Hope and faith.

Or maybe we should just call it the Boras Doctrine.

The Yankees, we all know, badly want another starting pitcher. Yet with time ticking down until the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, the list of trade options appears less appealing than the “Murphy Brown” reboot.

Brian Cashman and his front-office peeps can schmooze and jostle and imagine all they want. It won’t magically create a Game 2 starter (after Luis Severino) for October.

Their most realistic strategy is to count on time to create an opportunity that has not occurred to them yet.

“A lot can happen in 10 or 11 days,” Aaron Boone said Sunday afternoon, before rain postponed the Subway Series finale at Yankee Stadium. “A lot of situations change. A lot of different offers change. But I know Cash and them are working hard at it.”

The situation as it stands can’t please the Yankees. The Mets appear determined to retain their ace Jacob deGrom, whom the Yankees avoided facing Sunday night thanks to Mother Nature. Mets second starter Noah Syndergaard returned to the disabled list Sunday, only two starts after last visiting the DL, with the remarkable diagnosis of hand, foot and mouth disease.

The Tigers’ Michael Fulmer, whom the Yankees have scouted this season, went to the DL on Friday with a strained left oblique, and the Cardinals’ Carlos Martinez, a long shot to be dealt, made the issue moot when his right oblique transferred him to the DL on Saturday.

At the moment, the pool of available starting pitchers appears to be headlined by the Blue Jays’ J.A. Happ, the Rangers’ Cole Hamels, the Twins’ Lance Lynn and the Mets’ Zack Wheeler. Not a clear-cut Game 2 starter in the bunch. The Reds’ Matt Harvey? Pass.

“It’s not the best starting pitching market currently that exists,” Cashman acknowledged Sunday in an interview with WFAN.

Assume they get one of those guys just to provide another option — “It would be shocking if we don’t do anything,” CC Sabathia said Sunday — and then logic calls for the Yankees to upgrade their roster in other ways. That’s why they engaged the Orioles on Manny Machado and are speaking to clubs about relievers. How much better can those units get, however?

Of the Yankees’ nine hitting positions, only one, first base, has performed below the league average, and Greg Bird sure seems to be waking up, with a .300/.375/.600 slash line in his past 11 games through Saturday. The bullpen? In theory you can never have too many great relievers, especially if the Yankees’ lack of starting pitching depth means Boone will have to do some major maneuvering to navigate October, and Aroldis Chapman set off a few alerts with his poor performance Saturday against the Mets. Nevertheless, with Chapman, Dellin Betances, David Robertson, Chad Green and Jonathan Holder, the Yankees might have the industry’s best bullpen already.

Which brings us back to the starting rotation, and to legendary player agent Scott Boras. In baseball’s other season, the Hot Stove, Boras has repeatedly pulled a rabbit out of his hat and landed a great contract for a free agent because time created change. In January 2009, the Braves received so much flak for letting the iconic John Smoltz leave for Boston that they signed Derek Lowe to a four-year, $60 million contract. In January 2012, the Tigers reacted to Victor Martinez’s season-ending injury by committing $214 million over nine years to Prince Fielder.

Can unforeseen circumstances aid the Yankees similarly? Can eight more insane events somehow convince the Mets to trade deGrom? Can Madison Bumgarner and the Giants suffer a fallout due to differing opinions over the greatest English prime minister, prompting a Bumgarner swap to the Yankees?

“Clearly there are teams treading water that … it’s important their next seven-game stretch goes well,” Cashman said. “If they don’t do well, they might fall on the other side of the mountain, pivot and decide to sell off some stuff. We have to be prepared for that.”

A little hope and faith never hurts, either.