The funny thing about Mike Tauchman returning to Yankee Stadium on Friday with the Cubs, for the first time since he was traded away in 2021, is that the ailing Yankees’ outfield could use someone to do for them what Tauchman did for the 2019 squad.

Tauchman, an unheralded 10th-round pick cast off by the Rockies after hitting .094 over 21 major league games in 2018, ran with his opportunity on that 2019 Yankees team.

Getting in the lineup due to injuries, Tauchman forced his way into staying with a slash line of .277/.361/.504.

On Friday, the Yankees, already without Aaron Judge for an indefinite period, put Jake Bauers on the injured list and brought up Franchy Cordero to start in the outfield.

The need for someone to construct a stretch similar to Tauchman’s in 2019 was tangible.

That 2019 squad responded to adversity well, finishing with 103 wins and winning the AL East. This 2023 team is stuck in third place in the division, fighting for a wild-card spot with the first-place Rays eight games up as Friday began.

“Obviously this is a tough league, and timing, opportunity and luck are as much a factor for a lot of guys’ careers as anything else, as your abilities,” said Tauchman, who did not play in the Cubs’ 3-0 win over the Yankees. “We had a lot of guys that got a little bit extended opportunities that year and took the most of it. When that’s happening, you just want to be in on it.”

With the benefit of hindsight, his 2019 performance looks more like lightning in a bottle than something lasting.

Tauchman’s production fell off in 2020, leading to a deal that sent him to the Giants the next season.

He couldn’t stick in San Francisco, then spent last season in Korea, with the Hanwha Eagles, which could give him what a major league team couldn’t: consistent playing time.

“I wouldn’t say so much as I learned [overseas] as I felt like I got a good opportunity to play every single day and I felt like I had a good opportunity to reset myself mentally, get back to some fundamental things that I think I had gotten away from,” Tauchman said. “Also, [got to] see a part of the world that not a lot of people see.”

That yielded a recovery of sorts as Tauchman put up a .795 OPS in the Korean league.

Now he is with the Cubs, as a near-everyday presence in the lineup since mid-May, albeit with numbers below league average.

Still, he is playing.

“I’m very fortunate,” Tauchman said. “I was drafted in 2013. To still be here playing this game, outlasting a lot of guys, I’m just extremely grateful.”