When you look at Chase Utley‘s numbers through the first 24 games in which he has appeared this season, your very first thought might be “Why on earth did the Dodgers ever re-sign this guy?” After all, in his first 67 plate appearances, the 38-year-old Pasadena, California native and UCLA alum went 5 for 51 (.098) and was without an extra base hit. But when you look at his numbers over his last three games, the answer to that question becomes blatantly obvious. In those three games the 15-year MLB veteran went 6-for-19 (.316) with two doubles, a triple, and three RBIs, with two of the three being multi-hit games.

Oh sure, you can point your finger at Utley’s final at-bat on Thursday night and say that it was his 4-6-3 double play with no outs and the bases loaded in the top of the ninth at Coors Field that all but ended the Dodgers valiant attempt at a comeback after being down 10-0 in the fourth inning, but if you’re going to go there you first need to realize that he drove in two of the Dodgers seven runs in the eventual 10-7 loss to the first place Rockies (although one was on that GIDP which, of course, does not count as an RBI).

The point here is that in spite of his advanced age – for a baseball player, that is – it is way too early to throw in the towel in on Chase Utley just yet. In fact, if you look at his career numbers, there is still a good chance that he will end up with a slash-line this season in the neighborhood of the .252 / .319 / .396 slash-line he posted last season with the Dodgers; this, of course, depending on the number of games he will eventually end up playing in. That number will most certainly be substantially lower than the 138 games in which he appeared in during the 2016 season, especially when Dodgers new everyday second baseman Logan Forsythe returns from the disabled list for right hamstring tightness and a fractured right big toe.

But along the way, you can absolutely positively be assured that Chase Utley will continue to make seemingly impossible defensive plays for which he is famous.

You can also be assured that he will always … always play the game the right way and with 100 percent maximum effort.

…because that is why the Dodgers re-signed him.