How many reserve first basemen can one team have? The Yankees are grappling with that question now. Current Columbus Clipper and defrocked Detroit Tiger Carlos Pena has an out in his contract if he’s not called up by May 2. Meanwhile, just two weeks after Joe Torre pledged his loyalty to Miguel Cairo, Andy Phillips has been receiving the versus-lefties playing time that had been earmarked for the punchless former Met.

Torre insists that the Pena and Phillips situations are unrelated,but it is apparent that the Yankees are trying to find out if Phillips’s potential can be more persuasive than Pena’s pedigree.

It should be stated at the outset that this is not an either-or choice – or shouldn’t be. After 18 games, it’s clear that Bernie Williams is as useful as a pair of mint-flavored earmuffs. His bat bottomed out last year, and even if this traditionally slow starter rebounds, it won’t be to levels of productions sufficient to sustain a nearly daily designated hitter/outfield reserve role. That means the Yankees have to build a DH out of spare parts. Phillips, a right-handed hitter, and Pena, a left-handed one, could form an effective platoon,playing roughly full time between turns at DH and resting Jason Giambi at first base.

Designated hitter is baseball’s equivalent of free parking in Monopoly. A team can stick any player there so long as he hits. Even that last qualifier isn’t an explicit requirement, and it is surprising how often managers find excuses to put non-hitters in the DH role, ignoring its one dimension. At this writing, the American League is batting .271 AVG/.336 OBA/.442 SLG. All a DH has to do is hit .272/.337/.443 or better and his team is golden.

Actually, the DH should hit a lot more than that given that he holds a purely offensive position, but let’s call that slight improvement on league average the minimum basic requirement to DH in the majors. There are currently seven teams in the AL not meeting that modest standard. Last season, the AL batted .268/.328/.424. Five AL teams didn’t make it. Baltimore was especially pathetic, getting only .210/.277/.362 out of their DHs.

The Yankees DHs are doing quite well by this standard, hitting .304/.380/.464, but the picture is distorted because Gary Sheffield, Hideki Matsui, and Johnny Damon have received DH time. When they DH, an inferior hitter – Williams – goes to the outfield.The Yankees pay the price for having Williams in the lineup regardless of where he plays.

In an ideal world, the Yankees would restrain their sentimental feelings about Williams and either severely reduce his role or politely suggest he take some time off to enjoy life.Alternatively, the Yankees could try to get by with just 11 pitchers. Matt Smith is promising, but as the third lefty in the pen he’s also redundant. He could be returned to Columbus, freeing up space for the addition of Pena.

The Yankees probably wouldn’t get Reggie Jackson circa 1980 out of the Phillips and Pena combo, but the production would unquestionably be more than Williams can provide. Pena is a well-established if somewhat disappointing career .243/.330/.459 hitter. With career rates of .227/.294/.443 against southpaws, he would probably need to be protected from the toughest portsiders (though his 25 home runs in 490 at bats is a good rate). His numbers could also be lifted by playing in leftyfriendly Yankee Stadium after years in the difficult Comerica Park. Baseball Prospectus’s PECOTA projection for Pena, formulated when he was still a Tiger, was .255/.349/.482.

Phillips is a tougher read because he’s had so little major league playing time, with just 68 at bats to date. His career minor league rates of .296/.363/.516 suggest there is life in his bat. He batted .300/.379/.573 in 75 games at Columbus last season and .318/.388/.569 in 2004. PECOTA’s projection for Phillips was .255/.317/.444, numbers that suggest an Eduardo Perez-style player, someone who can be productive if spotted carefully by his manager.

Phillips turned 29 earlier this month, so it seems odd to attach the word “potential” to him. His rise through the Yankees system was slow, in part because the organization advances its prospects at a glacial pace,in part because Phillips had a difficult time finding a position. After stints at second and third base, first was a last resort. He was further slowed by an elbow injury that sidelined him for all of 2003. Had he been healthy, he might have gotten established with the Yankees that season, fitting in somewhere amid Nick Johnson’s injuries and Todd Zeile’s death throes. Now he runs the danger of never getting a chance – at least in pinstripes.

Still, as old as Phillips is, as much as his status as a prospect has long since passed, Phillips (and Pena, too) would offer the Yankees the possibility of improvement, of making something out of nothing – at the very least a more potent set of pinch-hitters than the team has possessed since the last century. As old as they are, and as many set backs as they have endured, they still have baseball in front of them.

Chances are the Yankees won’t take this route. Williams is too much the favorite son, and they may point to his ability to switch-hit as a way for him to contribute even in a post-Pena world.As with so much about Williams, this ability seems to be a thing of the past. Last season he hit just .231/.305/.286 against southpaws and it’s doubtful he can muster much power against them, even if his batting average does recover to some small extent.

Championships are often won and lost on such small decisions. There are, of course, no certainties with Pena and Phillips, but one thing is for sure: you can’t win today’s pennant with yesterday’s ballplayers.

Mr. Goldman writes the Pinstriped Bible for www.yesnetwork.com and is the author of “Forging Genius,” a biography of Casey Stengel.