It’s one of those things we’ve see many times before – a Dodgers manager continually running a guy out there in spite of the fact that he’s struggling when there is someone far better on the bench. We saw it with Andruw Jones, we saw it with Garret Anderson, we saw it with Juan Uribe during the first two years of his three-year contract and we’ve seen this year with Chris Hatcher and Mat Latos.

Now this certainly isn’t to say that any of these guys aren’t (or weren’t) good ball players, a couple were great ball players. It’s just to say that sometimes guys never recover from their funk while much better players – even red hot players – sit on the bench behind them.

Prior to injuring his right hand during a slide, Dodgers shortstop Jimmy Rollins was playing exceptionally well, especially when you consider that he is 36 years old. But in spite of his modest second-half heat up (.233), he is still hitting only .220 on the season.

Enter Corey Seager.

Although Dodger fans were hoping to see Corey Seager hit his first career MLB home run at Dodger Stadium, everyone is happy that he finally did so in Saturday’s 9-5 pounding of the Dbacks at Chase Field. (Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)

The Dodgers number one prospect who they put on their untouchable list when trading him could have landed starting pitchers Cole Hamels, David Price or Johnny Cueto (among other), has been smoking hot since his September 1 call-up. I mean we’re talking record-setting smoking hot. And while no one will argue that the initial intent in bringing Seager up was to use him to give regular Dodgers shortstop Jimmy Rollins and regular Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner an occasional day off, the 21-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina native has had such an impact both offensively and defensively that the Dodgers must… absolutely must keep him in the lineup every day – something that Dodgers manager Don Mattingly insists won’t happen.

“At this moment, we don’t have any plans [to use Seager at the everyday shortstop],” Mattingly told reporters before Saturday’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. “When Jimmy gets back, we plan on playing Jimmy.”

Of course, that was before Seager went 4 for 4 with two singles, a double, a home run (his first) and three RBIs on Saturday to raise his batting average to .467, his on-base percentage to .568 and his slugging percentage to .733 for an insane OPS of 1.301. Now granted, the sample size is ridiculously small (30 at-bats), especially when you consider that Rollins is a 16-year career major leaguer who made his MLB debut when Seager was six years old. But the point here is that with the Dodgers on the cusp of clinching their third consecutive NL West title, who would best serve the Dodgers in the postseason?

Mattingly also told reporters on Saturday that he hasn’t heard anything from above from President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman or general manager Farhan Zaidi suggesting that he must play Seager over Rollins.

“I don’t know what the chatter is or if there is chatter about Corey and [the shortstop] position or whatever,” said Mattingly. “He’s going to be really good, and he is really good. At this point, with where we’re at and what’s going on, we don’t plan to change. Andrew and Farhan haven’t come to me and said, ‘You’ve got to get him in there every day.'”

Not yet, that is. But knowing how badly Friedman and Zaidi – and even more so, Dodgers ownership – wants to win and wants to win right now, one can only assume that it’s only a matter of time before Mattingly hears that “chatter” from above regarding who plays and who sits.

There is no argument… absolutely none that Rollins – a World Series champion, former NL MVP, three-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glove winner – is a tremendous clubhouse and veteran presence and an asset to the team (especially for young Corey Seager) and he absolutely must be included on the Dodgers playoff roster. But if Mattingly (and Friedman and Zaidi) truly want to put their best eight out there once postseason play begins, they simply cannot run Jimmy Rollins out there ahead of Corey Seager.