NEW YORK — It’s a matter of perspective, just how long the Orioles rebuild took. There’s no arguing one thing happened quickly: Now that they’re good, playoff baseball is the standard.

So, mission accomplished. Foregone conclusion, perhaps, but it hadn’t felt like one lately. September has been about three things for the Orioles: get in, get healthy and, honestly, just get it together.

Thanks to a tense but well-earned 5-3 win over the Yankees on Tuesday in the Bronx, the Orioles are in the playoffs again. With Ryan Mountcastle returning one game after Jordan Westburg and Ramón Urías did, and no real clarity on Grayson Rodriguez rejoining the pitching staff, they might be as whole as they’re going to be.

The “get it together” part remains to be seen. As wary of teases as this team has made us, the way Baltimore won Tuesday suggests a team that’s at least going in the right direction.

“We were always a good team,” star shortstop Gunnar Henderson said. “It was just a matter of getting going again, just going through that lull for a while there. But it seems like we’re starting to click at the right time.”

That time is with five games to spare, which, considering what comes next, might be the perfect one. Treated all year like a team that was destined for October, the Orioles toasted and celebrated in the visiting clubhouse like a group that wasn’t taking what it achieved lightly.

“When you look at the history we’ve been through the past few years, winning is difficult,” veteran center fielder Cedric Mullins said. “Every single game, day in and day out, 162, to get to this position is not easy. … Obviously the end goal is to get to the World Series, but these wins have to be celebrated.”

Added Dean Kremer, the starting pitcher who again delivered a win in a clinching game for the Orioles: “We don’t have to grind now. We’re in.”

Perhaps it’s true that six teams moving on from each league diminishes that achievement. There’s also a case to be made that it’s not enough to be part of the league’s middle class that tries to sustainably qualify for the playoffs each year and roll the dice without achieving more.

A more overwhelming truth is that a lot of teams in the Orioles’ circumstances might not have ever had the chance to toast the way this team did Tuesday night.

Félix Bautista, their elite closer, has not thrown a pitch this year. His Tommy John elbow reconstruction surgery during last year’s playoff run preceded a trio of elbow injuries this year that decimated what had the potential to be a special rotation. Kyle Bradish, John Means and Tyler Wells have missed most of the season. Rodriguez has missed a lot of time, as have some top relievers.

And, as executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias fortified the pitching staff at the trade deadline, he did so just in time for the lineup to get banged up. Healthy or not, Adley Rutschman hasn’t been himself for months. The offense lost its way without Westburg, then Mountcastle and Urías, all of whom were injured in August and returned this week.

For the second game in a row, though, the Orioles felt like a playoff team. A rival scout who has followed the team all month and just last week expressed concern about what he saw texted me a revision during the game: “This is a completely different team than last week.”

That was true literally and spiritually. Just as the team that sprinted to one of the best starts in baseball over the first three months is no longer the one we can expect in October, the one that stumbled through August and September isn’t either. The Orioles aren’t even really the team everyone set such high expectations for this winter, given how much has changed.

In that early-season context, predicting the Orioles would be within reach of 90 wins and firmly in the playoffs in the final week of the season would have been unremarkable. There wasn’t even a whiff of that in the cigar-filled, champagne-soaked clubhouse Tuesday.

The Orioles could only do what they have under the challenging conditions that have come their way. To say they have overcome them is probably a stretch. They’ve simply done what they’ve had to, all in the interest of getting to this point.

What happens beyond this, unlike so much else this summer, is in their hands. Mullins has told his teammates as much.

He said: “We’ve had our talks about what our issues are, and I’ve talked to a couple of guys and I said, ‘At this point, it’s about doing. Don’t think too much about it. You’re going to do it, or you don’t.’ I think we’re going to find that rhythm of just doing it.”

Maybe Rodriguez comes back in October, but there’s no one else to hope for on the horizon. They are reinforced, and it shows. They are in the playoffs, and they celebrated accordingly. Win a couple more games, and they can ensure a home playoff series next week. Play as well as they can, and they’ll probably play well beyond that.

No matter how it feels, they’ve already accomplished something this year by enduring to this point and ending up in the playoffs. These five-plus months may not have been super memorable, but they are the prerequisite for all that comes next.

“This is like a stepping stone for us,” Rutschman said.

“Guys are putting their all into this. Every single guy is 100% committed, guys are putting their hearts on the line every single night, and you can see it. Baseball is a tough game because the results don’t always come. But we know, at some point, it’s going to turn around. I think our guys are just excited. This is a good momentum thing for us.”