It’s time for our annual game: Guess the Yankees’ Ace!

The Yankees entered this winter with the hope of acquiring a young, controllable starting pitcher to upgrade their rotation. That hasn’t happened to this point and appears unlikely to do so by the time pitchers and catchers hold their first workout Feb. 19 at George M. Steinbrenner Field.

So they have the same intriguingly volatile bunch with which they finished last season, with perhaps a minor-league free agent still to enter the mix.

Last Feb. 16 in The Post, I handicapped, from most to least likely, who would wind up as the Yankees’ ace. Masahiro Tanaka topped my list and while he started (and lost) the Yankees’ one playoff game, his offseason surgery to remove a bone spur from his right elbow underlined the continuing concerns about his durability — and justified another one of these columns.

Here we go. From most to least likely, your Yankees ace will be …

1. Luis Severino. Maybe it can’t be this easy. Maybe a guy who will turn 22 on the second day of workouts can’t climb this far, this fast. For the statistically inclined, Severino put up a 4.37 FIP in his 11 starts (totaling 62 ¹/₃ innings) with the Yankees last year, indicating that his 2.89 ERA may have been the beneficiary of some good fortune.

But what the heck. I’m buying high. Severino displayed an impressive mix of stuff and savvy. As the Yankees saw the Blue Jays surge past them, the young right-hander served as an oasis of calm, turning in just one subpar outing (against the Jays). Severino can ensure that all of the power starters in this town don’t work in Flushing.

2. Masahiro Tanaka. Some might mistake him for the accident-prone waiter whose French pronunciation of “chowder” angers Freddy Quimby in an old episode of “The Simpsons,” as the right-hander has not been able to avoid stays on the sideline. He has been able to avoid Tommy John surgery, however, and he gave the Yankees 154 very good regular-season innings in 2015.

Can he finally be the workhorse the Yankees envisioned him to be when they guaranteed him $155 million? That’s a lousy bet. He still can be a high-end asset, though.

3. Nathan Eovaldi. The Yankees went to work on this project and succeeded … and then he got hurt. His right elbow healed sufficiently for him to make the American League Division Series bullpen had the Yankees defeated Houston in the wild-card game. He must pick up where he left off in developing his splitter from a nonentity to a real weapon.

4. Michael Pineda. Fangraphs calculated Pineda to be the most valuable Yankees pitcher last year, with 3.5 wins above replacement. It’s easy to forget how well he pitched early because he missed more than a month with a right flexor forearm strain and then performed erratically upon his return. Perhaps the winter’s rest will do him and the Yankees good. Then again, Pineda has qualified for the ERA title (a minimum 162 innings pitched) just once, and that occurred in 2011.

5. CC Sabathia. The veteran lefty ranked sixth on my list last year. His modest climb reflects just how well he pitched last September (2.17 ERA in five starts totaling 29 innings) upon using a right knee brace. His treatment for alcoholism can’t hurt either, you’d think. On the flip side, let’s not forget that in the last three seasons, Sabathia owns a 4.81 ERA over 424 ¹/₃ innings.

6. Ivan Nova. Combine the “Second year after Tommy John surgery” theory with the “Guys thrive in their walk year” belief, both of which carry some statistical validity, and you have your Nova optimism formula.

7. Tyson Ross. It might be quite the boring trade deadline, as next offseason’s free-agent group is weak. Ross has two years to go before free agency, and his Padres probably won’t contend. So maybe they shop a year and a half of Ross.

8. James Kaprielian. Hal Steinbrenner, multiple times, has brought up the possibility of the Yankees’ top draft pick of 2015 being major league-ready by season’s end.

9. Aroldis Chapman. How about a backwards strategy? Chapman in the first, Andrew Miller in the third, Dellin Betances in the fifth …