DUNEDIN, FLA.—Adam Lind wasn’t assigning all the blame for his struggles at the plate in 2012 to former Blue Jays manager John Farrell.

Lind blames himself first. Farrell, though, comes in a close second.

“You guys (the media) were around last year,” Lind said Saturday at spring training. “The manager telling you one thing was a problem, it was tough. He was from Boston where they were selective (on hitting pitches) but coming up through this organization we were taught to be aggressive, so sometimes you get confused who you want to please.

“Don’t get me wrong, (Farrell’s approach) was all in good faith. . . . He’d have things he wanted to see from me then after games he’d say more stuff and it got your mind going.”

When Lind couldn’t hit his weight in the early going last season, the 2009 Silver Slugger Award winner was handed a plane ticket to Triple-A Las Vegas.

That was a shocking development in a Jays season that fell off the rails due to injuries and underachievement. But Lind’s fortunes would take a turn for the better under the tutelage of Las Vegas hitting coach Chad Mottola.

Mottola turned Lind back into a .300 hitter. The two worked hours in the batting cages before game time in the blazing daylight Vegas heat.

Las Vegas manager Marty Brown often spoke of seeing the two disappear into the rolling heat waves as they walked across the parking lot to get to the cages. Lind came back to Toronto and raised his average back up to the .250 range.

But his 2012 marked a career low in offensive production. Even though he hit .300 after his return from the minors, he never felt comfortable, and wound up with just 11 home runs and 45 RBIs in 321 at-bats.

“I ended the season on a good note and I want to continue that now,” Lind said. “My goal was to get to .250 and I got to that, as ironic as that sounds, but it was a goal.

“I felt good in 2011 then I think I ran out of gas. . . . There were voices from different places, I tried to please them all, especially the manager because he puts your name on the lineup card.”

Lind, one of the longest-tenured Jays, is experienced in dealing with pressure from management, coaches, fans and himself. That doesn’t mean, though, that he could escape the ramifications of his poor 2012.

“I saw my numbers . . . but I don’t put myself in a situation, reading reports, reading Twitter, or go to a sports bar where I’d get punished just walking in,” he said.

With Mottola now in place as the Jays’ hitting coach and Farrell gone to Boston, Lind feels the whole team will have a reprieve from the former skipper’s tendency to overmanage his players.

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“I think this year the coaches have freedom to do what they want,” he said. “Last year we had a manager who managed a lot, we were micromanaged a lot, and it affected the way we played and coached.”

NOTE: Jays manager John Gibbons left workouts early due to a flu bug. He is expected back in camp Sunday.