The Yankees are in transition again — the tricky transition of replacing a revered player. Bob Sheppard’s recorded voice will not intone, “Num-bah 2, Der-ek Jee-tah, Num-bah 2” this season. Didi Gregorius, obtained in an off-season trade, is the new shortstop. But because the Yankees have had so many revered players in winning a record 27 World Series, they have had to manage this transition every so often.

Over the years, the Yankees have needed to “replace” Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Bill Dickey, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto, Roger Maris, Whitey Ford, Thurman Munson, Reggie Jackson, Don Mattingly,Mariano Rivera and now Jeter.

Some new names performed better than others. Some emerged from the Yankees’ farm system; some were acquired in trades or as free agents; some were backups like George Selkirk, suddenly the right fielder in 1935 after the aging Ruth had been released by the owner Jacob Ruppert so he could join the Boston Braves.

“Selkirk was under heavy pressure that first year, but he came through brilliantly,” Joe McCarthy, his Yankees manager, once said. “No player ever had a tougher assignment.”

That first year, Selkirk hit .312 with 94 runs batted in. In his nine seasons, he batted over .300 five times and was an All-Star in 1936 and the right fielder on five World Series winners. In his first Series at-bat, in 1936, he hit a home run at the Polo Grounds off Carl Hubbell, the New York Giants’ ace left-hander.

After serving in the Navy during World War II, Selkirk was a baseball lifer. He returned to the Yankees as a scout and minor league manager. He later was the Washington Senators’ general manager who hired Gil Hodges as manager in 1963 and let him go after the 1967 season to be the Mets’ manager.

When Lou Gehrig, weakened by what would be diagnosed as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, benched himself in Detroit on May 2, 1939, after 2,130 consecutive games, 493 home runs and a .340 lifetime average, Ellsworth Dahlgren, known as Babe, was the new first baseman. The Yankees had purchased him from the Red Sox in 1937. After replacing Gehrig, he hit .235 with 15 homers and 89 R.B.I. as the Yankees won a fourth consecutive World Series. After batting .264 with 12 homers in 1940, he was dealt to the Boston Braves early in 1941, a few months before Gehrig’s death at 37.

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Bill Dickey, tall and imposing, was arguably the best catcher in baseball as the Yankees won seven World Series from 1932 to 1943. Returning from the Navy in 1946, he was named the manager when McCarthy suddenly resigned. Late that season, when the club president Larry MacPhail hired Bucky Harris as the likely manager in 1947, Dickey resigned. Less than a week later, the Yankees recalled a young catcher-outfielder who was batting .315 at Newark: Lawrence Peter Berra.

Aaron Robinson remained the Yankees’ primary catcher in 1947 while Berra hit .280 with 54 R.B.I. and 11 homers. The next year, Gus Niarhos was the primary catcher, but Berra contributed 98 R.B.I. with a .305 average and 14 home runs. By then Dickey had returned as a coach, prompting Berra to say, “He’s learning me all his experience.”

Berra learned it well, earning three American League Most Valuable Player Awards and a record 10 World Series rings. When Berra became a full-time outfielder, Elston Howard, the Yankees’ first African-American player, emerged as a nine-time All-Star catcher and the A.L.’s most valuable player in 1963.

Not long after Joe DiMaggio hit a home run to help the Yankees win the 1951 World Series, he retired, saying, “I’m not Joe DiMaggio anymore” — certainly not the Joe DiMaggio who hit in 56 consecutive games in 1941, who led the Yankees to 10 American League pennants and nine Series championships in his 13 seasons, who in center field made hard catches look easy.

Of all the Yankees’ transitions, this was the quickest and the best. Mickey Mantle simply moved to center field in 1952 after having been a rookie right fielder who had injured his knee in the 1951 World Series against the Giants. At age 20, Mantle hit .311 in 1952 with 23 homers. His 18 homers as the Yankees won seven of 12 World Series endure as a Series record.

Moved to first base in 1967, Mantle retired after the 1968 season, saying, “I can’t hit anymore.” In the 1969 transition, Joe Pepitone, an outfielder when Mantle was at first base, returned to first base, and young Bobby Murcer was the center fielder. Murcer developed into a four-time Yankees All-Star. Including two seasons with the San Francisco Giants and three with the Chicago Cubs, his career numbers were .277, 1,043 R.B.I. and 252 homers.

Phil Rizzuto had been the Yankees’ shortstop on seven World Series winners and the American League’s most valuable player in 1950, but the Yankees unceremoniously released him on their most ceremonious occasion, Old-Timers’ Day, in 1956. That year, Gil McDougald, who had played third base and second base, moved to shortstop, hit .311 and stayed there until Tony Kubek arrived.

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Roger Maris slugged 61 home runs in 1961 to surpass Babe Ruth’s 60 in 1927. In 1960 and 1961, he was the A.L.’s most valuable player, but in 1966 his numbers dwindled to 13 homers, 43 R.B.I. and a .233 average. After his trade to the Cardinals for third baseman Charley Smith, the opening-day right fielder in 1967 was the rookie Bill Robinson as the Yankees skidded to ninth place in a 10-team American League.

Over his three Yankees seasons, Robinson struggled to bat .196, .240 and .171. He later developed into a .300 hitter with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Over his 16 seasons, Whitey Ford had a Yankees-record 236 wins, a 2.75 career E.R.A., a career .690 winning percentage and 10 World Series wins, but when he struggled to a 2-4 start in 1967, he was released. By then, Mel Stottlemyre had emerged as the Yankees’ ace. Half a century later, the Yankees have had celebrated aces — Catfish Hunter, Ron Guidry, Tommy John, Jimmy Key, David Cone, David Wells, Andy Pettitte, Roger Clemens, Mike Mussina, C. C. Sabathia — but they have yet to find a starter so good for so long as the left-hander known as the Chairman of the Board.

The Yankees were in shock. Thurman Munson, the captain and catcher who had been the American League’s most valuable player in 1976, died Aug. 2, 1979, in the crash of his twin-engine jet at the Akron-Canton airport. His backups, Jerry Narron and Brad Gulden, finished the season, but neither batted .200. Needing a catcher for the 1980 season, the Yankees quickly obtained Rick Cerone in a trade with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Cerone hit .277 with 85 R.B.I. and 14 home runs as the Yankees won the A.L. East with 103 wins. But he is remembered best for loudly “cussing out” the owner George Steinbrenner in a team meeting after a loss in the 1981 postseason. “We didn’t need him yelling at us,” Cerone explained. In his 18 major league seasons, he had three stints with the Yankees.

When Reggie Jackson hit three home runs in Game 6 to help the Yankees win the 1977 World Series, he was assured a place in team history. But when he hit only 15 homers and drove in only 54 runs in 1981, Steinbrenner decided to let Mr. October depart as a free agent. To replace Jackson in 1982, the Yankees signed the free-agent outfielder Ken Griffey Sr., who batted .277 with 54 R.B.I. and 12 homers. Jackson joined the California Angels, hit 39 homers and drove in 101 runs. “Biggest mistake I ever made,” Steinbrenner said later.

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Don Mattingly had been the A.L.’s most valuable player in 1985, its 1984 batting champion (.343) and its hits leader twice (207 in 1984 and 238 in 1986), but his power (35 homers in 1985) had been drained by an aching back. After the 1995 division series loss to Seattle, he retired. Needing a first baseman, Bob Watson, the Yankees’ general manager, pounced on Tino Martinez in a trade with the Mariners.

Over the next six seasons, as the Yankees won four World Series and five A.L. pennants, Martinez hit 25, 44, 28, 28, 16 and 34 homers while driving in 117, 141, 123, 105, 91 and 113 runs. In the 1998 World Series sweep of the San Diego Padres, he smashed a grand slam at Yankee Stadium.

As the Yankees celebrated four World Series in five years from 1996 to 2000 and another in 2009 while winning six A.L. pennants and 12 East Division titles, Mariano Rivera assembled a relief pitcher’s irreplaceable résumé: a record 652 regular-season saves with a career 2.21 E.R.A., a record 0.70 postseason E.R.A. with a record 42 postseason saves (11 in the World Series).

After Rivera retired, David Robertson inherited the closer role in 2014 and did well: 39 saves, only five blown saves, a 3.08 E.R.A., but he departed as a free agent to the Chicago White Sox for a four-year $46 million contract.

Among all the replacements for revered Yankees, only two Hall of Famers succeeded a Hall of Famer at the same position: Berra after Dickey, Mantle after DiMaggio. Several were All-Stars: Selkirk, Martinez, Howard, McDougald, Murcer, Stottlemyre, Robertson. Some were solid: Cerone, Griffey. Some could have been better: Dahlgren, Robinson.

So the new shortstop, Didi Gregorius, should relax. Unless he gets 3,465 hits, he will never be expected to “replace” Derek Jeter.