The Core Four as we know it did not become the Core Four until 1998. Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, and Mariano Rivera were all established big league stars who’d helped the Yankees win a World Series by time that 1998 season rolled around. They were the present and the future. In 1998, it was Jorge Posada’s turn to join the mix.
* * *
Posada had cups of coffee with the Yankees in 1995 and 1996 — he was on the 1995 ALDS roster as a pinch-runner, if you can believe that — before spending the 1997 season as Joe Girardi’s backup.