After whiffing on a catcher at the trade deadline, the Yankees are taking a flier on veteran backstop. 

The club has signed Mitch Garver to a minor league deal, a source confirmed to The Post on Friday, adding a right-handed hitting option at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. 

The 35-year-old Garver, who was released by the Mariners earlier this week, previously worked with Yankees director of catching Tanner Swanson when both were in the Twins organization. 

“Veteran presence, guy who’s hit left-handed pitching in the past, coming in on a minor league deal with no promises,” Swanson said at Yankee Stadium. “We think there’s probably some things we can tap into to improve the defense in the short runway that we have here. Eventually, he’ll make his way to Scranton and see if he has anything left offensively. 

“We think he does, that’s why we acquired him, and it gives us another option down the stretch and come postseason time when roster construction and all that depth, should we have an injury, just another right-handed bat that only makes our group stronger.” 

Of course, the Yankees would have loved to land another righty-hitting catcher from the Twins, Ryan Jeffers, except Minnesota did not end up selling at the deadline. And after the Red Sox beat out the Yankees for Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman and the Rays acquired lefty-hitting catcher Liam Hicks from the Marlins, GM Brian Cashman was unable to add a backstop at all by Monday. 

The Yankees signed Mitch Garver. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post

So Garver will eventually join J.C. Escarra and another recently signed veteran, Christian Bethancourt, at Triple-A to see if he can make a case to unseat Ali Sánchez as Austin Wells’ backup. 

“Really, just trying to add to our depth and protection and get him into our system, see where we can help him, see what he has and you never know,” manager Aaron Boone said. 

It remains to be seen what Garver — whose last above-average offensive season came in 2023, when he helped the Rangers win the World Series — has left in the tank, after batting .175 with a .596 OPS in 50 games with the Mariners this season. He was better against lefties, batting .222 with a .659 OPS, and has been over the course of his career. 

Garver, who was Swanson’s first big-league success story in using the one-knee down stance that helps improve framing, only ranked in the 17th percentile in framing this season. But Swanson believes that can be improved upon once the Yankees get working with him. 

“There’s things we’ve already had discussions with him about that I think he’ll pick up quickly,” Swanson said. “Seattle pitches up in the zone a lot. I’m not surprised that he hasn’t performed well at the bottom of the zone. They’re likely deploying a different strategy based on how they pitch. We do the same. I’m assuming every team is similar in that regard, they want their catching to align with their pitching strategy.”