Edwin Encarnacion has been quiet, but he's a threat

A clean-shaven Edwin Encarnacion was one of the first to appear in front of his locker at Yankee Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Hours away from the sixth game of his Yankees tenure — this one against the AL West-leading Astros — Encarnacion quietly put on his pinstriped pants and tight, short-sleeved undershirt.

Like his demeanor, Encarnacion’s impact on the Yankees — who won their eighth straight game (including all six with their prized new slugger) by beating the Astros, 7-5 — has been quiet. He owns a .136 batting average in 22 at-bats after going 0-for-4 Saturday, but he has homered twice in six games and represented yet another lethal righthanded bat in a lineup that has scored the third-most runs in the American League.

While the prevailing expectation was that general manager Brian Cashman’s first headline-making move would be for an impact starting pitcher, he instead jumped on the opportunity to acquire Encarnacion — who is tied with Gary Sanchez for the American League lead with 23 home runs — from the Mariners on June 15 for 19-year-old pitching prospect Juan Then and cash considerations.

It was a case of the rich getting richer . . . or rather, the powerful getting more powerful.

“You can never have too much, I feel like, of anything,” said J.A. Happ, who was Encarnacion’s teammate in Toronto for parts of four seasons. “You see what happens in this game with injuries and whatnot, so I think it was a really good move.”

Even before the acquisition of Encarnacion, the Yankees were expecting to activate sluggers Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. All three were in the lineup Friday — it was Judge’s first game back from an oblique injury — meaning the Yankees added three sluggers in the last week who hit a combined 97 home runs last season. (They went 0-for-11 in their first game together and 2-for-10 in their second.)

“It’s fun to see this lineup,” Encarnacion said. “You’re not used to seeing the kind of lineup we have right now.”

Winning a World Series has eluded the 36-year-old, who is in his 15th big-league season, though he twice reached the American League Championship Series with Toronto (2015-16). Now the opportunity is there with the Yankees, who have beaten two AL contenders in the Rays and Astros in their last six victories.

“It’s all about winning games no matter how, no matter what we need to do,” he said. “It’s all about winning games, and that’s our goal. Everybody here has a goal, and we know where we want to go.”

The majors’ deepest lineup — when healthy — deepened with the trade. Encarnacion reached 400 career home runs on June 9 and is third among active players with 403. Since 2012, he leads the majors with 263 home runs and 764 RBIs. He’s the only player who hit at least 30 homers in each of the previous seven seasons, and he is well on his way to making it eight.

“You talk about consistency and being a professional hitter, he’s both of those as much as anyone else in the game,” Happ said. “We’ve already seen the power and the at-bats he puts together, and he’s a great addition to any lineup. He really makes us that much better, I think.

“There’s not really any field that’s going to contain him.”

The hits have yet to fall, but he has walked three times and scored five runs. He’s shown a penchant for striking out, with three on Saturday and at least 132 in each of the previous three years, but manager Aaron Boone already has noticed the quality of his at-bats.

“There’s been a number of eight-, nine-, 10-pitch at-bats where it seems like even if you get him behind in the count, he really does a good job of not chasing certain pitches,” he said. “So even if you retire him, it feels like the pitcher’s had to work really hard at it.”

Consider Happ among the many Yankees pitchers who are happy to not face Encarnacion for at least the rest of the season. The Yankees have a $20 million option to retain him in 2020.

“It’s nice to see his name on our side of the lineup, for sure,” Happ said.

Close friend Gio Urshela has helped Encarnacion acclimate after the pair spent 2017 together with the Indians. Encarnacion said he already feels “very comfortable here.”

“I’m going to be myself,” he said. “Be Edwin Encarnacion, no matter where I am, and try to help this team and this club to where we want to go.”