Catching Skills Hit the Spot for Little

Offensive firepower, Manager Grady Little said, won’t be the determining factor in deciding who will emerge from spring training as the Dodgers’ starting catcher, which should come as a relief to Dioner Navarro.

The Dodger starter through the second half of last season, when he hit .273 in a 50-game look, the 22-year-old Navarro is batting .083 this spring.

Prospect Russell Martin, considered his main competition for the position, is batting .400 despite going hitless in his only at-bat in the Dodgers’ 7-0 Grapefruit League victory over the Houston Astros on Sunday.

Those numbers matter little to the new manager “because the No. 1 thing I’m looking at with both kids is how they handle pitchers and how they’re able to handle different situations defensively,” Little said. “Any offense we get out of any catcher is just a bonus.

“From my point of view, their No. 1 job is going to be to put zeroes up on the board for the other team and help our pitchers do that the best they can.”

Working against Martin, 23, who started his career as a third baseman, is that he has been a catcher for only three seasons and is trying to make the jump from double A, an especially difficult leap for a catcher.

“It might be an amazing jump for a kid with only [three] years’ experience to jump in to be the No. 1 catcher on a ballclub,” Little acknowledged. “Not to say it won’t happen, but that’s a tough jump.”

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Eric Gagne, who needed only five pitches to retire the side in a one-inning stint Wednesday against the Baltimore Orioles, wasn’t as efficient in his second spring appearance, giving up a hit and walking a batter in the sixth inning.

“I was fluid today, but I didn’t throw enough strikes,” said the Dodger closer, who mixed in a few changeups among his 18 pitches and struck out two after throwing nothing but fastballs against the Orioles. “Mechanically, I felt like I was all over the place, but the results were all right.”

Yhency Brazoban, who walked three of the four batters he faced Thursday in a shaky spring debut, struck out the side in the seventh.

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Starter Brett Tomko, scheduled to pitch four innings, was so efficient that he went five, giving up three hits, striking out four and walking none. “Attacking the strike zone, that’s been the key,” said the right-hander, who has given up one earned run in 10 innings this spring. ... Jeff Kent hit a two-run home run and J.D. Drew drove in two runs with a triple and a single in three at-bats, upping his Grapefruit League average to .467. ... Infielder Olmedo Saenz went 0 for 2 with a walk in his spring debut but said he was ahead of schedule in preparing for the regular season after playing for Panama in the World Baseball Classic. “I got more into the games than I would have a regular spring training game,” he said of his WBC experience. ... Nomar Garciaparra made his first error at first base, dropping a wind-blown second-inning popup, but minutes later made a difficult stab on a one-hopper to start a double play. ... Right-handers Kurt Ainsworth and Justin Orenduff were reassigned to the minors and right-hander Jumbo Diaz was optioned, leaving 49 players in camp, among them five still playing in the WBC.