MLB

HANK: GET IT DONE, ANDY

TAMPA – Hank Steinbren ner made one thing perfectly clear yesterday. He wanted Johan Santana and Andy Pettitte to both be in the Yankees rotation this season. The Yankees decided to go in another direction, keeping all their kid pitchers and banking on the veteran Pettitte.

“The bottom line is that I would have liked to have them both,” Steinbrenner told The Post on the eve of Pettitte’s arrival at spring training.

The Yankees lost out on Santana when the Twins traded him to the Mets, and now the Yankees have to be wondering just what they will have in Pettitte, who will show up at Legends Field today with his squeaky clean legend tarnished in the aftermath of the Pettitte Family human growth hormone scandal.

Pettitte will have to prove to the Yankees he was worth that one-year $16 million contract they dropped on him right before the winter meetings, before they knew all the details of his past HGH use.

Hank Steinbrenner would not use the word duped in regards to that deal, but you could understand how he might question the timing. The Yankees handed the lefty the lofty contract without Pettitte disclosing his HGH history.

“He’s got to prove he’s worth it,” Steinbrenner said. “He’s got to do the job.”

The pressure will be on Pettitte to deliver in many ways this season, beginning today when he will issue the obligatory performance-enhancing-drug apology.

Perhaps he can borrow Paul Lo Duca’s statement or one from any of a number of players who were caught in the web. It’s interesting to note one player who has not apologized for steroid and HGH use is former Yankee Roger Clemens, who maintains his innocence.

No matter what Pettitte says today, he will have to get the job done on the field. Hopeful words from him or encouraging words from teammates and management will not do the trick. Pettitte, who was always clutch, especially in the postseason, has to prove he can pitch under a new kind of pressure: The pressure of the world knowing you cheated and now you have to perform without any such performance enhancing drugs.

That would be a difficult task for anyone. Can Pettitte be the Yankees’ ace? Can he overcome the HGH scandal? Can he be effective without HGH? Will the scandal continue to escalate and drag him and his family down? It’s one thing to do HGH; it’s another to have your father obtain the drugs for you.

Those are just some of the questions surrounding the lefty. Yankees management doesn’t know quite what to think about Pettitte. Hank Steinbrenner said he thinks Pettitte has the mental toughness to overcome these massive hurdles.

“I think he’ll concentrate and do his job,” Steinbrenner said. “I think he’ll be fine in the end.”

Hank Steinbrenner says exactly what he thinks, so you know those are not any words meant for public relations. He believes Pettitte will overcome all this. But he also believes having Santana to help shoulder the burden would have helped the rotation.

“The Pettitte situation did not affect the Santana situation,” he said. “I wanted Santana but I wasn’t going to overrule anyone.”

In his mind it was never a case of Pettitte or Santana, it was Pettitte and Santana. Others also wanted both, but in the end the Yankees may be better served by youth. That is what GM Brian Cashman is betting on as he has changed the face of this franchise, making it younger.

As for Pettitte, Cashman said: “We want to get him in here and are looking forward to getting him prepared to help us compete throughout the season. It’s a simple as that. I’m trying to keep it as simple as possible, I don’t want to complicate things anymore than they already are.”

Pettitte created his own complica tions, but it is Pet titte and the Yan kees who must figure out how to deal with all this. There is no Santana to save them. It’s up to Pettitte and the young staff to get the job done.

The story line of the season has been written.

kevin.kernan@nypost.com