Russell Martin won't play for Canada at the World Baseball Classic next month.

Canadian and Pirates officials weren't enamored with the idea of Martin moving from his normal position of catcher to shortstop.

"It's a pretty simple reason," Martin said. "The Pittsburgh Pirate organization wasn't comfortable (with) me going to play shortstop over there. I don't think the Team Canada organization was too comfortable with me going to play shortstop."

Martin said he would rather not add to his workload by catching during the WBC.

"I didn't want to put my body in a position where I'm going to have to catch however many innings of baseball during the tournament," he said. "I didn't want to put my body through the taxing experience."