These kinds of moves are how the Yankees got in the precarious position they’re in, with a lineup that can still steamroller through swathes of the schedule, as it is doing now, but can also go very cold and creaky at any moment.

A better fit for the Yankees is Barry Zito — if they feel they can straighten him out and get him back to the form he had two years ago. He’ll still cost prospects, but at least the team will have someone who will be around for another six or eight years.

McLane can probably do better by dealing with the Red Sox, who have more in their farm system than the Yankees. The Sox need another ace as desperately as the Yankees do. Plus, bringing the Rocket back home to end his career where he began it is one of those stories that not even Boston fans, many of whom have spend more than a decade reviling Clemens, could resist.

Several other teams probably also make sense, but it’s unlikely Clemens will want to go anywhere but to one of the marquee teams. So don’t get your hopes up, Padres fans.

It is likely he will want to go somewhere, though, no matter how much he likes eating home cooking and seeing his kids play ball between his occasional visits to the ballpark.

Clemens has had seven starts this year, and in four of them he gave up no runs. In the other three, he gave up six runs, which adds up to a Gibsonesque 1.10 ERA. That sort of pitching could have given him seven wins and should have given him at least five, leaving him between eight and 10 wins shy of No. 8 eight on the all-time wins list. Instead, because the Astros’ offense is about as dangerous as a Buddhist monastery, he’s got two.

The man who is now being called by a growing chorus the best pitcher of all time isn’t still pitching to set the major league record for the most no-decisions by a 42-year-old future Hall of Famer. Unless a miracle happens on the order of Pat Robertson declaring that gay marriage is good for the republic, and Houston starts scoring runs and climbing back into the pennant race, it’s reasonable to assume that Clemens is going to want out.

Here’s where the intrigue — and the rumors that are thicker than U.S. Open rough — come in. Heyman and others say that Clemens and McLane have an oral agreement to trade the star if the Astros are out of the race. McLane says there’s no such agreement, which doesn’t mean he won’t bow to the inevitable and make the trade anyway. The rumors also say that Clemens is talking to his pals about going to New York.

It’s the obvious move. But we also said that the obvious move for the Yanks after last season was to sign Carlos Beltran, and that didn’t happen. And the obvious move two years ago was to get Vlad Guerrero, and that didn’t happen, either.

What is obvious is that Clemens has to go somewhere. Also, that the Yankees have little to give and a whole lot both to gain in the short term and to lose in the long term.

And the most obvious of all is that the most theatrical way to end the Clemens’ saga is back in Boston.

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