One morning in Dunedin this spring, John Gibbons was holding forth on the virtues of Jarrod Saltalamacchia, the veteran catcher with the long resume and the name that confounds whoever has to fill out the lineup card.
Good guy, nice hitter, very capable catcher, was the sum of Gibbons’ feelings. He said the Blue Jays were very excited to have him.
But then, just to be clear: “Russ is our guy.”
It was an unnecessary postscript. Russell Martin is quite obviously their guy. Since his arrival in 2015, Gibbons has rarely missed the opportunity to credit Martin for his role in reversing Toronto’s fortunes.