On Friday, the “second half” of the MLB season begins.

Technically, the season is well past the midway mark. The Yankees already have played more than 60 percent of their regular-season games. And Juan Soto may already have appeared in more than half the games he’ll ever play in pinstripes.

The clock on his tenure began ticking the instant the Yankees pulled off the blockbuster trade with the Padres in December, with Soto’s Scott Boras-led free agency — and a payday that may top a half-billion dollars — coming this fall.

Though Soto has managed to maintain his honeymoon phase with the Yankees through nearly four months of action, the most important decision of his career will loom larger as the season shrinks.