The anti-storybook season of Jorge Posada became more interesting this week. Not only did the veteran New York Yankees player celebrate his 40th birthday by striking out looking to end and lose a 5-4 game to the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday, he also announced that he’s considering playing in 2012. The most interesting part is that there’s a better chance that no pitcher will go down with another arm injury ever again than the Yankees signing Posada one more time.

Posada is one of the Yankees’ “Four Horsemen.” In an era when playing an entire career with one franchise is rare, all of Posada, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, and Andy Pettitte appeared to be doing so. They all came up together with the Yankees in the mid-90s and have flourished. Pettitte retired last year, while Jeter and Rivera are locked up. Posada seems to be the outcast; the one who has worn out his welcome.

Posada has played 1,573 games at catcher in his Major League career. Not one of them has come this season. Instead, Yankees manager Joe Girardi has relegated Posada to a DH role with occasional starts at first base. In a May series against the Boston Red Sox, Girardi put Posada in the nine-hole, to which Posada responded by removing himself from the game before it began. Since then, he’s seen his at-bats against lefties, and now righties, diminish.

Posada thinks he can be a back-up catcher to teach younger players and has suggested he might be willing to do so in the right situation. He’s finishing the last of a four-year, $52.4 million contract and will become a free agent after this season. Should he wear anything other than pinstripes, a lot of die-hard Yankee fans will take it as an insult. After such a dedicated career, Posada deserves better than he’s getting.