NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Yankees are not trying to win a championship in 2016.

Look, someone had to say it. And since it makes no sense from a business perspective, the Yankees were never going to say it out loud. But open your eyes – they are screaming it with their deeds.

The Yankees were a wild card in 2015 because they had one great strength that overcame so many of their defects: a four-man late-game unit of Andrew Miller, Dellin Betances, Justin Wilson and Adam Warren.

Over a few days at the Winter Meetings, they tried like heck to trade Miller, and did deal Wilson and Warren.

Maybe you can make the case Warren-for-Starlin Castro is neutral for 2016. Though I wouldn’t. How the Yankees presently are constructed — with such fragility throughout their staff — I would take the sturdy/talented Warren and a second-base platoon of Dustin Ackley and Rob Refsnyder over Castro. Just for 2016.

But their mission statement was never made clearer than in their Wednesday trade of Justin Wilson. Understand what kind of asset Wilson is. If he were a free agent now, he would receive at least what Oakland gave Ryan Madson (three years at $22 million) and possibly what Baltimore gave Darren O’Day (four years at $31 million). Before you gasp, think about how much more consistent, younger and better Wilson is than fellow lefties Boone Logan (three years at $16.5 million, two years ago) and Tony Sipp (three years at $18 million from Houston on Thursday).

For that player, the Yankees obtained two pitchers from Detroit — Luis Cessa and Chad Green — whom they do not expect to play in the majors in 2016. Think about that. These are the Yankees. When did they last trade an asset who could help win now for future possibilities? Gary Sheffield after the 2006 season? That at least cleared salary, uncluttered a veteran-laden outfield/DH situation and removed a player the Yankees viewed as problematic.

Wilson is due approximately $1.5 million next year. The Yankees have talented lefty setup potential with Jacob Lindgren and James Pazos, in particular, but they are totally unproven. Wilson was no distraction.

There is a lot more offseason left, and Brian Cashman said he has tons to do, including restock the pen. And the Yankees will give themselves a chance to contend or more next year. But on truth serum, I think every Yankees official would say something like: We have a small chance to win a title in 2016 even if we added David Price, so the priority is to not do a complete teardown, but to have a shot at winning now while positioning for title-contending winning in the near future.

I think even the most win-now executives in the organization would say that. They would admit the Yankees were slow to understand the baseball world was changing and their long-held philosophy of throwing their wallet at problems and neglecting the farm system no longer could sustain a winner, regardless of where the payroll was taken.

They know now they were not very good in 2013-14, and rather than artificially boost win totals into the mid-80s, they should have traded Robinson Cano and David Robertson for five or so prospects, sink under the $189 million luxury tax payroll threshold and draft closer to the top of the first round.

They would be in such a better place today. But at least they learned from it, which is why the are seeing if there are trades for Miller and/or Brett Gardner that set them up better for the future with youngsters and more financial flexibility. They are not win-now moves. But the Yankees are not trying to win now in the blinders-to-the-future way they did in even their recent past.

Baseball’s rules — which take so much revenue sharing/luxury tax money from them and limit their international and drafting dollars — debilitate even a behemoth. But what mainly incapacitated them is trying to live up to myths — namely that George Steinbrenner would never do this.

How soon we forget Steinbrenner threw tons of money at his problems from 1982 to 1994 and took the organization through a 13-year playoff-less morass that left him as the most hated sports figure in New York.

As for the charges the Yankees are being cheap — really? If they don’t spend another nickel, they still are going to have the majors’ second-largest payroll. Their problem was they signed four big free agents in one offseason, lavishing $458 million on Masahiro Tanaka, Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann and Carlos Beltran after the 2013 season. They would have been better off signing one free agent per year for $100 million-plus, to convince oblivious onlookers they were more active and spending.

Fans have to get used to this: The old way of doing things is no longer effective. Too many long-term contracts in an age of better drug testing will leave even a team with huge resources reeling. You can’t buy extra roster spots. You can only have 25, and too many old, declining players brings the kind of immobility that knocked the Phillies from a serial contender into the owner of the No. 1 pick in the draft next June.

Cashman slowly has been adding youth and athleticism and financial prudence. That is what his owner wants and what he believes is right. It is a big-picture strategy.

It means the Yankees are not trying to win now. Just thought you should know.