RECOGNIZING the need to put a younger starting pitcher between Randy Johnson and Kevin Brown, the Yankees yesterday acquired 39-year-old Al Leiter.

Leiter managed to perform so poorly in a National League pitchers’ park for Florida that the small-market Marlins actually decided it was better to pay him millions of dollars to go away than to keep him actively employed. In other words, in 2005, he is the perfect Yankee. He is both overpaid and over the hill.

Leiter is the eighth-oldest man to start in the majors this season. He slots in after Randy Johnson, the sixth-oldest, and in front of Brown, the fourth-oldest. In this group, 36-year-old Mike Mussina goes by the nickname “Kid.”

Leiter will start today and last about two innings against the Red Sox, motivating the Yankees to find out about the availability of 42-year-old Jeff Fassero.

The Yanks no longer have a rotation; they have a conveyor belt. Leiter will be the AL-high 11th starter used by the Yanks, and that probably will go to a dozen on Wednesday in Texas.

“I’m still worried about Sunday,” GM Brian Cashman said. “I’ll do Wednesday when it comes up.”

Yeah, who would want to rush a choice between Darrell May again or summoning Aaron Small, whose previous major-league start came in 1996 for the A’s?

The Yankees’ rotation is essentially now Johnson and Mussina and say a novena. And Mussina and Johnson did more surviving than thriving at Fenway. Mussina surrendered four first-inning runs but kept the Yanks in the game by sticking around for six innings in a stirring 8-6 triumph. Yesterday Johnson nearly squandered a 6-0 lead, yielding two more homers during a 61/3-inning stint as the Yankees prevailed 7-4.

So the Yanks’ two most reliable starters pitched to a 6.57 ERA in this series, which is only a positive when you consider they had nothing to do with the 17-1 debacle on Friday. That the Yanks will leave this series with no worse than a split sporting this pitching staff is right there with the 1969 Mets for baseball miracles. The horror show that is Billy Connors’ minor-league pitching program has forced the Yankees to bring in one reject after another.

And what is the Yankees’ rotation at full strength?

Brown is being rushed back to start tomorrow against Texas because the Yanks are in full panic mode. Brown did not even have a rehab start, and Joe Torre said that could cost Brown his “sharpness.” So a pitcher with a 5.48 ERA might be without his sharpness, pitching in a bandbox against the Rangers’ powerful lineup. Wayne Franklin is already warming up.

Carl Pavano, so far brittle of body and psyche as a Yankee, is due back perhaps a week later. Let’s keep in mind that Pavano once had an even worse start (six runs, no outs) at Fenway in 2003 than Tim Redding had Friday (one inning, six runs) in what will be the lone appearance of his Yankees career.

The Yanks are dubious if they will be getting Jaret Wright and his tainted shoulder back at all this year, and know they will not see Chien-Ming Wang before 2006, at the earliest. And let’s be honest, Brown is closer to his next stint on the disabled list than his next quality start.

The Yankees are going to try to win the AL East with three dependable arms in the bullpen (Tanyon Sturtze, Tom Gordon and Mariano Rivera), and maybe – MAYBE – that many in the rotation. They better keep scoring a lot of runs. Because Leiter might have been an answer in 2001. But now he is just another pitcher in the clubhouse who makes you think about AARP, not ERA.

That Leiter starts today speaks to an organization-wide failure that might make the Yanks the biggest waste of money ever. They are armed and dangerous only to themselves.