The Core Four is 0-for-1 when it comes to baseball immortality.

Jorge Posada, the first member of the Yankees’ beloved quartet to retire, fell off the Baseball Writers Association of America’s ballot in his first shot at the Hall of Fame. With just 17 of 442 votes, 3.8 percent, the catcher failed to reach the 5 percent threshold necessary to return on next year’s ballot.

In his outstanding 17-year career, spent exclusively with the Yankees, Posada put up a .273/.374/.474 slash line in 1,829 games, sporting a 121 OPS+. He hit 275 home runs and logged 10 seasons of 100-plus games behind the plate, the game’s most grueling position.

So what hurt him? Perhaps more than anything, the ballot gridlock. The lingering of candidates, such as Posada’s longtime battery mate Roger Clemens and many others due to speculation of illegal performance-enhancing drug usage. He also came up short of fellow Puerto Rican catcher Ivan Rodriguez and last year’s catching inductee Mike Piazza in the advanced metrics such as WAR and JAWS.

While Posada didn’t comment publicly on his disappointing showing, his wife, Laura, tweeted her congratulations to Rodriguez, who gained election in his first try.

Next up for the Core Four: Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera on the 2019 ballot, followed by Derek Jeter in 2020. Fifth core member Bernie Williams lasted two years on the ballot, dropping off in 2013 with 3.3 percent.