MLB youngsters bring the trash talk — and much-needed fun

HOUSTON — Remember how much the Yankees struggled to fill the void left by Aaron Judge’s injury?

While it won’t make Yankees fans feel any better, Alex Bregman has found a way to replicate one of Judge’s most underrated and unappreciated skills:

Trolling.

Bless both the Yankees’ behemoth and the Astros’ charismatic third baseman. Better yet, clone their personalities. The more of this youthful energy baseball can promote, the better.

Bregman threw some spice into this American League Championship Series on Monday when he posted an Instagram story titled “lil pregame video work” that featured George Springer, Bregman and Jose Altuve going deep back-to-back-to-back against Rays pitcher Nathan Eovaldi in a June 20 game at Minute Maid Park.

Eovaldi, you may not know — and really, the idea is to draw in people who may not know — has since been traded to the Red Sox and will start Game 3 against Bregman and the ‘Stros on Tuesday afternoon at Minute Maid, with the series tied at 1-1.

“Welcome to the current generation,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said Monday.

Actually, by the time Hinch held his Minute Maid news conference, Bregman had taken down his eye-popping post. Apparently he or someone close to him decided to stop poking the bear. Of course, the beauty of this digital age comes in the inability to put the virtual toothpaste back in the tube. The post is out there, just as Judge couldn’t delete the video of him playing “New York, New York” on his boom box as the Yankees departed Fenway Park following their AL Division Series Game 2 victory over the Sawx.

The Red Sox celebrated to the legendary Frank Sinatra song after they won ALDS Games 3 and 4 at Yankee Stadium, a clear return shot at Judge. Now they’ll try to get their revenge on Bregman and vindication for Eovaldi, who beat the Yankees in ALDS Game 3

“We want guys to have their personalities, have their fun. Then go out and back it up,” Hinch said. “If you’re going to put yourself out there you’ve got to back it up a little bit.”

The former Yankee Eovaldi, eternally polite and noncontroversial, politely said he had been made aware of the video and then politely stepped off this merry-go-round.

“I still have a job to do,” he said. “I’ve got to go out there and pitch my game tomorrow, and I can’t have any distractions.”

And his manager Alex Cora, clearly old school at heart yet understanding baseball’s need to evolve with the times, essentially aired his internal debate about the matter.

“Alex Bregman is one of the best players in the big leagues,” said Cora, who worked as the Astros’ bench coach last season. “And now, well, they’re talking for, not for the right reasons, but they’re talking about it. And I think it’s cool. I don’t know.

“… Probably when I was playing I would be, like, ‘Here we go!’ … But it’s always good that people talk about the game. And if that’s the reason they’re talking about it, so be it.”

Earlier in his news conference, Cora said, “If you need motivation in Game 3 of the ALCS, you better check yourself, because you win three more games you go to the show. And that’s what should motivate you. Alex has different ways of motivating himself. And whatever. I’ll leave it at that.”

Baseball shouldn’t leave it at that, because it’s locked into a battle for its future against a ceaselessly increasing list of options for young people. And baseball isn’t leaving it at that, as evidenced by its TV commercial for the postseason that features legend Ken Griffey Jr. pooh-poohing baseball’s unwritten rules about conduct and pleading, “Let the kids play.”

Let the kids mix it up, à la Judge and Bregman, and then let them invest similar passion and fun into the game itself. If Judge and Bregman hurt their own teams’ chances in return for growing the sport, that constitutes a worthwhile swap, globally.

How will the gentle bear Eovaldi respond to being poked? Game 3, and this series, and the sport, has a little more juice behind it, thanks to Bregman following Judge’s lead.