Major League Baseball allows a player three days’ paternity leave. The Blue Jays probably wouldn’t complain if Russell Martin took a little longer.
Once an automatic entry on the daily lineup card, the veteran catcher is not exactly in demand these days.
As manager John Gibbons said Saturday, “He’s not going to play much.”
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Martin left Sunday for Tampa, where, if all unfolds on schedule, he and girlfriend Élisabeth Chicoine will welcome their first child on Tuesday.
“Baseball’s going to quickly become not the most important thing in the world for me,” Martin said with a smile.
They haven’t settled on a name for their daughter.
“We’ve got three right now,” he said. “We’re going to wait to see the baby’s face to decide.”
Speaking of three, that’s how many catchers — besides Martin — that the Blue Jays are carrying into the final three weeks of the season. Management is giving rookies Danny Jansen and Reese McGuire the bulk of the playing time. Veteran backup Luke Maile has started only five games since Jansen was called up on Aug. 12. Martin has started 13 games in that span — four behind the plate and nine at third base.
It is an unfamiliar role for the 13-year veteran. Since he broke in with the Dodgers in 2006, only two catchers — Joe Mauer and Buster Posey – have logged a higher WAR, according to Fangraphs.com. He has been a leader on nine playoff teams.
Sparse playing time has cast him into a sort of major-league purgatory.
Martin, 35, says he does not resent the Jays’ decision to relegate him to the September shadows. His performance this season, by his own admission, has been “sub-par.” The team is going nowhere, and it’s time for the front office to see how Jansen and McGuire, both 23, respond in the big-league atmosphere.
“It’s definitely something that’s kind of foreign to me,” Martin said. “But given the situation, I understand what’s going on. At the same time, it gives me an opportunity to kind of step back and just observe and see what we have. There’s a lot of young talent here, and the only way you get to recognize and see it is to let them play. Organizationally, it just makes sense that, if you’re going to call up young kids and get a good read on them, they have to play. And I don’t want to get in the way of that.”
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Gibbons said he sat down with Martin to lay out the path forward, at least for the rest of this season. Martin did not object, he said. On Sunday, shortly before he took off for Tampa, Martin reiterated that position.
“If we were in playoff contention, it would be a different story,” he said. “I would want to be in there every single day. And I still love to compete. But I think I have a mature way of looking at it. I don’t take it personally at all.”
And, he added, “I didn’t have a great season.”
That’s putting it mildly. In 90 games, his slash line is .194/.338/.325 with 10 home runs. His 30-per cent hard-contact rate is a career low. His 3.7 “barreled” ball percentage is 2.3 per cent below the league average. (A “barreled” ball has a minimum exit velocity of 98 miles per hour.)
The silver lining: Martin’s respectable on-base percentage of .338 arises from his sharp eye at the plate.
- His walk percentage of 15.9 is the highest of his career and leads the team.
- His total swing percentage of 34.3 is a career-low.
- So is his 13.9 per cent of swings at pitches outside the strike zone. (The league average is 30.8 per cent.)
Next year, in the final season of his five-year contract, Martin is due $20 million. That paycheque and his age represent anomalies on a roster suddenly built around cheap, young players. Given his performance decline in 2017-18, one could easily argue that the Jays should try to unload Martin in the offseason, willingly eating a chunk of his salary in a bid to turn the page and dive headlong into the youth movement.
On the other hand, it might be questionable whether handing daily duty to an inexperienced catcher better serves a pitching staff.
Martin, a four-time All-Star, is determined to turn the page on this season — and turn back the clock.
“As a competitor, my goal is to show up next year and be the best version of me possible, whatever that is, because I don’t want to repeat what I believe was a sub-par season,” he said. “I still believe I can play at an All-Star level. So that’s what I’m going to try to do.”
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He cannot pinpoint specific reasons for his slide this season.
‘I don’t even want to think about it,” he said. “All I want to think about is what I can do to get myself better. Just get back to the basics. Take a whole bunch of swings. Make sure that I’m training the right way, make sure I’m eating the right way, doing all those things.
“Maybe get a little bit more sport-specific in the offseason. Instead of only working on conditioning and being fit and all that stuff, work on the craft, work on the little things that are required to be a good baseball player. Instead of just spending time in the gym, spend extra time in the batting cage. Hit off the curveball machine. Try different things.”
Meanwhile, life is indeed about to become different for the Canadian-born catcher. Fatherhood looms.
“It’s special,” he said, the anticipation evident in his smile. “I can’t wait. It’s exciting.”
And on Tuesday, he and Élisabeth finally get to attach a name to the new face in the family.
(Top photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)