(aka, “AJ Ellis’ Crushing Disappointment.”)

Despite pronouncements that Martin could miss 6 weeks, Dylan Hernandez tweets that he may not miss any regular season time at all:

@dylanohernandez: Russell Martin said his groin has healed to where he does not think it will keep him out of the lineup on opening day.

Clearly, this is coming from Martin’s mouth, and he’s always going to say that he’s fine, so let’s take that with the grain of salt it deserves. Still, he’s scheduled to catch a few innings in a minor league game tomorrow, and how he feels after that will play a large part in determining his future.

At present, there’s less than two weeks until Opening Day. That may or may not be enough time for Martin to work his way back up to catching full games. That’s really the goal, because with Brad Ausmus having back trouble, the Dodgers can’t afford two catchers who may not be at full strength, and they certainly don’t have the roster space to carry three catchers. Hopefully, the team is smart enough to not let him overdo it, because missing a few games in April is far preferable to missing a few weeks or months later simply so he could make an arbitrary deadline.

(This is the first time I’ve tried to post entirely from my phone. Let’s see if this even works or not.)