We all know why the Yankees have been able to succeed in the face of so many key injuries these past two seasons. It’s roster depth, right?

Sort of. While it helps to have competent position players to replace injured stars, the Yankees have survived because of another, perhaps even more important factor: A dominant bullpen, which will paper over many flaws and issues.

This is how Brian Cashman and his staff designed it two winters ago, when they re-signed Zack Britton and added Adam Ottavino to an already strong relief corps. Whatever problems that arise, the Yankees know that they can cover one inning after another in close games.

That is why the relievers were the most troubling aspect of three separate losses to the Mets in the past week -- two last Saturday, when Chad Green and Chapman allowed key homers in a doubleheader sweep, and one on Thursday, when Britton and Chapman failed to hold a three-run lead.

We’ll begin with Green. He pitched a scoreless inning on Thursday, but there’s a whiff of uneasiness to his season. In addition to allowing several killer home runs, Green has been mysteriously absent from a number of spots that Aaron Boone typically reserved for him in the past. A few weeks ago, Green was ostensibly healthy but left unused in an entire series against Tampa Bay. This all seems worth keeping an eye on.

Britton’s trouble on Thursday was less concerning after a closer look. He allowed two runs in the eight on a double, two singles and a walk. All three of the hits were on the ground, and all three came on pitches that were in the lower part of the strike zone -- though perhaps a few inches more elevated than Britton wanted them, and resulting in hard contact.

Still, his style is to pitch to contact, and that style will occasionally result in hits.

“I thought Britton was good,” Boone said after his team lost 9-7. “[The Mets] were putting the ball on the ground .... Every now and then that kind of happens.”

In the ninth, Billy Hamilton handed the Yankees a gift of an out on the bases when he tried to steal third with no outs -- and still, Chapman couldn’t protect a one-run lead.

His fastball velocity wasn’t tip-top at the beginning of the inning before recovering, but that’s not atypical for him. The real issue was fastball command, evident when he left a heater over the middle of the plate and J.D. Davis sent it clanging into the black in center field for a game-tying homer.

A bout of COVID-19 delayed the start of Chapman’s season, and this was just his fifth appearance. While he says he feels physically fine, he concedes that he is still working on his command -- just as any pitcher would so early in his season. When Chapman doesn’t have it, he’s forced to either overdo it with the slider or offer up meaty fastballs; on Thursday, he did a little bit of both.

When we asked Chapman if he felt like a pitcher in spring training, a pitcher in April/May or a pitcher in midseason, he gave a revealing answer.

“It’s hard to put a month, put an exact point,” he said. “I do feel like a player who has missed a lot of time and grinding to get back to where I want to be.”

He added that “little by little it keeps feeling better and better.”

The Yankees need that trajectory to continue, if not accelerate. Without the best from Chapman -- not to mention Britton, Green and Ottavino -- it will be difficult for the team to make a deep run through October.

The Yankees are designed to withstand many issues, but a shaky bullpen is one problem that they cannot survive.

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