The Yankees liked Brandon Drury. Really liked him. They felt they had special insight into him because, among other things, their new third-base coach, Phil Nevin, managed him at Triple-A for the Diamondbacks and Nevin validated the positive elements offered by Yankee scouts.

This was not one in which the house was united. The Yankees analytic wing did not like Drury to the extent of the scouts, who thought Drury could be akin to Didi Gregorius and Aaron Hicks — a twentysomething who had not fully maximized his skills. Brian Cashman heard the scouting passion enough to have chased Drury from one Arizona administration to another — first when Kevin Towers was GM, then Dave Stewart and finally Mike Hazen.

The Yanks had spent the offseason interested in Drury and free agent Neil Walker as hedges against having to begin the year with Gleyber Torres and Miguel Andujar manning second and third.

At moments last winter the Yanks were sure Drury was going elsewhere; at one point the Indians were on the brink of landing him. But Arizona devised a way to land a target, Tampa’s Steven Souza, if it could get Nick Solak from the Yankees and funnel him to the Rays. Thus, a three-team trade was born that brought Drury to the Yankees two days into full-squad spring training workouts in February.

Why revisit this now?

It is a reminder the Yankees worked hard and paid a real price for Drury — Solak wound up the MVP of the Rays’ Double-A affiliate and starter Taylor Widener became the Diamondbacks’ minor league pitcher of the year. But mainly this is a reminder of just how much the best-laid strategies of even successful teams are altered — and altered again and again. The Yanks believed they were obtaining a long-term third baseman. Drury played 18 games for them.

“I’ve thought you know changes are going to occur, but wow, the turns have been crazy,” Aaron Boone said.

Consider that Drury started Opening Day against Toronto’s J.A. Happ — the starter he would be traded for a few months later. Three weeks after the Yankees obtained Drury, Walker dropped his price enough that the Yankees signed him too and he was the Opening Day second baseman. Neither Andujar nor Torres was on the team yet. They would ultimately play enough — and well enough — to vie for AL Rookie of the Year.

Tyler Austin was the starting first baseman on March 29 because Greg Bird was hurt again. Bird came back and did not perform well. Austin was nevertheless traded to Minnesota. The Yanks obtained a player who seemed to profile much like Austin — bulky, righty hitter — but it turns out Luke Voit might be what the Yanks had envisioned for Drury: a player like Gregorius and Hicks who blossoms with the Yankees.

Hicks started the opener, but there was still a sense Jacoby Ellsbury could get healthy and steal center field time. Ellsbury never played an inning in 2018. Clint Frazier played just 15 games in the majors, concussion issues keeping him from being the fill-in when Aaron Judge missed seven weeks with a fractured wrist. The Yanks ultimately traded for Andrew McCutchen to serve as a placeholder, but McCutchen’s on-base skills proved so good that he knocked the struggling Brett Gardner from a starting job.

The Yankees won that opener 6-1 over the Blue Jays with Chad Green, Dellin Betances and Aroldis Chapman teaming for 3 1/3  innings of one-hit, one-run relief. The Yankees unwrapped the deep, power bullpen that was supposed to be the strength of the team. But their biggest trade all year was obtaining Zach Britton from the Orioles to further supplement that pen.

“I think (all the changes) show that as an organization we are never halfway in,” bench coach Josh Bard said. “We are always working on contingency X, Y and Z.”

This must be Z, because imagine if on March 29 I told  you the Yanks would win 100 games and play Wednesday’s wild-card against the A’s with McCutchen leading off, Voit hitting fifth, Andujar seventh, Torres ninth and a bullpen that included Britton, Happ and Lance Lynn?

“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate a staff that is always pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing,” Cashman said. “There are times I think, ‘For better or worse, this is our team.’ But my staff would say, ‘No, we can get better.’ … That mindset makes me better and it makes the Yankees better.”