Jorge Posada doesn’t sound like a man eager to walk back into Yankees camp.
The former catcher, a four-time World Series champion and one of the Core Four, said on The New York Post’s “The Show” podcast with Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman that a reunion with the organization is unlikely because he doesn’t feel wanted around the team.
“It’s gotta be the right - I mean, I could, but I don’t think they want me there to tell you the truth,” Posada told “The Show.”
“I don’t feel welcome when I go there, you know? Even in spring training, I don’t feel like - I’m just like, I don’t know, like, I don’t feel welcome. I don’t feel like they want me there, so I don’t go.”
Posada later tied that feeling to the way his Yankees career ended. His No. 20 was retired by the club in 2015, but the final season of his pinstripes still clearly lingers with him.
“I don’t know what happened. I’d rather just move forward,” Posada said.
“My last season of my career was a really tough one when it comes to handling everything in my part and also the Yankees toward Jorge Posada. So, it’s tough to go back and feel that again.”
That part matters, because it helps explain why a coaching-staff return feels so far-fetched. Posada said he could do it, but the emotional baggage from 2011 still hangs over the possibility.
The comments also land right in the middle of a broader conversation about who is around the Yankees these days. After the team’s ALDS exit, CC Sabathia blasted the organization for no longer having former players nearby to help define the culture.
"It was like there's a standard that's set here, and we didn't meet that standard. No disrespect, but they don't know what that standard is.
You know why? Because there's nobody in there that keeping that standard.
Once [Brett Gardner] Gardy left, it's been a wrap. When I first came, it was Ron Guidry, Reggie Jackson, Mickey Rivers, Willie Randolph.
It was not only the Core Four, it was those guys, too. So, you knew what the standard was because the standard was sitting in the [expletive] room right next to you," Sabathia said.
Sabathia also pointed to Posada, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera as examples of former Yankees who don’t spend much time around the club now. His point was simple: if the Yankees want that old standard to matter again, they need their legends involved.
That backdrop makes Posada’s remarks even more revealing. The Yankees are set to bring back both GM Brian Cashman and manager Aaron Boone in 2027, despite not winning a World Series since 2009. For some former players, that decision has only added to the surprise surrounding how the organization is operating now.
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