The Yankees didn’t panic in April, when they couldn’t beat anybody. They say they’re not panicking now, but maybe they better start thinking about it. Especially when panic mode is what they may have to be in to do whatever it takes to pry Randy Johnson out of Arizona.

It’s hard to say the team that, as of Tuesday, had the second-best record in baseball, the team with the highest payroll in any sport and seven players going to the All-Star game, needs help. But that’s the truth about the Yankees.

They need it where a lot of us have been saying it would be since before the season started — on the mound. The Yankees' starting rotation, especially with Kevin Brown injured, is less than the stuff that postseason dreams are made of. That much is abundantly clear now, with 99 games in the books and 63 to go.

When Yankees starters are good, they’re OK. When they’re bad, they’re worse than horrid. And when that happens, as it has during New York’s recent losing slide, even the best hitting can’t overcome dreadful pitching.

They can get the Yanks through the season, but they can’t get them through the playoffs. We’ve seen that now for three straight years. To keep it from becoming four straight, the Yankees need not just help, but a stud.

An all-right-handed rotation needs a top-of-the-line lefty, a guy who can shut down the opposition. The Big Unit is the man.

I say this recognizing that everyone who isn’t a fan of the Yankees thinks the pinstripes need another superstar like George W. needs another piece of bad news out of Iraq. And the Yankees aren’t the only team that could find a way to shoehorn Johnson into its rotation.

The Red Sox, for example. There have been reports lately — hotly denied by Boston management, which means there’s probably something to them — that the nation’s most celebrated also-rans have been inquiring about Johnson’s availability.

It only makes sense, and, while Red Sox pitching isn’t as shoddy as Yankees pitching, bringing Johnson to The Hub would serve the dual purpose of upgrading the pitching staff and keeping Johnson out of New York.

Which is also why the Yankees, if they’re going to continue to be the free-spending bullies so many fans have grown to know and despise, have to get Johnson — to keep him away from Boston.

That isn’t the main reason, though, that the Yankees should be doing everything in their power to get Johnson. More than adding to Boston’s misery, they have to improve their pitching.

Mike Mussina, the purported ace of the staff coming into the season, has given up 131 hits and 23 walks in 107 innings and is doing no boasting about his 5.20 ERA. Jon Lieber, who has performed well for a guy coming off Tommy John surgery, has given up 120 hits in 95 innings and has a 4.95 ERA. Jose Contreras is never more than one or two pitches away from a six-run inning and is trying to trim a couple of points off his ERA to get it under 5.30. And even Brown, whose record is 7-1, is lugging around a 4.13 ERA.

The only Yankees starter with a decent ERA is Javier Vazquez, who was sitting on 4.06. He’s also the only starter with fewer hits allowed than innings pitched. He is not, however, the pitcher you want to hand the ball to for a big postseason game. He’s too young.

Other than Brown, who may or may not end the season healthy, the Yankees don’t have anyone they can feel confident behind in a must-win game in October. Mussina doesn’t often win big games. Lieber is a guy in his rehab season.

There is no Andy Pettitte on this team. No Roger Clemens. There isn’t a David Wells who, for a time, was as tough a postseason pitcher as there is.

What saves the Yankees pitching isn’t starters, but relievers. Mariano Rivera leads the league in saves, and Paul Quantrill and Paul Gordon are excellent set-up men. With Yankee pitchers not lasting even six innings on average, without those three, the Yankees aren’t in first place.

The problem is that manager Joe Torre is working all of them harder than anyone should be worked. No pitcher in the AL has made more appearances than any of them. Torre has been known in the past for overworking relievers. But he feels he has no choice, so he keeps running them out there.

Johnson eats up innings. He’s averaging around seven a game, and his ERA is 2.68. He’ll not only win big games, he’ll save the bullpen.

If the Yankees want to win — and you can assume they do — they need another starter. They already missed on Freddy Garcia, and it’s not owner George Steinbrenner’s style to settle for ground chuck when he can have filet mignon.

Johnson, who beat the Yankees to get his World Series ring, said Monday that he would waive his no-trade clause if a deal sent him to a contender and benefited the Diamondbacks. It’s up to Steinbrenner and his crack baseball committee to convince the Diamondbacks.