Catch to Dodgers’ offense is they’re getting none behind the plate

The Dodgers’ hitting woes go beyond the current slumps of Hanley Ramirez and Yasiel Puig. That’s a fairly recent thing.

But all season long, the Dodgers have received precious little offense from their catchers.

As a unit, their catchers are batting .186 on the season, have driven in only 34 runs, hit five homers and have a weak .266 slugging percentage.

Heck, the pitching staff is hitting .159.

At no point did the Dodgers ever think the catcher’s spot would be some prime source of offense, but they had to expect more output than this.

Primary catcher A.J. Ellis is hitting .194 with one homer and 14 RBI in 227 at-bats. The last two seasons he averaged .255, 12 homers and 52 RBI.

That’s a significant drop. And his backups have not fared any better -- Drew Butera (.190, 3, 13 in 158 at-bats), Tim Federowicz (.125, 1, 5 in 64) and Miguel Olivo (.217, 0, 2 in 23).

The eighth and ninth spots in the lineup are where rallies go to die for the Dodgers.

For Ellis, who has battled knee problems this year, this is just his third season as the Dodgers’ No.1 catcher. But he’s a late starter who is already 33 years old and it doesn’t figure his career arc is on the rise.

Butera is 31, Federowicz 27, and Olivo and his ear-biting ways are long gone. Federowicz has hit some in the minors (.293 in seven seasons), but in parts of the last four seasons with the Dodgers has hit only .200. Butera is a career .183 hitter.

So there’s really nothing in the system that’s going to change things.

Ellis, who has hit slightly better in his last seven games (7 for 21, no RBI), said the best the Dodgers can do is hope he’s rounding more into the form he demonstrated the last two seasons.

The catchers’ main responsibility is to handle the pitching staff, which they do very well. A little offense, though, would help the cause.