When Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner landed on the disabled list on May 18 for a strained right hamstring, it brought immediate anxiety to Dodger fans everywhere. After all, the extremely popular 32-year-old Long Beach, California native and unofficial team captain was only hitting a near MLB-best .379 when he pulled up lame rounding third base.

Turner’s injury touched off a chain of events which, quite frankly, proved to be absolutely amazing and speaks volumes about the incredible depth within the Dodgers organization. It forced Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to move so-called everyday second baseman Logan Forsythe to third base as Turner’s replacement, with utility infielder / outfielder Kiké Hernandez occasionally filling in behind him. Hernandez was, of course, Joc Pederson‘s primary back-up in center field until Pederson himself landed on the seven-day concussion DL after a violent collision with right fielder Yasiel Puig on May 23. This forced Roberts to make utility infielder / outfielder Chris Taylor his everyday center fielder.

Amazingly, the Dodgers have won nine of the 15 games that they have played since Turner went down (.600).

But perhaps the most important link in that chain of events was that Turner’s injury and Forsythe’s subsequent move to the hot corner forced Roberts to move 38-year-old / 15-year major league veteran Chase Utley from his back-up second baseman role – which he had specifically been re-signed to do after the Dodgers acquired Forsythe to be their everyday second baseman – back into the (almost) everyday second baseman role; a role that he has masterfully held throughout his entire career. Whenever Utley or Forsythe or Hernandez needed a day off or were platooned out of the lineup because the team was facing a left-handed pitcher, Chris Taylor would fill in behind them.

Three days after Justin Turner landed on the DL for a strained right hamstring, Chase Utley hit this eventual game-winning home run off of Cubs ace Jake Arrieta. It was Utley’s second home run in as many days.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

The importance of Utley’s link in the chain was not because of his remarkable defensive skills that had earned him six trips to the All-Star game, it was because of his offensive skills that had earned him four Silver Slugger awards. The problem was, the Pasadena, California native with a career .277 batting average was absolutely floundering at the plate in his new and foreign role as a non-everyday player. In fact, it got so bad that on May 8 – just two weeks before the Turner injury – Utley was hitting a pathetic .089. However, since being moved back into the (almost) everyday second baseman role, the quiet UCLA alum has upped his season batting average to .231 after finishing the month of May hitting a remarkable .314. We’re talking a jump of 225 points over a three week period of time. Talk about taking flight. Utley has once again become the guy that Dodger fans want to see at the plate when the game is on the line – except for Adrian Gonzalez, of course.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that 30-year-old Logan Forsythe not only hasn’t taken flight yet since becoming a Dodger, he hasn’t even found the airport.

Even though it was Forsythe’s 13th-inning base hit that gave the Dodgers an exciting 2-1 walk-off win over the St. Louis Cardinals on May 23, he had struck out four times prior to that.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Since being acquired in the trade that sent 24-year-old fan-favorite Jose De Leon to the Tampa Bay Rays, Forsythe has had a total of 89 at-bats for the Dodgers, having spent 30 days on the disabled list for a broken right big toe and right hamstring tightness. Of those 89 at-bats, the extremely quiet and polite Memphis, Tennessee native has struck out in 34 of them. That’s a strikeout rate of 38.2 percent (the league average is 21.6 percent) and includes five multi-strikeout games, including two strikeouts in Wednesday’s matinee game against the NL East-leading Washington Nationals. Fortunately, the Dodgers managed to pull out a 2-1 win, this in spite of the fact that Forsythe was responsible for two of the four runners that the Dodgers left stranded on base. In the 28 games that he has played in as a Dodger, Forsythe is hitting a sub-Mendoza Line .191.

Somewhere between that good news and that bad news is that when the Dodgers acquired Forsythe from the Rays, they inherited his two-year / $10.25 million contract which runs through the 2017 season and includes a club option for 2018 (or a $1 million buyout). And even though Utley’s one-year / $2 million contract also expires after the 2017 season, the Dodgers have 22-year-old second base prospect Willie Calhoun (and his current .290 batting average) at Triple-A Oklahoma City. As such, it is very likely that the extremely popular Vallejo, California native will receive a September call-up this year and puts him in line as the heir apparent to Utley and/or Forsythe to become the Dodgers future everyday second baseman.

The point to all of this is that since becoming everyday players, Chase Utley, Chris Taylor and – to a lesser extent – Kiké Hernandez have been blazing hot since Justin Turner went on the DL. Logan Forsythe has not. And with Turner likely to return to the Dodgers lineup on Friday when the team opens a three-game weekend series against the Cincinnati Reds at Dodger Stadium, it would be criminal … absolutely criminal for the Dodgers to banish Utley back to a bench role.