Perez Is Gone, Along With $7.5 Million

Carlos Perez was released Friday after two-plus seasons of poor pitching that the Dodgers previously tolerated because of his $15.6-million contract.

But times have changed under interim General Manager Dave Wallace and Manager Jim Tracy.

Wallace announced that Perez was not in the club’s plans in the fourth inning of the Chicago Cubs’ 4-0 victory at Wrigley Field, finally ending an unproductive relationship.

“I’m not going to address what happened before, but I can tell you that it’s a decision that has been lingering for a while, and it’s nice to come to some sort of closure on it,” Wallace said. “Unfortunately, it’s not a happy ending for one of the parties, but it never is.”

The Dodgers granted Perez’s release request because he had completed a rehabilitation assignment at triple-A Las Vegas and had to be put on the 25-man roster today or become a free agent.

The Dodgers owe Perez the rest of his $7.5 million salary this season.

“As we’ve said before, everything is predicated on the best interests of the ballclub,” Wallace said. “We just don’t feel, at this point, that he’s ready to help us.”

Agent Adam Katz spoke on behalf of Perez.

“We asked for a release because they were not going to put him on the roster,” Katz said in a phone interview. “Carlos had a strong preference to move on, and I think [Chairman] Bob [Daly] felt the same way. Time had just run out on this one.”

Perez, who had arthroscopic surgery on his pitching shoulder last season, was 2-1 with a 6.53 earned-run average for the 51s.

The left-hander gave up seven hits and four runs in four innings Thursday in his final rehabilitation start.

Perez threw 34 strikes in 93 pitches and his fastball was clocked consistently at only 85 mph.

The Dodgers had finally seen enough.

“The crispness to his slider wasn’t quite there on a consistent basis,” said Wallace, considered the game’s top pitching coach. “There’s just not a way that he’s going to help our ballclub now.”

Perez was 7-18 with a 6.28 ERA in the majors with the Dodgers, and 5-4 with a 6.19 ERA in the minors.

What’s next for Perez?

“I think there will be more than a handful of teams expressing interest in Carlos,” Katz said. “At what level I don’t know yet.”

*

Catcher Todd Hundley reminisced with his former teammates before the game.

Hundley, off to a slow start in his first season with the Cubs, is happy to be home.

“I couldn’t wind up in a better place than here,” said Hundley, whose father, Randy, also played for the Cubs. “I knew [the Dodgers] were going to spend a lot of money on [pitchers] Chan Ho [Park] and [Darren Dreifort], and my gut feeling was, I wasn’t going to be back with those guys, so it was time to move on.

“There were some [contract] loopholes that Bob Daly could have used, business-wise, but he didn’t and he let me go. I respect him for that and I appreciate that.”

Hundley was hitless in three at-bats with a run-scoring sacrifice fly, and is batting .203 with three homers and 13 runs batted in.

He said he admires the Dodgers for remaining focused, despite the forced resignation of former general manager Kevin Malone.

“I’m glad I’m not a part of it and don’t have to put up with that daily stuff,” said Hundley, who signed a four-year, $23.5-million contract in December.

“He ended up cutting his own throat. He didn’t know when to stop talking. Good guy, very competitive guy, you can’t blame him for that, but he didn’t know when to be quiet and that was the problem. I haven’t seen a GM with that many headlines, and for all the wrong reasons, unfortunately.”

Hundley said Malone’s feud last season with former manager Davey Johnson had affected the club.

“The end of my last year there, yeah, I felt it,” he said. “A GM who has . . . obviously a GM is hands on--but not that hands on. GMs delegate power and they let the managers do stuff. He didn’t. He wanted to have his hands in everything.

“You knew that things weren’t all together and it eventually ended up trickling down [to the field].”

*

Adrian Beltre was three for seven with two RBIs during an extended spring training game at Vero Beach, Fla.

He is scheduled to play in another extended game today and Sunday for the Class-A Vero Beach Dodgers.

TODAY

DODGERS’

DARREN DREIFORT

(1-1, 5.10 ERA)

vs.

CUBS’

JULIAN TAVAREZ

(2-1, 1.53 ERA)

Wrigley Field, 11:15 a.m. PDT.

TV--Channel 5.

Radio--KXTA (1150), KWKW (1330).

* Update--Dreifort was 1-0 with a 5.63 ERA in three starts against the Cubs last season, and is 2-1 with a 3.88 ERA in his career.