Dating back to the early days of spring training, any chance Aaron Boone has gotten over the past few months, he has thrown his support behind Willie Calhoun.

The verbiage has differed at times, but the message and belief has remained the same: Willie can really hit. Willie can bang. Willie’s a natural hitter.

Over the past week, Calhoun has started to reward that faith.

At a time when the Yankees have been ravaged by injuries and have been looking for somebody, anybody, to step up and take advantage of the opportunity, Calhoun has begun to answer the call.

Calhoun is batting .346 (9-for-26) with two home runs and a .934 OPS over his past eight games, a hot streak that has coincided with more regular playing time. That included a go-ahead home run off James Karinchak on Tuesday night and a home run off Shane Bieber and a game-tying single off dominant closer Emmanuel Clase in the ninth inning Wednesday.

“Knowing that the organization believes in you and the manager at that, it makes you want to run through a wall for Booney and the organization,” Calhoun told Post Sports+ on Sunday in Texas. “I’m just going out there trying to put together a good at-bat, and it’s been working the last 10 days or so. I’m just going to try to keep on doing that and stick with that.”

Calhoun’s heroics this week should continue to earn him some more playing time as the Yankees try to tread water while waiting to get healthy.

After impressing in spring training, the left-handed-hitting Calhoun was one of the final roster cuts two days before Opening Day. The Yankees opted to sign Franchy Cordero to a split contract (giving them the option of sending him to the minors) and added Cordero to the Opening Day roster instead of giving someone such as Calhoun a shot out of the gates.

But the 28-year-old Calhoun stuck with the organization, and reported to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, where he hit well. He was called up to the Yankees when Josh Donaldson landed on the injured list on April 8.

Calhoun got off to a 3-for-22 start as a Yankee but then, because of injuries to Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge and underperformance from Cordero, Aaron Hicks and Oswaldo Cabrera, he started to receive more at-bats. With the opportunity has come the emergence of the bat that Boone has been raving about.

“It’s been a nice past 10 days in the batter’s box,” Calhoun said. “I’ve been getting more acclimated and doing my thing and just trying to slow the game down.”

A top-100 prospect in the game heading into the 2017 and 2018 seasons — and a key piece of the trade package the Dodgers put together to land Yu Darvish from the Rangers at the 2017 deadline — Calhoun had his best season in the majors in 2019. In 83 games with the Rangers that year, he hit .269 with 21 home runs and a .848 OPS.

Since then, his journey has been marred by injuries.

In the first spring training of 2020, he was drilled in the face by a 95-mph fastball from Dodgers left-hander Julio Urias, which left him with a broken jaw. He returned for the start of the COVID-shortened season, then strained his hamstring.

In 2021, he missed the start of the season with a groin strain. In June, he was hit by another pitch that fractured his left forearm.

Calhoun then had a rough 2022 in which he was optioned to Triple-A, requested a trade, was designated for assignment by the Rangers and was picked up by the Giants, playing just 22 total major league games.

But this year, Calhoun is feeling healthy and getting an opportunity to show it, free of the mental strain that comes with coming back from injuries or trying to play through them.

“I think that’s the biggest thing for me,” Calhoun said. “If you go out there and know that you’re healthy and 100 percent, you can go out there and not play so hesitant.

“Just play fearless and not worry about, ‘Oh, am I going to pull something right here? Oh, I can’t really turn on my back leg because my hammy’s barking.’ Having that stress-free and not really worrying about that is huge for anyone. That’s what it’s been like so far this year.”

The Yankees have also “cleaned up” the 5-foot-8 Calhoun’s swing mechanics, he said, focusing on his bat path.

Calhoun said that was still a work in progress as of last weekend, but he was feeling better about it every day — with his home runs on Tuesday and Wednesday no doubt fueling his confidence in the improved mechanics.

“I think what they do good is seeing what you’re elite at and maximizing that tool to the max to help the team in that one specific area,” Calhoun said. “For me — it’s ironic that I say this, because I’ve been striking out a little bit more than normal — but the biggest thing for me as a hitter is I put the ball in play a lot. … I’m going to strike out — hopefully not that many more times, but I’m going to strike out. It’s just the at-bat quality for me and seeing pitches and getting on base for the big boys to drive me in.”

During Calhoun’s hot stretch over the past eight games, he had struck out just twice and walked once, and he has eight strikeouts in 52 plate appearances overall this season. His 15.4 percent strikeout rate was sgood enough for fourth-best on the Yankees (not including Harrison Bader, who just made his debut on Wednesday).

With Bader returning and, the Yankees hope, Judge not far behind — possibly coming off the IL as soon as Monday — playing time might become a little harder to find for Calhoun. But at least until Donaldson returns (and eventually Stanton), the DH spot should be open somewhat regularly for Calhoun.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Calhoun was describing his improvements Sunday in a corner locker of the visiting clubhouse at Globe Life Field. He was on that side for the first time after spending plenty of days in the home clubhouse with the Rangers.

Returning to Arlington was a mix of weird and nice to see familiar faces, he said, plus an opportunity to sleep in his own bed in the nearby home he bought five years ago.

“Obviously when you face your old team, you’re super-excited and you want to do everything you can to prove them wrong,” Calhoun said.

These days, though, Calhoun is more in the business of proving people right — particularly his manager.

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This week put one more nail in the coffin that was the Yankees’ 2022 trade deadline.

Amid the onslaught of injuries to the current roster came the news that Lou Trivino needed Tommy John surgery, which the reliever underwent on Wednesday.

It came as little surprise given the turn of events: Trivino sustained a UCL sprain in spring training, and the Yankees slow-played his rehab for a potential May return before he failed to bounce back well from a live batting practice session late last month.

That led to a trip up to New York to see team doctor Chris Ahmad, which precipitated seeking a second opinion with Dr. Neal ElAttrache — who ultimately performed the elbow surgery.

It’s a cruel blow for the 31-year-old Trivino, who had never had an arm injury before this season, and will now try to make a comeback in mid-to-late 2024 — his final season before entering free agency.

But the surgery also ensured that the Yankees’ trade deadline from last season got even worse.

A quick refresh of the deals the team made:

July 27: Yankees acquire OF Andrew Benintendi from Royals for RHP Chandler Champlain, LHP T.J. Sikkema and RHP Beck Way.

Aug. 1: Yankees acquire RHP Scott Effross from Cubs for RHP Hayden Wesneski.

Aug. 1: Yankees acquire RHP Frankie Montas and RHP Lou Trivino from Athletics for LHP Ken Waldichuk, LHP JP Sears, RHP Luis Medina and 2B Cooper Bowman.

Aug. 2: Yankees acquire OF Harrison Bader from Cardinals for LHP Jordan Montgomery.

Aug. 2: Yankees acquire RHP Clayton Beeter from Dodgers for OF Joey Gallo.

If you’re keeping track at home, the Yankees’ haul has included one hamate fracture (Benintendi), two Tommy John surgeries (Effross and Trivino), one arthroscopic shoulder surgery (Montas) and one strained oblique (Bader).

Benintendi, whose injury could not have been predicted, and Gallo, who is now enjoying a strong season with the Twins free from the pressures of New York, were free agents over the offseason.

But from Effross, Montas, Trivino and Bader, the Yankees have gotten just two combined games this season. They will not get any games out of Trivino and almost certainly Effross. And Montas, at best, has a chance to return by August.

Perhaps Bader, now healthy again, can provide a shot in the arm like he did last October — though it’s hard to expect the consistent power he surprisingly flashed in the playoffs.

Maybe Effross returns in 2024 to be an impact weapon out of the bullpen.

It’s even possible that someday Beeter, who owns a 1.74 ERA through four starts this year with Double-A Somerset, will turn into a helpful piece.

Until then, though, the 2022 trade deadline will remain a stain on GM Brian Cashman’s record — and that’s before any of the prospects that the Yankees sent away in those deals potentially come into their own at the big league level.

All of baseball got to smile last week at the heartwarming story of Drew Maggi, the 33-year-old minor league journeyman whom the Pirates called up to finally make his MLB debut.

Inside the Yankees clubhouse, Gerrit Cole and Clay Holmes felt a little extra connection to the story that went national.

Maggi was the Pirates’ 15th-round pick in the 2010 draft. A year later, Pittsburgh landed Cole in the first round and Holmes in the ninth round.

Cole was a fast riser in the organization, but he overlapped with Maggi in 2012 — first at High-A Bradenton, or “Pirate City,” as Cole called it while reminiscing, and then at Double-A Altoona.

Holmes and Maggi were never on the same team at the same time, but Holmes remembered Maggi from spring training and hearing about him from others in the organization.

Thinking about all the years that Maggi spent grinding away in the minors before finally getting his call to the majors, Holmes came to the same conclusion that countless others around the game surely did: “It takes someone pretty special.”