The Yankees made history with a lineup decision on Monday night. Aaron Boone penciled in Jon Berti to play first base for Game 2 of the ALDS against the Kansas City Royals. Berti became just the third player in MLB history to make a positional debut in the postseason with a minimum of 300 career regular season games, joining Carlos Santana in 2016 and Jake Flowers in 1931. The Bombers are taking a gamble, however, they loved what they saw from Berti within the last week and are confident in the 34-year-old. Boone turned to his aides when deciding who to play at first and got the OK from both infield coach Travis Chapman and bench coach Brad Ausmus. “He’s been working there all week,” Ausmus told the Daily News. “We’ve had some scrimmages where he’s played first base. He’s very athletic. He kind of — I don’t want to say he’s a natural — but he looks very comfortable over there. And I certainly didn’t have a problem with putting him over there.” Chapman echoed the same message. “He just handled the position well,” Chapman told The News. “Once [Anthony] Rizzo got hurt he got made it known that he’s willing to go do it if he needed to do it. He’s been working on it for a little over a week. … I mean he looks great. You take a great athlete and a guy who’s willing to go do it and he’s gone over there and shown he can do it and gained mine and Boone’s trust.” Berti has played just 25 games for the Yankees this season. The veteran has spent zero of the 3,350 innings in the field during his major league career at first — with most of them coming from third base. Boone and Berti referenced some time the utility man spent at first during spring training a few years ago as some prior experience. The former Marlin said he even got a bit of a tutorial from Yankee great Don Mattingly as well as some help from injured Bomber Anthony Rizzo. Despite the lack of in-game reps, Berti is confident in the work he’s done over the past week. “I’ve been getting a lot of extra reps this past week over there and so far so good,” Berti told The News on Saturday. “Played some in a couple of inter-squads we had and just feel more comfortable every day I get more reps out there. Berti brings a contact and speed element to the bottom of the Yanks lineup. The Michigan native hit .273 in his limited time with the team this season but slashed .294/.344/.405 in 133 games for the Marlins in 2023. According to BaseballSavant, he ranks as one of the fastest players in the league sitting in the 91st percentile in sprint speed. NESTOR THROWS AGAIN The recovering Nestor Cortes was out on the field throwing on Monday after playing catch at the Stadium on Sunday. The southpaw is working his way back from a flexor strain in his throwing elbow. Boone said he wasn’t sure about the specifics of Cortes’ work on Monday, however, there was enough encouragement from Sunday where an October return is within reason. JUDGE, SOTO NOMINATED FOR HANK AARON AWARD The Yankees announced on Monday that Aaron Judge and Juan Soto were nominated for the Hank Aaron award, which recognizes the most outstanding offensive player in each league. Judge posted arguably the greatest offensive season by a right-handed hitter in MLB history slashing .322/.458/.701 with 58 homers, 144 RBI and a 213 WRC+, which trailed only Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds and Ted Williams. Soto — an impending free agent — slashed .288/.419/.569 with a career-high 41 homers and 109 RBI.