They’re Paying Price for Perez

What price integrity?

Sometime in the next 25 days, this is a question the Dodgers must ask.

How much is credibility worth?

Shortly after they begin welcoming fans into an expensively renovated stadium next weekend, this is an answer the Dodgers must supply.

It’s about pitcher Carlos Perez, who’s struggling.

Well, OK, this minute he is arguably the worst starter in the Western world.

His season debut Thursday in Montreal was problematic.

All right, he put it on a tee and the Expos knocked him to Nova Scotia.

When added to last year’s difficulties on and off the field, Thursday’s 11-3 loss to the Expos gives Perez a rather unimpressive record in Los Angeles.

Truth be told, his resume is a flaming diaper.

Now the Dodger must now decide how to deal with him.

In other words, whether they should fire him or demote him or what.

Which brings us back to that question.

What is the going rate for a team’s reputation?

Is it worth $12.5 million?

If the Dodgers take Perez off the roster, that’s how much money they are blowing in salary guaranteed him by a three-year contract given by General Manager Kevin Malone two winters ago.

If Perez spends the entire time pitching in triple-A Albuquerque, they owe him $12.5 million.

If Perez is picked up by another major league team, that team has to pay him only $200,000, so the Dodgers still owe him $12.3 million.

Any way you swallow it, it’s a lot of money, even more than they are charging for burgers in the new Dodger Stadium luxury suites.

Because Perez will become a five-year player in 25 days and can refuse a demotion, the Dodgers must make a decision during that time.

What it is will tell us a lot about who they are.

The relationship with their fans. Their commitment to winning. The strength of their words.

Are they willing to back any of that with $12.5 million?

Perez probably, and appropriately, will be given two more starts.

After that, the rubber gets introduced to the road.

Bob Daly says that under him, the Dodgers are all about old-fashioned winning.

Hanging on to an ineffective player only because he is too expensive to cut is not about that.

Bob Daly says that under him, the Dodgers are going to fix the mistakes of the past.

Keeping around what Malone probably would admit was his biggest goof would not be doing that.

If Perez doesn’t improve quickly and radically, removing him would not be a bad ending but, rather, a nice beginning.

Unlike last year, there are three young starters in Albuquerque--Eric Gagne, Mike Judd or Jeff Williams--who could fill his fifth starter spot.

Unlike last year, this team has a deep, veteran bullpen that could support them. Unlike last year, giving up on Perez does not represent giving up hope, but gaining it.

And think of what the Dodgers would save on baseballs.

On the scoreboard here, the French word for fly ball, as the Dodgers were so often reminded here during this season-opening series, is ballon.

On Thursday night with Perez on the mound, ballons were floating everywhere.

Perez faced 25 batters. Only three of them hit it on the ground in the infield. Two of those hits nearly decapitated third baseman Adrian Beltre.

Perez threw the ball high in the strike zone, and the Expos hit it high into the blue Olympic Stadium ceiling.

Seven hits including two homers in 4 2/3 innings. Eight runs, five earned, but all deserved.

Afterward the Dodgers said that, unlike last season when Perez was 2-10 with a 7.43 ERA, a mysterious knee injury and a bat-smashed water cooler, he was throwing the ball hard.

“His velocity was like night and day from last year,” catcher Todd Hundley said.

But Thursday was also in keeping with the theme of this season, which began in Vero Beach when he was charged with drunk driving after being caught napping at an intersection.

Perez may have pitched harder, but he pitched as if asleep at the wheel.

He would start a batter with good pitches down, then let him off the hook with fat pitches up.

“You miss up there, it’s going to be waffled,” Manager Davey Johnson said. “I expected more.”

The entire organization has been expecting more of a player who was given a huge contract after the 1998 season even though he was not yet a free agent and couldn’t have gone anywhere anyway.

In some cases, that unexpected security helps a young, excitable player like Perez relax. This is obviously not one of those cases.

Gone is the pitcher who would leap and pump his fists after every strikeout. Gone is the pitcher who would sprint off the field after a big out or quick inning. These days Carlos Perez is too busy kicking the dirt and dropping his head.

“You don’t worry about how you start the season, you worry about how you finish the season,” Perez said Thursday, as if trying to convince himself. “There is still a long way to go.”

Twenty-five days to be exact.

We’ll see if the Dodgers can throw a better fastball than he does.

*

Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address:

bill.plaschke@latimes.com.