It certainly looks as if, with Jorge Posada now officially retired and Mariano Rivera, who turned 42 in November, in the final year of his contract, that Derek Jeter , signed through 2014, is destined to be the last link to the 1996 Yankee team to be playing baseball in pinstripes.

While Rivera was customarily coy about his intentions following this season -- "I'm not thinking about it right now, but I'll let you guys know,'' he said -- Jeter seemed firmly convinced that he would outlast them all.

"Mo's got to go first,'' Jeter said, laughing. "He's a lot older than me.''

Later, Jeter remarked, "Mo's going to be here longer than all of us,'' but considering that Rivera is already in uncharted waters, doing a closer's job at an age no one in baseball history has ever done it before, the likelihood is that Jeter, the most maligned of the so-called Core Four over the past couple of seasons, will be the last one to ride off into the sunset.

Who do you think will be the last man out the door? Jeter or Mo? Let us know in the comments section.