Boston ? The New York Yankees acquired left-hander Al Leiter – and most of the money to pay him – from the Florida Marlins and scheduled him to start today’s series finale against the Boston Red Sox.

The Yankees will be responsible for about $400,000 of the $2.8 million remaining on Leiter’s 2005 salary, general manager Brian Cashman said Saturday. There were no other players involved in the deal.

“We’ll take a chance,” he said. “It wasn’t going to hurt us in terms of player talent, and it wasn’t going to cost us a lot.”

The Yankees are desperate for pitching help with four starters on the disabled list. Kevin Brown, who has been on the DL since June 16 because of a back strain, will return to start Monday.

“It’s a very thin market,” Cashman said. “In the next two weeks, we need to hold serve, or tread water … until our reinforcements can come back.”