Brian Cashman has said he’d prefer to get Aaron Judge’s deal done sooner rather than later because whatever Judge costs — and that’s if he stays — it’s going to be the Yankees’ largest expenditure of the offseason.

Even if Judge does re-sign, as the Yankees found out again this postseason, he can’t get them to the World Series by himself.

With that in mind at the trade deadline, the Yankees targeted Andrew Benintendi as someone who would be well-suited to help them in the playoffs — especially against the Astros.

Why?

Because in addition to Benintendi being one of the top contact hitters available at the time, the Yankees also liked his ability to hit four-seam fastballs up in the zone, a pitch that helped make the Astros’ rotation so effective.

According to Baseball Savant, only four starting pitchers threw a higher percentage of four-seamers than Yankees nemesis Cristian Javier (59.9 percent).

Fellow Astros right-handers Jose Urquidy (who became an afterthought in the playoffs), Justin Verlander and Luis Garcia also were in the top 32 in four-seam usage.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Judge was the best hitter in MLB against four-seam fastballs, according to Baseball Savant.

Benintendi has had success against that pitch, especially up in the zone, and the Yankees were confident the left fielder and DJ LeMahieu, along with Judge and Anthony Rizzo, would be well-suited to deal with the Astros staff’s arsenal.

That’s why the season-ending injuries to Benintendi (broken hook of the hamate bone) and LeMahieu (fractured right toe) caused the organization such angst, a feeling that lingered even in the press conferences Cashman and Aaron Boone gave weeks after the season ended with an ALCS sweep at the hands of the Astros.

And though 2022 is becoming more of a distant memory, the Yankees still have to figure out how to get past Houston.

That task would be easier if Verlander — who opted out of the second year of his contract worth $25 million because he is set to top that on the free agent-market — is not with the Astros.

How do the Yankees attack the issue going forward? They have admitted they have a need for more contact throughout their lineup.

They could simply turn to Benintendi again as a free agent. But the 28-year-old could end up with a deal worth four years and close to $60 million, and the Yankees might not be interested at that price.

Mets center fielder Brandon Nimmo — like Benintendi, a lefty hitter — is also a free agent, but he’d be even pricier than Benintendi and it seems unlikely the Yankees would pursue the 29-year-old Nimmo (he turns 30 in March) if they invest in Judge.

Matt Carpenter, another left-handed hitter whose injury hurt the Yankees in October, also produced well against four-seamers and has said he’s open to a return, but Giancarlo Stanton will take up the DH spot for years to come.

As it turned out, the Yankee who hit the Astros better than anyone in the ALCS was Harrison Bader — another trade deadline acquisition, who came from the Cardinals in exchange for lefty Jordan Montgomery and was valued more for his defense than his bat. He’s still under team control for one more year.

Another possible candidate, as The Post’s Jon Heyman reported, is Japanese left fielder Masataka Yoshida, who also bats left-handed.Yoshida, 28, struck out just 41 times in 508 plate appearances last season for the Orix Buffaloes.

Plaque to the future?

Don Mattingly said he wasn’t expecting the news that he was up for the Baseball Hall of Fame again until someone called him about it during the week.

“I had no idea,’’ Mattingly said Thursday at the Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation dinner.

Mattingly is one of eight candidates named on the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee ballot. He’ll need at least 75 percent of the votes from the 16-person committee. The results will be made public on Dec. 4.

He said he hadn’t given much thought to the Hall of Fame toward the end of his 15-year run on the writers’ ballot, which ended in 2015. In his first year on the ballot in 2001, Mattingly got 28.2 percent of the vote, well short of the 75 percent needed. In his final year, Mattingly received just 9.2 percent.

“To be honest, as the years kept going, I kind of hated that day [the voting came out],’’ Mattingly said. “By the end, I knew what the trend was and I wasn’t going anywhere, so I just wanted to get past that day.”

In 2017, Mattingly was on the Modern Era ballot, but didn’t get the dozen votes necessary. Now he has another chance, along with Albert Belle, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Fred McGriff, Dale Murphy, Rafael Palmeiro and Curt Schilling.

Mattingly, who resigned as the Marlins manager at the end of this season following seven years, said he wants to manage again.

Frazier in syndication

A former Yankees outfielder is heading to the Dominican winter league to help revive his career. Toros del Este, the team that previously included Gary Sanchez, announced the signing of “Clint Jackson Frazier” this week. Frazier, released by the Yankees a year ago, had a rough 2022 season with the Cubs. During the season, he said he wanted to be referred to by his middle name, Jackson.

The 28-year-old appeared in just 19 big league games for the Cubs, compiling a .297 slugging percentage, and had a miserable stint with Triple-A Iowa, hitting .190 with 92 strikeouts in 66 games.

Aaron Hicks spent part of last offseason playing in the Dominican Republic in an effort to prove he was healthy following wrist surgery. Hicks hit relatively well in the Dominican, but the results did not transfer to the majors. He had a terrible year — posting a .642 OPS and just 19 extra-base hits in 453 plate appearances — which prompted the Yankees to trade for both Bader and Benintendi.

Dominguez’s fall fall-off

Jasson Dominguez hit well just about everywhere he went last season, from Low-A Tampa to High-A Hudson Valley to his final week at Double-A Somerset.

But Dominguez, who turns 20 in February, hasn’t done much in the Arizona Fall League. Through Wednesday, he had the third-worst OPS (.487) among qualified hitters.