Hal Steinbrenner says the New York Yankees may need to upgrade their starting rotation if they want to reach the World Series for the first time since 2009.

The Yankees lost Jordan Montgomery to Tommy John surgery on June 7.

New York has space to acquire an impact player and still remain under the $197 million luxury-tax threshold, a goal the team has stated several times.

"Clearly starting pitching was always a concern," Steinbrenner said. "It's definitely one of the areas we're going to be looking at.

"Purposely left a decent amount of money for just this," he added. "If we decide to go get a pitcher and if a pitcher's available, I think we definitely have the flexibility that would allow me to do just that."