The Dodgers currently have exactly one player hitting above .275 – 22-year-old rookie shortstop Corey Seager at .284. But on the other end of that spectrum the Dodgers have five guys hitting below .205 – including all three Dodger catchers  – A.J. Ellis (.195), Yasmani Grandal (.187) and Austin Barnes (.105).

To be fair, Barnes should not be lumped in with this group as he has had a grand total of four at-bats with zero hits and one walk since being recalled by the Dodgers on June 5. His two hits came back in April when he started the season as the back-up catcher to Ellis when Grandal began the season on the disabled. As such, it only stands to reason that with regular playing time his offensive numbers would improve both rapidly and significantly. (He hit .306 in his 37 games with the Triple-A Oklahoma City Dodgers this season).

Since being recalled by the Dodgers on June 5, Barnes has started zero games at catcher and only one at second base. (Photo credit – Jill Weisleder)

By now there isn’t a Dodger fan on the planet who isn’t aware that aside from Seager and 34-year-old Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez (.274), the entire team is and has been in a horrendous slump for nearly every one of the 65 games the Dodgers have played this season – with Ellis and Grandal near the very bottom of the pack.

So why, then, is Dodgers manager Dave Roberts keeping Austin Barnes on the bench? Why doe he continue to utilize Kiké Hernandez in the most important pinch-hitting role of most games without so much as glancing at Austin Barnes?

Although we will more than likely never know the answer to either question or what he plans to do about the roster-wide offensive slump, Roberts essentially answered these questions with what is clearly the company line.

Indeed, what else can he say? He certainly isn’t going to say that Grandal and Ellis and Hernandez and Howie Kendrick and Justin Turner and Joc Pederson and Yasiel Puig all suck – even though the painful truth is that they all do right now. If he did, he would undoubtedly be fired on the spot.

The point here is that Dave Roberts’ team is broken and he and president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Farhan Zaidi need to fix it – and fast.

It’s understood that guys like Gonzalez and Utley and Kendrick and Ellis cannot be optioned back to the minors because of their respective service time, but guys like Turner and Grandal and Hernandez and Pederson and Puig most certainly can. But even if they were optioned to OKC, who besides Barnes would they bring up to fill the void?

When you scroll down through the Oklahoma City Dodgers roster you will see that third baseman Drew Maggi (who is back at Double-A Tulsa), first baseman O’Koyea Dickson, and infielder Rob Segedin (who has primarily been used as a third baseman but has also played 13 games at first base and one game each at shortstop and second base) are all hitting above .300, and Zack Walters (who has played every infield position [including pitcher] and the outfield) is hitting .285. And while we all know that hitting at the Triple-A level rarely translates to hitting at the major league level, the Dodgers must do something to spark their offense and perhaps some reassignments to and from Oklahoma City might do the trick.

With the Dodgers on the cusp of falling into third place and even dangerously close to fourth place in the NL West, maybe it’s time to see what Austin Barnes can do in front of and behind the plate on a regular basis, or what Segedin or Maggi or Walters can do in place of Hernandez or Turner or Pederson or Puig (when he returns from the disabled list, that is) for a change – even if only temporarily. Because if the Dodgers do nothing at all, their season could very well be over by the All-Star break.

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UPDATE: Barnes was optioned back to Triple-A Oklahoma City on Tuesday afternoon after the Dodgers signed 32-year-old free agent outfielder Will Venable and added him to their 25-man roster.