The Yankees are the ultimate Now team. Yet these days every decision is made with an eye toward being under the $189 million luxury tax threshold in 2014. Yes, even obtaining Ichiro Suzuki.

“We protected our future [by not giving up big prospects] and we did not take on a long-term salary while improving in the short term,” general manager Brian Cashman explained yesterday by phone.

The new collective bargaining agreement delivers enough inducements and/or penalties depending on which side of the $189 million you are on, that the Yankees have made it an organizational mandate to be under the threshold. Even Hal Steinbrenner has been public on the issue. Nevertheless, this will be a difficult limbo contest because the Yankees already have Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira signed for big money with plans to retain Robinson Cano and, they hope, Curtis Granderson, both of whom can be free agents after next season.

To have that many huge-salaried players and fall under the $189 million, “we have to make sure we have the talent coming from our system to either plug in inexpensive players on the roster or trade for players with low AAVs [Annual Average Value contracts] like we did with Granderson and [Nick] Swisher. That was always important and now it is more important than ever.”

For luxury-tax purposes multi-year contracts are computed by AAV. That is one attraction to the Yankees, for example, of considering outfielders such as Arizona’s Justin Upton ($8.5 million AAV) or Colorado’s Carlos Gonzalez ($11.4 million).

Ichiro was appealing to the Yankees’ long-range objectives because it cost just middling prospects D.J. Mitchell and Danny Farquhar, neither likely to have even been protected on the 40-man roster this offseason. Just as important, Ichiro’s contract expires with this season.

Remember the Yankees did not pursue players such as Prince Fielder, Yu Darvish and C.J. Wilson last winter wanting to avoid any more multi-year contracts beyond 2013. And team officials anticipate the same philosophy this offseason, unless it is to extend their own — Cano and/or Granderson.

The Yankees have grown comfortable going deep into the offseason to cherry pick unemployed vets on one-year contracts such as Hiroki Kuroda, Andruw Jones, Raul Ibanez and Eric Chavez. It would be no surprise, for example, for the Yankees to try to retain Kuroda and Andy Pettitte on one-year deals for 2013 to team in the rotation with Sabathia, Ivan Nova and Phil Hughes in the final year before the self-imposed dip under $189 million.

But to honor that 2014 mandate, the Yankees probably will be unable to give even the one-year, $10 million contracts to rotation pieces such as Kuroda. That makes it even more vital that Michael Pineda and/or Manny Banuelos recover from this season lost to injury, rebound next year and be high-level, inexpensive options in 2014.

Banuelos (elbow) actually is in a throwing program and the Yankees hope he will pitch in rehab games in two weeks. The Yankees believe Pineda will be a fully healthy pitcher next spring.

Unlike Ichiro neither can help now, but like key elements of the trade for the Mariners outfielder, Banuelos and Pineda are part of the big framework of where the Yankees are going.

Could Sox trade Ellsbury?

The Red Sox are 49-49; not only last in the AL East, but tied with Toronto for the 10th-best record in the 14-team AL. One AL personnel man said, “Add in September of last season [7-20] and you are talking about one of the majors’ worst teams over a sustained period.”

That is why the Red Sox were suddenly contemplating being sellers and the personnel man offered this delicious possibility: “If I were them, I would think seriously about trading Jacoby Ellsbury.” Now this personnel man worked for another team and there have been no overt signs Boston is marketing its star center fielder.

But the personnel head reasoned: 1) Ellsbury, a free agent after next season, is repped by Scott Boras. That almost always means testing the market/going to the high bidder. So Boston would have to pay $20 million-plus a year on a long-term deal. This at a time when the Red Sox are, for luxury-tax purposes, trying to lower payroll and already have another outfielder, Carl Crawford, making $20 million annually. 2) Ellsbury is a tremendous talent, but has been injury prone (including this season) and has just one great season (last year).

3) In Jackie Bradley Jr., Boston has a center-field prospect at Double-A that the personnel chief said, “is better than Ellsbury was at the same point.” In fact, the personnel head praised Boston’s system for position players, but said it lacks high-end starters close to the majors as Jon Lester and Josh Beckett are in free-fall. Ellsbury could net those kind of prospects.

“To me, as an organization, I think they have grown stale and need a shakeup of this core,” the personnel head said. “This is not about rebuilding. They can be right back as a playoff team next year if they make a good trade [of Ellsbury].”