ALL KIDDING ASIDE

Girardi facing serious task with youthful Yanks

TAMPA — Joe Girardi dealt with the suffocating drama of Alex Rodriguez, was knee-deep into Derek Jeter’s final year and was without Mariano Rivera for a good chunk of a season due to a knee injury.

Yet, when the Yankees manager opens spring training Tuesday at George M. Steinbrenner Field with a press conference, Girardi will be facing the biggest challenge of his 10 seasons in charge.

Girardi has been handed the tricky chore of attempting to contend for the AL East title or a wild-card ticket with inexperience in the lineup, rotation and bullpen.

And the 52-year-old Girardi will do it in the final leg of a four-year deal. Having worked as a lame-duck manager in 2013, Girardi has experience in that department. However, the Yankees won the World Series in 2009, Girardi’s second season, and made the postseason in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

The Yankees have played one postseason game since 2012 and lost it to the Astros in the 2015 AL wild-card tilt.

General manager Brian Cashman has said he doesn’t believe the Yankees are “one player away’’ from being the team he thinks the club will become, and that’s why he didn’t chase available ace Chris Sale.

However energized the Yankees and their fickle fans were about how the young players kept the team in postseason contention until late September, relying on kids in key spots is dangerous. And the degree of difficulty increases in New York.

Girardi also has experience handling young players, but that was with the 2006 Marlins, a team with no expectations that f inished fourth in front of thousands of empty seats. Despite a 78-84 record, Girardi was named NL manager of the year. A similar ledger this year could lead to a new manager in The Bronx.

So, despite the questions attached to Gary Sanchez, Aaron Judge, Greg Bird, Luis Severino, Bryan Mitchell, Luis Cessa and Chad Green, Girardi’s message will paint a mural of optimism.

For Judge, whom Hal Steinbrenner anointed as the right fielder during the offseason, the buzz around the neophytes is enjoyable. He will be 25 in April.

“It’s exciting, getting the chance to play [in the big leagues] with Gary, Ref [Rob Refsnyder] and Bird is back. All these guys I played with for two or three years and now we are all going up there,’’ said Judge, who whiffed 42 times in 84 big league atbats and hit .179 last August and September, but possesses ungodly right-handed power. “You saw what Gary did, it was exciting. I have been watching that for two or three years in the minor leagues. It’s a good time to be a Yankee and a Yankee fan.’’

Sanchez crushed 20 homers and drove in 42 runs in 53 games last year, and only a fool believes he can deliver at that pace across a full season. Judge knows the recipe pitchers use against him — hard in and soft away — and needs to reduce the strikeouts, and Bird, 24, missed all of last season due to right (throwing) shoulder surgery.

Severino, who will turn 23 this month, appeared to be on the way to the greatness some predicted for the right-hander as a minor leaguer in 2015 when he went 5-3 with a 2.89 ERA in 11 big-league starts.

That route to stardom took a big hit last year thanks to a 0-8 record and an obese 8.50 ERA in 11 starts. Shifted to the pen Severino was 3-0 with a 0.39 ERA in 11 bullpen outings. However, if Severino doesn’t cop one of the two open spots in the rotation, he will be shipped to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and work as a starter.

Judge hasn’t overhauled hi s hi tt i ng mechanics and isn’t buying Steinbrenner’s anointment.

“It’s the same approach, just working on being more consistent,’’ Judge said. “I feel like an underdog, go in there and take a job. I was up in the big leagues for a month and got hurt [oblique strain] so I have something to prove.’’

Which could help Girardi handle a colossal challenge.