Aaron Judge and Jose Ramirez have a lot in common when it comes to age and baseball impact.

But the key question regarding whether Judge will accept an extension before Gerrit Cole throws the first pitch of the Yankees’ season is this:

Where on the Ramirez desperation scale to stay with the Guardians does Judge reside with the Yankees?

Because for the second time in his career, Ramirez so badly did not want to leave that he took a sweetheart deal to stay. The Guardians seemed to make it pretty clear to the Ramirez camp that if he did not accept an extension that will begin in 2024, they would trade him, probably to San Diego.

So Ramirez accepted a five-year, $124 million extension that will follow years in which he makes $12 million in 2022 and $14 million in 2023. It is a total of $150 million over seven years — which is tremendous money, but not reflective of Ramirez’s standing in the game.

Jose Altuve had two years at $12.5 million left on his sweetheart deal with the Astros when he signed a five-year, $155 million extension in March 2018. Altuve did not mean more to Houston than Ramirez does to Cleveland, and Altuve’s track record — while including an AL MVP the previous year — was similar to that of Ramirez, arguably a drop worse.

Ramirez has finished in the top six for AL MVP in four of the past five years, a period in which he has 26.7 Wins Above Replacement. That is third in the sport behind Mookie Betts and Mike Trout.

It also is tied with one other player. That would be Judge, who in his only two full healthy seasons out of five has finished second (to Altuve) and fourth (last year) in the AL MVP balloting. Ramirez has been healthier, is a switch hitter and plays a more critical position (third base) than Judge.

Yet what Ramirez accepted and what Judge would be willing to accept are not in the same galaxy, much less the same zip code. Judge has wanted to see himself with the best outfielders in the game. Trout is signed with the Angels for 12 years at $426.25 million and through his age-38 season. Betts is signed for 12 years at $365 million with the Dodgers and through his age-39 season.

The Yankees are probably willing to go to the middle of Ramirez and Betts/Trout — think $240 million-ish over seven or eight years. They know it is New York, not Cleveland — Ramirez’s contract more than doubles the most the Cleveland organization has ever given a player, yet is exactly $200 million less than the Yankees gave Cole. The Yankees know Judge is their marketing darling as opposed to the reserved Ramirez in Cleveland. Judge also is due to be a free agent after this season, Ramirez had two years left on that first sweetheart deal. In addition, there is no leveraging Judge with talk of trading him — the Yankees are trying to win the World Series this year, and he is their best player.

Hal Steinbrenner really wants to get this done. The Yankees’ owner can say he doesn’t care about the spotlight on Steve Cohen and his Mets or the persistent nattering that he is cheap. But he is sensitive to it. So letting his best/most popular homegrown player since Derek Jeter go unsigned is not on his bucket list. I expect his offer to Judge begins with a “2” (as in $200 million-plus) and is higher than he probably imagined when this process began.

So all that will matter is where on that Ramirez desperation scale to stay is Judge. Will he refuse any extension that does not put him, say, at least toward Betts/Trout? Or is he using that as rhetoric to keep Steinbrenner bidding against himself and will take the last best offer before Judge’s imposed deadline of Opening Day, which moved to Friday with Thursday’s rainout?

Remember that both sides could hold tight to their current positions and if they don’t reach a deal revisit this either during the season (Judge says he won’t do that) or after, when Judge is a free agent. It would put the Yankees in the somewhat counterintuitive position of hoping Judge makes himself even more valuable because they need the healthy, elite Judge to maximize their title chances. It’s not all that different from the Mets having wanted Jacob deGrom to have a healthy Cy Young season that would mean he could comfortably opt out of his contract after the 2022 season.

DeGrom now has a bum shoulder and will be out at least two months. This is the risk for Judge, too — that he has another injury-touched campaign. But even if he does, he might not get what the Yankees are offering now. But short of the catastrophic, he will not get less than Ramirez — who was due to be a free agent after his age-30 season, just like Judge is facing now.

Ramirez, for the second time in his career however, was willing to forego the chance to make much more by waiting for free agency because he so clearly wanted to stay in Cleveland.

How similarly does Judge feel toward the Yankees?