By: Tyler King

Canadian Baseball Network

Toronto Blue Jays’ catcher Russell Martin may have a secret weapon in the clubhouse this season. If I’m right, it would be great news for Jays fans, and awful news for fans of everybody else.

Martin, who hit 23 home runs and had 77 RBI in 2015, is hardly in need of any additional offensive edge. That being said, I was always taught to never turn down a free lunch.

Ok, so the lunch may not be free per se - it’s more like an $800,000 lunch. In Jose Bautista dollars that’s essentially free right?

$800,000 happens to be the amount of money the Blue Jays have invested in Josh Thole this year, which come to think of it seems like a preposterous amount of money to pay a guy who’s only claim-to-fame is being R.A. Dickey’s personal catcher.

But let me put it this way ... would you pay $800,000 to bump Russ Martin’s batting average by 20-points? ‘Cause that may be exactly what you’re doing just by keeping Thole around.

Alright, let me come right out and say it: Josh Thole is Russell Martin’s secret weapon.

Now let me explain why.

***

I had an interesting conversation with a young catcher a few days ago. He had just come back from Florida where his team spent 10 days playing US Colleges and high-schools.

He proceeded to tell me that while he was down there he got his first chance to catch a true knuckleballer. Then he told me how miserable that experience was and how it ruined his entire trip. He couldn’t hit anything after that. It was like catching the knuckleball had caused him to forget how to swing.

My initial reaction upon hearing this was to roll my eyes. I thought it was much more likely that the young catcher’s complaints could be equated to a bit poor sportsmanship and maybe some bad luck. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized he may have had a point.

Evidently major league teams know just how badly a knuckleball can mess with hitters. I remember a particular series last year down the stretch, where the Jays played the New York Yankees. Dickey got the ball in the opener and Joe Girardi elected to bench many of his starters - essentially sacrificing that game in order to preserve the timing of his hitters for the remainder of the series.

But what about the guy behind the plate, the one doing the catching. Everybody talks about how hard it is to catch a knuckleball. Now Imagine how hard it must be to step into the batter’s box and hit ... after catching one.

If you’re having trouble seeing a possible correlation, just imagine staring at this 100 times: