After a very long search to add a starting pitcher to a rotation that has been leaking fluids recently, the Yankees weren’t going to make a deal just to complete a cosmetic move.

Showing his trademark patience and balancing the Yankees’ determination to win today while not crippling tomorrow’s chances, Hal Steinbrenner told The Post on Thursday the Yankees couldn’t find the right match as Wednesday’s trade deadline vanished and praised general manager Brian Cashman and his staff for their diligence.

“Whether or not a deal would be done would depend on the ask, as far as what players we would have to give up. Brian and his team worked very hard throughout the process. This time, unfortunately, none of the deals matched up,’’ Steinbrenner wrote in an email. “For me, it has always been a balance of doing everything we can to win now, while at the same time trying to not jeopardize our chances the following year or years. If our highest-end prospects are involved, the deal has to be a fair one. Otherwise, no deal is better than a bad deal as far as I am concerned.’’

So, the Yankees will attempt to win the AL East — they held a 7 ½-game lead over the second-place Rays and were 10 games ahead of the third-place Red Sox entering play Thursday when the Yankees were idle — with the only possible addition being injured starter Luis Severino.

The Yankees host the Red Sox in a four-game series that begins Friday night and includes a doubleheader Saturday.

“We have a great team right now, and we will only get stronger as we add more pieces back into the mix. Getting healthy is a priority,’’ Steinbrenner wrote.

In addition to hopefully getting back Severino, their former ace, the Yankees are confident stud reliever Dellin Betances will return at some point. Like Severino, Betances hasn’t pitched this season due to right shoulder problems.

According to an industry source, the Yankees were hesitant to part with 20-year-old right-hander Deivi Garcia, who other organizations believe is the Yankees’ top overall prospect and a rotation candidate in 2020 after pitching at Single-, Double- and Triple-A this season.

With Cashman and his staff finished searching for trade candidates, the pressure to get the Yankees home ahead of the Rays and Red Sox in the AL East and deep into the postseason falls to the players already in place. And the most pressure is on the rotation that currently is without CC Sabathia.

In the past 11 games in which the Yankees are 5-6, their starters are 2-6 with a hefty 11.52 ERA and have allowed 80 hits (21 homers) and 18 walks (and two hit batters) in 47²/₃ innings.

Second in the pressure cooker is a bullpen that has covered for the starters, whose combined 532¹/₃ innings is 11th among 15 AL teams. Yankee relievers are sixth in the AL in 421¹/₃ innings.

When the Yankees re-signed J.A. Happ to a two-year $34 million deal and traded for James Paxton they didn’t think they were getting No. 1 starters, but the lefties have fallen short of expectations as has Masahiro Tanaka.

Happ is 8-6 with a 5.19 ERA in 21 starts, Paxton is 5-6 with a 4.72 ERA in 18 starts and Tanaka is 7-6 with an ERA of 4.79. At some point the innings of Domingo German (13-2 with a 4.08 ERA) will have to be managed. Nobody can accurately predict when Sabathia will come off the injured list.

So, while it’s easy to see a need for a starter who isn’t coming, the price wasn’t right and the heat falls on the arms already in pinstripes.