The New York Yankees desperately need to add starting pitching to the big league roster. They’re without two of their better arms, Luis Gil and Gerrit Cole, and they could struggle with the pitching staff they have in place.

The biggest name reportedly on the market is former Cy Young winner Sandy Alcántara of the Miami Marlins, but it would cost quite a prospect haul to bring him in.

ESPN’s David Schoenfield recently made the bold prediction that the Yankees would trade former top prospect and big league arm Will Warren to the Marlins to add Alcántara.

“No Gerrit Cole. Luis Gil is slowly on the mend from a lat strain. Carlos Carrasco and Marcus Stroman aren’t exactly getting the job done,” Schoenfield wrote. “The Yankees did just get Clarke Schmidt back, but they could certainly use a rotation upgrade.

“It’s hard to envision them trading top prospect George Lombard Jr., plus Spencer Jones’ stock has fallen, so let’s list a couple of pitchers here. Warren has had some big league time and would give the Marlins an MLB-ready starter.”

Trading Warren for Alcántara doesn’t make much sense to me.

When people discuss the issues in the Yankees’ starting rotation, it’s Marcus Stroman and Carlos Carrasco who are the two weakest links, not Warren.

Trading Warren and some other top prospects for Alcántara could work, but what next?

That would leave Carrasco and Stroman in the rotation. Alcántara provides an upgrade over Warren, but there are still massive holes in the rotation.

The issue for New York is the depth, not the top-end talent. Trading for Alcántara would be great, but it wouldn’t make much sense to move Warren to land him.

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