They’re the Yankees, so nobody outside of what is called "Yankee Universe" is ever going to organize a pity party for them. But now that they are going to begin their season with one of their biggest stars injured -- Gerrit Cole -- they do have a right to wonder when they are due for some good luck, after a good long time.

Everybody knows what their payroll is like, every single year. So this isn’t some kind of excuse about a team that hasn’t had a losing season since 1993, even if it has only won one World Series (2009) since the Red Sox came from 0-3 down to beat the Yankees in the ’04 ALCS, the only World Series in which the Yankees have played in the past two decades.

But somehow the team that has won 40 pennants in its history and 27 World Series titles certainly has had what those Lemony Snicket books for children call “A Series of Unfortunate Events.”

The Yankees and their fans don’t have to look back any further than last season. Aaron Judge, coming off a 62-home run season, tore a ligament in his right big toe crashing into the outfield wall at Dodger Stadium, first week of June. He would end up missing 42 games because of it, and the Yankees would be eight games under .500 for the rest of the season.

Anthony Rizzo had been injured the week before in a collision with Fernando Tatis Jr. on a pickoff play. Rizzo ultimately went on the IL with an injured neck, but the real problem turned out to be concussion symptoms that ruined his season after a hot start and sent him to the bench for good in early August.

Carlos Rodón, their $162 million free-agent pitcher, made only 14 starts because of various injuries, won just three games and had a 6.85 ERA. Lefty Nestor Cortes, another top starter, was limited to just a dozen starts because of an injury to his pitching shoulder.

“The only way to put [injuries] behind us is to create a new narrative,” Yankees general manager and senior VP Brian Cashman said last winter. “Bring -- somehow, some way -- a much-improved situation, healthier, and a better roster to change the narrative. Because right now, the narrative’s not good enough.”

That was well before Cole began experiencing elbow problems in the spring, Judge missed time because of an abdominal issue, and DJ LeMahieu was once again being nagged by a sore toe that could force him to start the season on the IL.

In 2022, a season that saw the Yankees make it back to the ALCS before being swept by the Astros, there were a string of second-half injuries. LeMahieu’s toe. Giancarlo Stanton’s Achilles. Three Trade Deadline acquisitions -- Andrew Benintendi, Frankie Montas, Scott Effross -- went down. The irony is that Harrison Bader, in a walking boot when the Yankees traded Jordan Montgomery to the Cardinals for him, did get healthy in the postseason and hit like a star, one of the few Yankees who did.

In the end, the Yankees were again unable to overcome what they didn’t have with what they still did have, the way the old Yankees used to. In 2018, before the Red Sox ran away with their fourth World Series title this century, the Yankees were only 4 1/2 games behind the Sox in late July when Judge’s wrist was broken because of a pitch thrown by Jakob Junis. He didn’t come back until mid-September. Even then, the Yankees ended up in a Game 4 rock fight against the Red Sox in the Division Series before Craig Kimbrel managed to escape another death-defying bottom of the ninth, and the Red Sox won the series, three games to one.

The next season, it would be the Yankees and Astros again in the ALCS, a terrific six-game series that ended with Jose Altuve’s walk-off home run in the bottom of the 9th of Game 6. That year, Stanton was limited to just 59 regular-season at-bats because of biceps, shoulder and knee injuries. But he was back for the postseason (he’s hit more postseason home runs than Judge since becoming a Yankee), hit a homer in Game 1 against the Astros on a night when he went 2-for-4 and his team won. Then he missed four of the next five games with a quad injury, and the Astros ultimately sent the Yankees home again.

“It’s obviously been more than us being injury-prone,” a smart Yankees fan I know said. “But injuries have been a big part of our story, all the way back to when [Derek] Jeter broke his ankle against the Tigers in 2012 [Game 1 of the ALCS].”

• Yankees Injuries & Moves

Another unfortunate event, what turned out to be the last postseason game Jeter played for the Yankees.

It is more than injuries, everybody knows that. They’re only a part of the entire story. Over the past seven seasons, either the Astros or Red Sox were better than them in October. The Yankees never seem to have enough starting pitching, even when healthy. They haven’t had enough left-handed power lately, though they finally might with Juan Soto, and with Rizzo all the way back.

Now Cole starts the season on the sidelines. Maybe this is the year when the Yankees do change the narrative -- about everything -- overcome everything, the way they used to. They have a right to think they’re due.