-to-back pitches, the first on a pitchout — as the one that most caught his attention. 

As if he were listening on Wednesday afternoon, Volpe proceeded to steal his fourth bag of the spring season in a 9-8 loss to the Phillies at Steinbrenner Field, where he reached base in three out of four plate appearances with two walks and a single. 

Volpe, whose OPS is up to 1.126 this spring, is not doing all his damage against minor leaguers.

He twice faced Aaron Nola, who was in the Cy Young conversation last season, and struck out and worked a walk.

Against All-Star lefty Gregory Soto in the sixth inning, Volpe knocked an RBI single to left. 

“He has a real good understanding of the strike zone,” Boone said, before addressing the elevated pitching Volpe is seeing. “Does it matter? Yeah. You want to see him against better competition.” 

Steinbrenner has been curious enough about Volpe to ask Aaron Judge about the New Jerseyan — Volpe “conducts himself in a very professional way,” Judge told him — and still believes Volpe and Peraza can be the Yankees’ future middle infield, which Steinbrenner stated last spring. 

The Yankees have resisted signing a star free-agent shortstop for two years, consistently pointing at the prospects developing (who, of course, do not cost hundreds of millions of dollars at the moment).

The Yankees passed on Corey Seager ($325 million), Trea Turner ($300 million) and Xander Bogaerts ($280 million), among several others, and spent money elsewhere. 

Their stopgap last season was Kiner-Falefa, who played third base Wednesday and is expected to see time in the outfield soon as he becomes a utility player. 

The shortstop battle appears down to two, with only Peraza on the 40-man roster but Volpe making more noise. 

“We knew it was going to be exciting,” Steinbrenner said. “The reality is: When we’ve got young prospects who are ready and deserving of a chance, they’re going to get it.” 

Steinbrenner also mentioned Oswaldo Cabrera and Jasson Dominguez as reasons for hope for the future. But at shortstop, the future could be fast-tracked. 

“The big question, of course, was always: Can they handle the big stage?” Steinbrenner said of Volpe and Peraza. “We don’t know that for sure yet. But the way they conduct themselves, the work ethic, I think they’re both going to be great.”