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As catcher Russell Martin waits to determine which major league team to sign with, he is also considering playing shortstop for Canada in the 2013 World Baseball Classic.

Martin, a Canadian citizen, told Greg Hamilton, the Baseball Canada head coach and director of the national teams, that he wants to play shortstop in the W.B.C. Hamilton was receptive to the idea.

Canada has two major league catchers on its current roster, including Martin and Oakland’s George Kottaras, who is from Scarborough, Ontario. But it does not have a major league shortstop.

“If it’s something that would help the team, I am willing to do it,” Martin said Saturday in a telephone interview from Montreal. “I told Greg I want to do it, and he said he’s open to it.”

Martin has never played shortstop in the major leagues, but he was a shortstop and third baseman in high school and college, and he also played shortstop and third for Hamilton on Baseball Canada’s teams in the past.

Martin played catcher and designated hitter for the Yankees in 2012. But in 2011 he played two innings at second base, and four innings at third base. In 2008 he started eight games at third base for the Los Angeles Dodgers and played 71 innings at third over all that year. He has played a total of 77 1/3 innings at second and third in the majors.

But shortstop is the infield position Martin actually thinks he can play best. He grew up in Montreal idolizing Ozzie Smith and, during batting practice the past two seasons, he would oftten take ground balls at short along with Derek Jeter and the other Yankees infielders.

“It’s my most natural position,” Martin said.

La Presse, a French-language newspaper in Montreal, first reported in Friday’s editions that Martin had interest in playing shortstop in the W.B.C.

Martin said that one day he expected to come out from behind the plate and return to the infield, but that it depended on his ability to hit.

“Over the course of this next contract, it’s all about getting my offense up,” he said. “If I can do that, it will open up the possibilities for me to play other positions.”

Martin hit .211 last season, but he was significantly better in the second half, hitting .242 with a .321 on-base percentage after the All-Star break. He also hit 21 home runs over all, a career high.

Martin is in negotiations with several teams that have showed interest in him, but Martin declined to name them. The Yankees have not made an offer yet as they wait to see the kind of interest Martin gets from other teams, but the Seattle Mariners, the Texas Rangers and the Boston Red Sox are among the teams believed to have interest.

“It would be great to return to the Yankees,” Martin said. “We’ll have to see. I think we’ll have to wait until the winter meetings when things start to shake out.”

As for playing shortstop in the W.B.C., Martin said he would listen if a team did not want him to do so, but he didn’t think it would be a problem.

“It’s a lot less dangerous than catcher,” he said.