In the Yankees’ ongoing game of injury survivor, Greg Bird — of all people — just might be their healthiest player.

Such is the bizarro nature of the season to date that the Yankees have become the Mets with near relentless injuries, situations initially portrayed as not that bad actually being much worse and setbacks for those already sidelined.

The Yankees have paraded to the injury list more frequently than the win column so far in 2019 and the procession continued Friday when Gary Sanchez — who Aaron Boone initially forecasted would avoid an IL stint — was placed on the IL with a left calf strain. That brought the number missing to a dozen.

CC Sabathia is scheduled to return Saturday, but in the one step forward, six back Yankee world, it was revealed Thursday’s simulated game by Dellin Betances (shoulder impingement) did not go well. He underwent an MRI exam Friday to try to further delve into the issue with no immediate report made publicly available.

Miguel Andujar threw again and Giancarlo Stanton took some swings and Aaron Hicks increased activity in what feels like the slowest rehab in history, but when asked who was closest to return, Boone conceded he “has missed the boat” on recent forecasts.

He described the Yankees as “in a little bit of a storm right now,” but that the team is well constructed to endure and the championship goals remain regardless of how much the IL swells. “We expect to get through this,” the manager declared.

If a Yankees fan is looking for reasons to believe, then look to history not Boone. Somehow, whatever has occurred the past quarter century, the Yanks have figured out, at minimum, how to be contenders in September and, often, October players.

Does that guarantee anything this year? No. This might be the season in which a critical mass of injury combines with too few players stepping up to counter it. But the sense of doom that permeates right now around the Yankees has visited quite often since 1993. Baseball amnesia is a rite of the game. There is an annual moment or five when all is going wrong, when a chorus of dread descends filled with assignments of blame that those in charge are fools with no clue what they are doing.

It came early last season when the Yanks dragged to a 9-9 start amid a spate of injuries and bullpen malfeasance. Miguel Andujar and Gleyber Torres emerged and the Yanks won nine straight en route to 100 victories.

In 1996 — Joe Torre’s first managerial season — six of the seven main starters incurred injury, notably to their Luis Severino, David Cone, who missed four months after surgery to remove an aneurysm near his armpit. Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera broke out and the Yanks won it all.

In 2003, Jeter was lost for six weeks in what felt like the first five minutes of the season. The Yanks kept winning with Erick Almonte at shortstop. In 2005, they needed Shawn Chacon and Aaron Small to sparkle to make the playoffs. In 2007, Brian Cashman had to fire his new director of performance enhancement after a few months on the job following a plague of hamstring injuries. The Yankees made the playoffs. In 2013, the Yanks somehow lingered in contention with a most frequent 4-5-6 of the lineup being Travis Hafner, Vernon Wells and Lyle Overbay.

“We always knew it would take more than 25 guys to get to our ultimate goal,” said the senior Yankee, Brett Gardner. “Here we are in the middle of April, that depth is getting tested. Guys still know what the goal is here. I firmly believe we are going to figure out a way.”

They have every year since 1993, enjoying a sustained run of excellence similar to the Patriots and Spurs. Will they this year? The injury spate will need to stop and players such as Hicks and Sanchez who have shown difficulty staying healthy will have to stay in the lineup. James Paxton can’t do a lefty Sonny Gray imitation. The bullpen has to pitch to its pedigree. Bird and Clint Frazier must do an Andujar/Torres and seize opportunity. Severino needs to be like Cone in 1996, coming back to pitch great and help a stretch run.

The Yanks began a nine-game homestand Friday night against teams that began the weekend with the three worst records in the AL — the White Sox, Red Sox and Royals were a combined 9-27. So there is a chance to get a different kind of healthy. Except the Yanks really haven’t gotten healthy in any way so far in 2019.

The Yankees have figured it out for a quarter of a century. Will 2019 be more of the same or the end?