Dodgers mailbag: What happens when Adrian Gonzalez returns from the disabled list?

The Dodgers are 79-32. That translates to a 115-win pace.

In case you were wondering: Yes, this is real life.

The Dodgers demolished the Mets this past weekend at Citi Field. They won by a cumulative score of 21-4 and pitched a pair of shutouts. Yu Darvish looked good in his Dodger debut. Justin Turner got back on track with a pair of home runs. Cody Bellinger blasted a pair of his own. Chris Taylor stayed hot. It was a typical weekend in an atypical season. Teams like this do not come around very often.

The team will travel west on Monday, leaving New York for a three-game series in Arizona. The Diamondbacks trail the Dodgers by 16 games in the National League West, but they are still a quality opponent. Here are the pitching matchups for this week at Chase Field:

TUESDAY: RHP Kenta Maeda (10-4, 3.79 ERA) vs. RHP Zack Godley (5-4, 2.86 ERA)

WEDNESDAY: LHP Alex Wood (13-1, 2.33 ERA) vs. RHP Zack Greinke (13-4, 3.10 ERA)

THURSDAY: RHP Yu Darvish (7-9, 3.81 ERA) vs. RHP Taijuan Walker (6-5, 3.60 ERA)

As always, there is plenty to discuss. You can send me questions on Twitter @McCulloughTimes. Let’s do this.

This is the big question facing the Dodgers in the final two months of the regular season: How does Adrian Gonzalez fit into the picture? His playing will be dictated by his bat, I believe. If Gonzalez hits upon his return, the Dodgers can fit him into the lineup against right-handed pitchers with ease. They could slide Cody Bellinger to left field, move Chris Taylor to second base and install Gonzalez somewhere in the No. 5-6 spot in the batting order.

It’s hard to see Gonzalez playing much against left-handed pitchers in the playoffs. You’re more likely to see Bellinger at first base, Logan Forsythe at second base, with Taylor and Enrique Hernandez in the outfield.

But so much depends on how Gonzalez performs when he comes back. He is not far removed from being a productive hitter in the majors. For the first five months of 2016, he hit .294/.359/.452. His swing faded in September and in the playoffs, but he hasn’t been asked to carry much of the offensive load this season. If he can replicate the player he was last summer, the Dodgers want him in the lineup.

The Dodgers can probably stomach the defensive downgrade of using Taylor at second base over Forsythe, but Forsythe has not hit right-handed pitchers this season. He has a .535 on-base plus slugging percentage against them. That won’t play. I would assume the Dodgers view Gonzalez, if he’s producing a .750-.800 OPS, as a reasonable overall upgrade over Forsythe.

Again, it just depends on how Gonzalez looks. If there’s life in his swing, he’ll play in October. If he can’t generate bat speed, he’s bound for the bench. Gonzalez says he understands the situation. We will see how it plays out.

Gonzalez would like to have a larger role than that, but as he told Dylan Hernandez earlier this summer, he understands how he can aid the team as a bench player.

It’s just too early to say. It depends on how Adrian Gonzalez performs, how Andre Ethier performs, if Alex Verdugo makes a splash — there are too many variables at play to provide a definitive answer right now.

I would bet — though I can’t guarantee — that they’ll use four starters: Clayton Kershaw, Yu Darvish, Rich Hill and Alex Wood. But Hyun-Jin Ryu might make things interesting.

Doubtful. Austin Barnes has become the primary catcher against left-handed starters. That will likely continue in October.

What lesson did the Dodgers front office learn from letting Zack Greinke leave? Yes, Greinke has been a good pitcher in 2017, after a fairly mediocre season in 2016, but I would suggest the Dodgers front office would only be emboldened by what has happened with their team in the past two seasons. Their ideas work.

One of those ideas is that starting pitching is overvalued, especially as teams learn to leverage their bullpens properly, shift their fielders in more sophisticated ways and distribute advanced scouting data on opposing hitters more effectively.

The Dodgers could re-sign Yu Darvish this winter. They have the money. But he’s made one start as a Dodger, the team is interested in avoiding luxury-tax penalties going forward and Clayton Kershaw can become a free agent after 2018. Darvish is more likely to sign with one of the other 29 teams.

They do know each other. Here’s what I’ve been told: They have trained together in the past, although not in recent years. Darvish favors training centered on strength, while Maeda prefers improving his flexibility. But they do have a relationship, and both sounded excited about getting to play together.

Long relievers don’t have much value in the playoffs.

The team called up Kyle Farmer, a third catcher, so they could free up more at-bats for backup catcher Austin Barnes, Dave Roberts said. The team can use Barnes as a pinch-hitter with impunity, with Farmer now available to replace Yasmani Grandal in an emergency.

Plus, Alex Verdugo isn’t on the 40-man roster.

No. I have asked, and Kenta Maeda said he is not a fan of pro wrestling. It’s a shame. New Japan Pro Wrestling is the best thing going in the business right now. More on that later.

I’m not a coffee aficionado, but I do often drink the cans of High Brew sold at Whole Foods.

The 2016 season was very interesting. Many players got injured and San Francisco stormed out to a sizable lead in the division, but the Dodgers recovered to win a fourth consecutive National League West title. They played an exciting series with the Nationals in the NLDS that culminated in Clayton Kershaw being the closer for Game 5. But then, the Dodgers ran into the vaunted Cubs in the NLCS, and lost in six games.

Dylan Hernandez is great! Wait until you read his column on Yasiel Puig and Turner Ward.

I cannot speak for Yasiel Puig, but my favorite song on Less Art’s excellent new LP “Strangled Light” is “Wandering Ghost.”

[Editor’s note: Riley is a member of Less Art. They rock. You should listen to them.]

I assume both Jinder Mahal and Brock Lesnar will lose at SummerSlam. I’ll be disappointed if Lesnar drops the title, but he’s a businessman, and his business is with Jon Jones now. Hopefully they put the strap on either Samoa Joe or Braun Strowman. We’ll see.

Who cares what happens on SmackDown?

I’m down on the WWE product right now, mostly because I have the New Japan Pro Wrestling streaming service, and the matches from the G1 Climax are so much better than anything happening in the States right now.

andy.mccullough@latimes.com

Twitter: @McCulloughTimes

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