Russell Martin to the Pirates

According to both Ken Rosenthal and Jon Heyman on Twitter, the Pittsburgh Pirates have reportedly agreed to a deal with free agent catcher Russell Martin.

David Waldstein, on Twitter, says it is a 2 year, $17 million deal.

Martin has spent the last two seasons as the primary catcher for the New York Yankees, after spending five seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Martin put up a .224/.317/.405 line in 961 plate appearances over the past two seasons in New York.

Martin was a player the Rangers had supposedly shown some interest in as a fallback plan at catcher, if they weren't able to work out a deal with either Mike Napoli or Geovany Soto. Martin doesn't have Napoli's offensive numbers, but he's considered a superior defensive catcher and has a better track record as far as staying healthy goes.

With Martin off the market, both the Rangers and the Yankees are still looking for catching help, and if the Rangers can't get a deal with Soto worked out by tomorrow's deadline for non-tendering arbitration-eligible players, they will probably resume exploring trade possibilities.