The classic baseball adage says that you shouldn’t put too much stock in your impressions during spring training or in September.

Although the Yankees don’t put much stock in the outcomes of spring training games, manager Aaron Boone thinks September is still a good month to see how their young players perform and where they might fit in moving forward.

That spring training/September cliche is “a fun narrative that everyone loves to throw out,” Boone said. These contests are crucial. These opponents are in the postseason. It’s amusing to me that the adage “You can’t trust spring training and September” has become so widely accepted simply because someone said it first.

No, I don’t think so. Sure, it’s best to soak it all in, because no single calendar month can accommodate it all. When talking about young players, though, this is an essential aspect of the appraisal process.

The Yankees’ nine series this month include a matchup with a playoff-chasing Blue Jays team that began on Tuesday at Rogers Centre.

Even if the Yankees are eliminated from postseason contention, their opponents may still be, raising the stakes for those games.

“Even though we’re out of it now, we have a lot to play for and a lot to prove over this final week of the season,” Boone said on Tuesday, two days after the Yankees were formally eliminated. “In my experience, males generally think that way.”

The Yankees, on the other hand, had a lot to play for in September of last year when it appeared like Oswaldo Cabrera would play a significant part in 2023 and that Oswald Peraza would establish himself as the team’s main shortstop.

Both Cabrera and Peraza are hoping to use the month of September to have a breakout year and solidify their future roles.

First-time big-league appearances by Austin Wells, Everson Pereira, and Jasson Dominguez (before he tore his UCL) are all in the same boat.

Naturally, you have to take everything with a grain of salt, as Boone put it. But if you’re going to tell me it doesn’t matter, that’s OK. That phrase seems like an old baseball cliche to me. You are, of course, considering everything. You’re doing a season review, or in the case of young athletes, a minor league season review.

“Now that they’ve made it here and are participating in the games, how do they react to the various settings? It’s all a natural aspect of their growth and development.

On Tuesday, the Yankees’ 17-9 record was the best in baseball since August 28. During that time, each of their young players has demonstrated glimpses of his future greatness.

Peraza Һit.274 with an OPS of.741 in 19 games during the month of September.

Cabrera had his finest 13-game hitting streak of a mostly disappointing season, hitting.271 with a.735 OPS. Over his previous seven games, Wells was batting.280 with an OPS of.948.

Even Estevan Florial’s batting performance was better than in any of his prior stints with the big league club.

Of course, September performance can be interpreted in many ways than merely young players.

The Yankees are also hoping to gain insight into whether Michael King can be an everyday starter for them in 2019 and that Carlos Rodon can salvage part of a disappointing season.

Is this the beginning of something great, or just a few relaxing weeks after a long season?

It seems like that adage has been around forever, Boone added. And I’m not saying there isn’t any trutҺ to that. It goes without sаying. To sаy, “Oh, this man was amazing in September, here we go” would be ridiculous. It goes without saying. To deny that it plays a role in progress, information collecting, and forming judgments about individuals would be nave.