Russell Martin Is Back!

Ohhhhhh helllll yeaaaah! Russell Martin is back from his month-long disabled list trip!

According to Shi Davidi and the other beat reporters who raced to get this info out on The Twitter, the Blue Jays have activated Martin today, he’ll be available in tonight’s game against the Trash Birds, and John Gibbons has said he plans to start him tomorrow.

Back in mid-August, Russ was sidelined with an oblique injury, confirming that the Jays were, in fact, cursed. He ended up spending exactly a month on the DL.

If you didn’t, for some reason, appreciate Russell Martin and his excellent defensive play, leadership and game calling behind the plate, and ability to actually throw out runners ALL while contributing with the bat, a month of backup catcher musical chairs should have given you a nice wakeup call.

The Jays backup catchers have been junk this season to say the last. Russ is fourth among position players with a respectable 1.8 WAR, but the others catchers — Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Luke Maile, Miguel Montero, Raffy Lopez, and Mike Ohlman — have combined for a wicked bad -2.1 WAR. Holy hell!

The season is all but over and we’re basically watching a September version of Spring Training, but it’ll be nice to have Russ back there where he belongs.