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The lessons came hard, but eventually Gomes’ message sunk in: Ease up on yourself, appreciate and encourage your teammates, and with a little help, you will cultivate a winning culture.

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The topic, of course, is catching Dickey’s knuckleball, a challenge previously conquered only by Josh Thole, who remains hopeful of doing it again for the Toronto Blue Jays this season. But because Martin is such an important lineup piece, and an elite defender to boot, the Jays much prefer that he supplant the weak-hitting Thole as Dickey’s go-to guy.

Dickey and Martin paired up for the first time in the bullpen on Wednesday. It went well. Both parties walked away feeling positive.

“Russell’s a great athlete,” Dickey said afterward. “More than that, he’s got a real willingness and desire to unpack what it takes to catch [the knuckleball] well, and so I don’t anticipate us having trouble. I think he’s going to be able to do it.”

Compared to Dickey’s guarded assessments of Arencibia and Kratz in 2013 and 2014 – essentially, he said he liked their determination – that was high praise, especially after step one of the experiment.

A horde of reporters recorded every pitch. Photographers elbowed each other for prime space. Martin said he never knew a February bullpen session could draw such a crowd.

“This is a first,” he said with a smile. “This is top-news stuff right now.”

A renowned receiver, Martin showed he could catch the fitful knuckler (he was unable to cleanly snare four or five). Beyond that, he and Dickey seemed to click in other ways. Even after one back-field game of catch on Tuesday, a few conversations over three days together and a bullpen session, Dickey is impressed with Martin’s desire to build rapport, intuition and trust to the point where the two can read each other’s minds in a game.