Pirates C Martin won’t play for Canada in WBC
Yankees’ Granderson breaks arm
BRADENTON, Florida, Feb 25, (AP): Russell Martin won’t be moonlighting at shortstop after all.
Pittsburgh’s new catcher will not play for Canada in the World Baseball Classic because Canadian and Pirates officials weren’t enamored with the idea of Martin moving from his normal position.
‘’It’s a pretty simple reason,’’ Martin said Sunday. ‘’The Pittsburgh Pirate organization wasn’t comfortable (with) me going to play shortstop over there. I don’t think the Team Canada organization was too comfortable with me going to play shortstop.’’
Martin, who is from East York, Ontario, said he would rather not add to his workload by catching during the WBC. The threetime All-Star was drafted as a third baseman by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2002 before he was moved to catcher.
‘’I didn’t want to put my body in a position where I’m going to have to catch however many innings of baseball during the tournament,’’ Martin said. ‘’I didn’t want to put my body through the taxing experience.’’
Martin said last week he was looking forward to playing shortstop for Team Canada. The 30-year-old signed a $17 million, two-year contract with the Pirates in December and he said he’ll use the extra time in spring training to get familiar with Pittsburgh’s pitching staff.
‘’It wasn’t that hard of a decision,’’ Martin said. ‘’There’s the feeling of I might be letting my teammates down, my Canadian teammates, but that’s something that I’m sure I’ll get over.’’
In Tampa, Florida, Curtis Granderson jogged to first base after being hit on his right forearm as if it was a minor annoyance. Back at the ballpark in a brace a couple of hours later, it was clear the New York Yankees had a pretty big power problem on their hands.
In his first at-bat of spring training, the slugger broke his arm when he hit by a pitch from Toronto’s J.A. Happ in the bottom of the first inning Sunday, and is expected to be out until the first week of May.
‘’Grandy is not a bat you say is easy to replace, but we’re going to have to find a way,’’ Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. ‘’No one is going to feel sorry for you.’’
The Yankees, who were beat 2-0 by a Blue Jays’ split squad, first called it a bruise but X-rays revealed the break.
‘’Five pitches in we got a little setback,’’ Granderson said. ‘’Now we rest, recovery, get it back, and get ready to play whenever that day comes.’’
The team said Granderson could be out 10 weeks, which means he’ll miss about a month of the regular season.
‘’Mentally, you understand this is part of it, but at the same time now there’s not much I can do about it except do the best things I can to not make it worse,’’ Granderson said. ‘’Keep myself ready to go.’’
It’s a major blow for the Yankees, who are already without Alex Rodriguez until at least the All-Star break. The Yankees also lost Nick Swisher to free agency.
Granderson led New York with 43 homers last season. The Yankees hit 245 homers last year and had five players with at least 20. This year they could open the season with just two players, Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano, who topped 20.
Granderson was examined near first base before leaving the game.