Other teams feel the same, and Sabathia would like to pitch on the West Coast and in the National League. But money tends to talk in these situations, and the Steinbrenner bank account fairly screams. If Cashman and the Steinbrenners want Sabathia, they’ll get him.

Burnett should be the next target. He won 18 games for the Blue Jays and pitched 221 innings after several years broken up by various injuries. He’s not a total stud and his ERA tends to run around 4.00. But he’s 31, in his prime, and a proven commodity.

Of the other available free-agent starters, Big Ben Sheets is the most dominating, but he is also injured a lot. His won-lost record is also barely above .500. Better to grab Lowe, who’s a 35-year-old ground-ball pitcher who helped Boston win the World Series in 2004 before moving to the Dodgers. He’s not a top-of-the-rotation guy, but he wins more than he loses, almost never misses a start, and eats up innings. If you had a choice of keeping Pettitte or getting Lowe, it should be a no-brainer: Lowe’s the man.

If the Yankees got Sabathia, Burnett and Lowe, it would free them to trade Philip Hughes and Ian Kennedy, both of whom flopped last year. It also will allow them to put Joba Chamberlain back in the bullpen, where he can spend the year as Mariano Rivera’s understudy with an eye toward taking over as closer in 2010.

Chamberlain was a terrific reliever, but last year the Yankees moved him into the rotation. He showed promise there, but he ended up injured. Already the Yankees are talking about limiting his innings next year, which is absurd for a 22-year-old kid who should be able to pitch all day without feeling it. He belongs in the bullpen.

Better to get proven starters in the primes of their careers than to hope that Chamberlain will last a full season or that Hughes and Kennedy will discover how to pitch. Tampa Bay may have time to wait for kid pitchers to mature. The Yankees don’t.

The arms are out there, and they’re proven commodities. All it will take to land them is money. And the Yankees have plenty of that.

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