As the days of the season dwindle down to a precious few, the Yankees are unlikely to catch the Red Sox in their season-long quest for the American League East title even though the teams play each other six more times. The Yankees, on the other hand, are unlikely to squander their position as one of the wild-card teams in the A.L. playoffs.

The Mariners had an outside chance to pave the Yankees’ way out of the playoffs altogether because they had a three-game series with the Yankees this past weekend. But the Yankees won the first two games, preventing a Seattle sweep and lengthening the distance between to 11 games with 21 to play.

Thus, I don’t think it’s premature to say the Yankees have won their bet. The wild card isn’t ideal; it guarantees only one post-season game. But last year the Yankees parlayed it into a seven-game A.L. championship series.

What was the Yankees’ bet? They bet they could reach the post-season with a payroll that was below the luxury tax threshold of $197 million.

In previous years, that idea would have been unthinkable. The Yankees and the luxury tax were an item. They went together like a horse and carriage or a bagel and cream cheese.

From the inception of the luxury tax in 2003 through last season the Yankees exceeded the threshold each season. They paid $341 million for their economic excess. However, the basic agreement gives teams a tempting way out of such extravagance, and this year the Yankees took advantage of it.

If a team pays the tax, then the next season has a payroll under the threshold, its tax rate reverts to the minimum rate, 20 percent. That has been the Yankees’ goal this season, getting to 20 percent from 50 percent, and it appears they are achieving it. The luxury tax payrolls, which are based on 40-man rosters and include about $14 million in benefits, are not calculated until the season is over and all bonuses are added. But the Yankees’ payroll is about $180 million, giving them room to spare.

When George Steinbrenner was alive and running the Yankees, he was never satisfied that the team was sufficiently fortified. Two regular shortstops were better than one. An established third baseman was better than a rookie. Six starting pitchers were better than five. And a $15 million outfielder was preferable to one he could have paid $2.8 million.

Brian Cashman didn’t necessarily follow that philosophy in his first two decades as general manager, but he took advantage of the economic freedom he had. Opposing teams always felt they were competing on a different level as the Yankees readily spent on a veteran player to replace an injured player while other teams filled holes with rookies or over-the-hill veterans.

Cashman never hesitated to spend freely, whether on injury replacements or front-line free agents. Counting only the 25-man roster and disabled-list players and not including benefits, the team’s payrolls in Cashman’s two decades as general manager amounted to $3.665 billion.

This year, though, the Yankees’ hierarchy changed the philosophy. They were determined to stay under the tax threshold and believed the Yankees had a group of good young players and whom they could rely on to get them to October without older, more experienced, wealthier players.

“We felt confident we could go with what we have,” Randy Levine, the club president, said in an interview last week. “Our player development people had great belief in our young players.”

But not even the player development staff could have predicted what Gleyber Torres and Miguel Andujar have done as first-year Yankees starting regularly as half of the infield. Luke Voit has produced, too, since he was acquired from St. Louis July 28 and subsequently stepped in at first base when Greg Bird didn’t do what he had been expected to do.

Not to be overlooked, as in out of sight, out of mind, is Aaron Judge, who was the Yankees’ and maybe the league’s most valuable player until a pitched ball fractured his right wrist July 27.

The roster includes other young players, and it is the combination of the production of young players and their meager salaries that have made it possible for the Yankees to avoid the tax. Had the young players not produced, the Yankees surely would have pursued veteran players as they did pitchers J.A. Happ, Lance Lynn and Zach Britton. In fact, after Judge was injured the Yankees traded for outfielder Andrew McCutchen.

That list would have been much longer had the young players been unproductive. But they produced enough to get the Yankees into wild-card position.

Keeping in mind that the minimum salary is $545,000, these are the salaries the Yankees are paying:

• Aaron Judge                $622,300
• Gleyber Torres            $545,000
• Miguel Andujar           $545,800
• Gary Sanchez              $620,400
• Luis Severino              $604,975
• Ronald Torreyes          $615,500
• Greg Bird                    $582,000
• Jordan Montgomery    $580,450
• Chad Green                 $570,800
• Clint Frazier                $559,200
• Jonathan Holder          $553,850
• Tyler Wade                 $551,300
• Luis Cessa                   $568,925
• A.J. Cole                     $555,300
• Ben Heller                   $547,475
• Stephen Tarpley          $545,000
• Jonathan Loiasiga       $545,000

If the Yankees are successful in their plan, which they certainly will be, they will waste no time later this year in pursuing expensive free agents such as Bryce Harper and Manny Machado. That presumably is part of the plan. Save tax money and spend it on free agents. On the other hand, should the young Yankees go all the way and win the World Series, they might just try their trick again.

Many other teams, of course, have gone to the playoffs and even won the World Series without manipulating their payroll or paying the luxury tax. Steinbrenner always thought the Yankees were special and didn’t want other teams copying what his team did. In retrospect, maybe the Yankees should have been copying other teams. After all, isn’t that what they’re doing now