Bruce Levine, of CBS Chicago, writes that Russell Martin is having 'serious discussions' with 4 teams: the Pirates, Dodgers, Cubs and Blue Jays.
Martin is apparently looking for a 5-year deal (thank goodness, 6 years and we'd be out, stupid self imposed rules). Levine suggests the $75 million that Brian McCann got as a rough idea of what Martin will be looking at.
The Jays might be thinking about moving Dioner Navarro to DH and getting someone with a better glove to catch. Martin played 111 games last year, that would leave 50 for Navarro to catch. Hopefully one of them would learn to catch Dickey and we could let Josh Thole go.
I really don't see it happening. I don't want to start into the 'cheap Rogers stuff' but it does seem to me that the Jays are already paying a catcher, it seems against their philosophy to be paying for another one. Maybe they have looked at the 'framing stats' and think Russell would help out the pitchers.
I wouldn't be giving a 5 year contract for a catcher who will be 32 before next season. I guess, if the team really wants to contend this year and really wants to prove to us fans that they are going all in, signing Russell would be a good start.