It's a new Russell Martin

PHOENIX — Looking down at the clubhouse carpet, Russell Martin repeatedly nodded his head.

"At this point," Martin said, "I'm going to let him work his magic."

Umm . . . Who are you? And what did you do with Russell Martin?

This couldn't be the same restless kid who did whatever he could to talk his way out of days off last season and played 155 games, could it?

But there was Martin, seated in front of his locker, nodding in agreement when told of Manager Joe Torre's desire to limit him to 140 games behind the plate this season.

A similar conversation last spring led to some interesting dialogue between catcher and manager for newspapers to play out on their pages for a couple of days. Based on what Martin has said so far, there probably won't be any of that this spring.

"I'll make sure I communicate with him when I don't feel too good," Martin said.

C'mon, could you really be honest with him?

"Now I can be," he said. "Before I just lied to myself even if I didn't feel good. I was just hardheaded, saying I was ready to play 162 games. You just lose that edge, you lose that explosiveness, you know? A day off can do a lot further down the road."

From the time Martin showed up in Los Angeles in February to be part of the Dodgers' community caravan, something was clearly different about him.

The player who, in third base coach Larry Bowa's words, used to squeeze the sawdust out of his bat looked relaxed. He sounded calm. Asked whether he was smoking something to settle his nerves, he laughed and offered another explanation for his newfound tranquillity: "I feel I know who I am more than ever. I'm not trying to be anyone but myself."

Torre says he has noticed a change.

"He just seems very upbeat," Torre said. "He seems to be in a real good place."

This new version of Martin says he has come to like his role as the team's player representative, which he took reluctantly last year when Scott Proctor had to be replaced. He hired a new agent and has said he would be open to signing a multiyear deal with the Dodgers that would let them buy out his arbitration years, something he wasn't open to a year ago. Yoga has become a part of his off-season regimen.

"For me, it's been an off-season of a lot of personal changes," he said.

No change more important than his new live-in girlfriend, a model from his home province of Quebec, Canada.