Jays’ Martin says he’ll catch a bit more rest this season

DUNEDIN, FLA. When Russell Martin was with the New York Yankees, he remembers looking up at a bulletin board and seeing a stat that read: “Russell has hit 12 of his home runs after he’s had an off day.”

“And I was like, ‘Maybe I can use a day off more often instead of being stubborn,’” the Toronto Blue Jays catcher said Thursday.

That’s Martin’s attitude heading into the 2017 season. Now that he’s 34 and plays arguably the most demanding position in baseball, he and the team have talked more and more about how to keep the Toronto-born catcher fresh during the long regular season. Martin believes part of the solution is his being upfront with manager John Gibbons and the coaching staff and taking a day off when he feels gassed as opposed to fighting through pain and fatigue.

“I think it’s just something I need to be honest with, instead of just trying to be the tough guy, like, ‘Hey, I can catch 160 games or whatever,’” Martin said outside the Jays’ clubhouse at Florida Auto Exchange Stadium.

“There’s not a magical number. It’s on a daily basis. This game is a grind — you play every day.”

Martin played in 137 games last season and battled through a sore left knee and appeared tired in the playoffs. He doesn’t want to go through that again, and said having a veteran backup like Jarrod Saltalamacchia on the team is a help.

Martin will be fresh for the start of the regular season because his goal of playing for Canada at next month’s World Baseball Classic has fallen by the wayside because of insurance issues. Because he had arthroscopic surgery in November to remove floating torn cartilage from the joint in his left knee, Martin was denied insurance coverage on his contract with the Jays.

Also, Martin was going to play shortstop with Team Canada and if he got hurt at the WBC playing that position, all hell would have broken loose. And he was determined to play short.

“Now I can laugh about it, but I was mad for a while because it’s one of my dreams to be able to play (shortstop),” he said. “The dream wasn’t to be a major league catcher. The dream was to be a major league shortstop — Ozzie Smith, infielders like Roberto Alomar, those were my inspirations.”