Will Smith has hairline hand fracture, putting his Dodgers playoff availability in question

Dodgers catcher Will Smith has a hairline fracture in his right hand and is doubtful to return before the end of the regular season, according to manager Dave Roberts.

The Dodgers are “hopeful” Smith will be available for the postseason, but whether he will be ready for the very start of the playoffs — which likely will be Sept. 30 — remains “up in the air,” Roberts said.

Smith, the three-time All-Star catcher who led the National League in batting average in the first half of the season before slumping through August, first got hurt when a foul ball hit his dangling throwing hand behind the plate on Sept. 3 in Pittsburgh.

After missing the Dodgers’ next five games, he returned to the starting lineup on Sept. 9 against the Colorado Rockies, and doubled in his first at-bat. However, the 30-year-old was a late scratch from the lineup the next day after his hand swelled up, and was placed on the injured list last weekend in San Francisco.

Initially, both an X-ray and an MRI on Smith’s hand came back clean, which is why the Dodgers allowed him to return to action as soon as they did. But his injury lingered and the Dodgers sent him back for another MRI at the end of this past week.

This time, the scan showed what both Roberts and president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman described as a “small” fracture.

“It sounds like from the doctors that it’s so small and in such a small part of the hand that it didn’t show up initially but did on the subsequent [scan],” Friedman said. “They seem to say [that] is common. I haven’t seen it, but I also haven’t seen a broken bone in that area very often. It makes sense why it was slow to rebound. I’m glad we have clarity on it. We’re going to do everything we can to strengthen and heal and get it back.”

To this point, the Dodgers have managed without Smith, who was batting .296 with 17 home runs and 61 RBIs. In the 14 games he has missed since getting hurt, the team is 8-6 and averaging more than five runs per game.

A big reason why: The emergence of journeyman replacement Ben Rortvedt, a minor-league addition at the trade deadline who has come to the majors and produced capably as a fill-in for Smith and backup catcher Dalton Rushing (who missed 10 days this month after fouling a ball off his leg).

After joining the team as a career .186 hitter in four MLB seasons, Rortvedt has batted .294 in 13 games with the Dodgers with two doubles and two sacrifice bunts. Dodgers pitchers also have a 2.74 ERA with him behind the plate.

Even with Rushing healthy again, Roberts said Rortvedt will likely get the “lion’s share” of playing time in Smith’s absence.

“The way he’s helped lead our pitching staff has been awesome,” Friedman said. “He really has that servant leadership mentality behind the plate, which has really ingratiated himself with a lot of our pitchers.”

Still, to be at top form, the Dodgers need Smith in the middle of the batting order.

Friedman said the team will keep giving treatment to his hand until “he gets to a point where he doesn’t have symptoms, we’ll re-X-ray.”

“We’re optimistic that it’s going to heal quickly, but we’re at the mercy of how quickly that happens,” Friedman said. “We don’t really know, but we’re optimistic it’ll be pretty fast.”

Graterol not expected back

It’s not much of a surprise at this point, but the Dodgers are not expecting reliever Brusdar Graterol to return this season.

Graterol has not pitched this year after an offseason shoulder surgery, and his recovery “hasn’t gone as smoothly as he would like, as we would like,” Friedman said.

“It’s been hard to kind of ramp up the volume that he would need to get back. My expectation is he will not be back this year.”