IT’S JUST WHAT YANKS KNEE-D

Chapman exits after 6 pitches in win over Fish

A day that started with Didi Gregorius being placed on the disabled list ended with the frightening sight of Aroldis Chapman signaling for the trainer and being pulled from the Yankees’ 2-1 victory over the Marlins Tuesday night in Miami.

Chapman had come on for a save in the bottom of the 12th inning and looked off from the start, walking the leadoff hitter on five pitches, three of which were four-seam fastballs that didn’t touch 96 miles per hour. The fire- throwing closer tossed one more pitch, high and outside for a ball, and quickly pointed to the dugout for trainer Steve Donohue.

Donohue and manager Aaron Boone came out to talk to Chapman, who ended up exiting after just six pitches with what Boone said was pain in his knee, the same one that has been bothering him all season. Tommy Kahnle came in to pick up the save.

Though Chapman has been pitching through the pain and had called out for the trainer once before this season, this time both he and his manager are far more concerned.

“Tonight was more than usual,” Chapman said, adding that he often feels discomfort in the knee but that it was a different feeling on Tuesday. “The pain was just more. That’s why I decided to call them out. It’s more than what I encountered lately.”

Boone, who also admitted he was more worried than he had been about Chapman’s knee in the past, said the closer will get tests done today to see what exactly is wrong.

“There was enough pain for him to call us out there,” Boone said. “It’s a huge concern because he’s a huge part of our club.”

Reliever David Robertson was also held out Tuesday because he felt some tenderness in his shoulder.

“He needed a day,” Boone said.

All of this overshadowed a homecoming for Giancarlo Stanton, who received a warm welcome back from the Miami crowd, though he left the heroics up to a young Yankee with a sudden affinity for hitting in the clutch. Miguel Andujar hit a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded in the top of the 12th inning to bring in the go-ahead run, lifting the Yankees to a victory that was far more damaging than beneficial if it means the loss of Chapman for any amount of time, though it did allow them to pick up a game on the Red Sox in the AL East.

In Stanton’s first at-bat back in Marlins Park, the crowd rose to greet the slugger, who stepped out of the box and waved, then put his hand over his heart. He promptly laced a single through the left side, just like old times for Marlins fans. He also hit a double off the wall in left-center field, though he remains stuck on 299 home runs.

“This place was a huge part of my life and I’m just gonna enjoy it out here,” Stanton had said before the game. “I always miss Miami, even in the offseason, I miss this city.”

The Jets’ lack of a differencemaking pass rusher prompted them to explore one very intriguing possibility.

Gang Green reached out to the Jaguars to gauge their interest in trading uber-talented — and mercurial — defensive end Dante Fowler, Jr., according to sources.

The 24-year-old Fowler, who returned Monday from a week-long suspension for violating team rules and “conduct unbecoming a Jaguars football player” after fights in practice, would be an ideal fit for the Jets, who haven’t been able to generate consistent pressure off the edge in years.

“Well, we don’t have the name guy,” Todd Bowles said last week. “We don’t have the Lawrence Taylor, so to speak, but we have guys that work hard and are very tough at the point of attack. You don’t need a name guy. You just need a guy with production. And the production will make the name. Disrupting the quarterback is the big thing, as well as setting the edge. We have certain guys that can do a lot of things right now. We’re mixing and matching to get a feel for what guys can and can’t do right now….”

The reality is that nobody on the Jets roster who plays on the edge has the pedigree or skill set of Fowler, who was the third overall pick of the 2015 draft. After Fowler missed his rookie season with a torn ACL suffered on the first day of rookie minicamp, he had four sacks in 2016.

Last season, Fowler flashed some of the pass-rushing talent that had teams — including the Jets — drooling while he was at Jacksonville. He racked up 10 sacks in 2017 (including the playoffs) to help the Jaguars reach the AFC Championship Game.

“It’s a passing league,” defensive coordinator Kacy Rodgers said. “You want to stop the run from a defensive philosophy and make teams one-dimensional, but it is a passing league. So, at some point in time, you got to affect the quarterbacks. You have to. It’s important, no doubt. We have to affect the quarterback, but there are a lot of different ways to affect the quarterback. With coverage, with blitz, with mixing it up. It’s a combination of things.” Or with a player like Fowler. Fowler, however, has had his fair share of off-field incidents. He’s suspended for the first game of this season for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy stemming from three misdemeanor charges during an arrest in 2017.

Jacksonville didn’t pick up Fowler’s fifth-year option (for $14.2 million in 2019).

Fowler would make plenty of sense for the Jets, who would fill their biggest defensive need. But what would it cost?

Would the Jets pony up a premium-round pick for a player who they might be able to get on the open market after the season?

What incentive would the Jaguars, who are legitimate Super Bowl contenders, have to move Fowler for anything other than a king’s ransom?

The Jaguars could theoretically offer Fowler a long-term deal or place the franchise tag on him after the season. They would be in line for a good compensatory pick if Fowler walks in free agency. So, it seems smarter for Jacksonville to hold on to Fowler unless it gets bowled over in a deal.

But there’s no harm in the Jets, who have ranked in the bottom five in sacks each of the past two seasons, asking.

They could use the help.

Bowles and Rodgers have given Josh Martin, Brandon Copeland, Dylan Donahue and undrafted rookie Frankie Luvu opportunities this summer to grab the outside linebacker job opposite Jordan Jenkins.

“We’re kind of finding the right combination of guys,” Rodgers said. “We’re seeing… guys getting close. We just have to be more consistent in getting closer more often.”

Getting close isn’t good enough. They need someone to get home.