NEW YORK — Turns out the Dodgers have something to do before the trade deadline. 

They have to find another catcher.

Because Will Smith is completely shut down.

He’s not hitting, he’s not catching, he’s not throwing — he’s not doing anything for at least a week, manager Dave Roberts said Friday.

A three-time All-Star, Smith has already missed five weeks due to an inflamed disk in his neck.

Can the Dodgers count on Smith returning this season? Or do they not know?

“We don’t know,” manager Dave Roberts said, “but we are certainly counting on it.”

They don’t know if Smith will be back, and they almost certainly won’t know by the Aug. 3 trade deadline, which is a little more than two weeks away.

Smith is borderline irreplaceable, as there aren’t many catchers with his offensive profile. His continued absence has placed the Dodgers in a difficult position, as they can’t go into the playoffs with Dalton Rushing as their only viable catcher.

But if president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman trades for a catcher the caliber of, say, Baltimore’s Adley Rutschman, what do they do if Smith returns as expected? Even if Smith doesn’t come back this season, or comes back in a diminished capacity, what would happen next year? Rutschman would still be under team control.

Ben Rortvedt could be a more practical option.

The same Ben Rortvedt who caught games for them in the postseason last year. The same Ben Rortvedt whom they designated for assignment before this season.

Rortvedt, 28, is playing for the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate in Syracuse. 

He’s familiar with the Dodgers’ pitchers. He wouldn’t cost much to acquire. 

But Rortvedt is extremely limited offensively. He batted .190 for the Dodgers in 18 games last year and is hitting .210 for Syracuse. Kyle Tucker and Mookie Betts better keep hitting if Rortvedt ends up in the Dodgers’ lineup.

The Dodgers are hoping it doesn’t come to that — and for what it’s worth, they don’t think it will.

Roberts said shutting down Smith represented a change in the medical staff’s approach to treating him rather than a worsening of his condition.

“Early on, [we were] trying to get him ready, moving around, doing some baseball stuff,” Roberts said. “But he hasn’t been able to get over the hump.”

Because his physical activity was leading to flareups, the Dodgers wanted to see how he would respond to doing nothing for several days.

Roberts was encouraged by the early report he received from head trainer Thomas Albert.

“He said that Will doesn’t feel any pain,” Roberts said. “Now with that, I think we’re in a much better spot.”

Which doesn’t mean Smith is expected back anytime soon. 

“It’s going to be a slow ramp-up,” Roberts said.

In other words, don’t expect Smith back until the end of next month, at the earliest.

“I don’t really know what that really looks like right now,” Roberts said. “So it’s hard to say.”

Just as it’s hard to say how much the Dodgers would be affected if Smith is unavailable in October.

Smith’s even temperament has served him well in critical moments, including in the postseason. His 11th-inning home run provided the Dodgers with the deciding run against the Blue Jays in Game 7 of the World Series. Another one of his homers counted as the go-ahead run in the Dodgers’ Game 2 victory.

He has five career walk-off homers. 

In the regular season, he has a career OPS of .928 when hitting in the seventh inning or later with the Dodgers tied, ahead by one run or behind with the tying run at least on deck.

His career OPS: .826.

Once again, the Dodgers are looking at Smith to come up big for them in an important situation. Only this time, their ask is modest. They just need him back on the field. But they can’t count on that at this point, and that makes it necessary for them to start making plans to play their most important games without him.