No Decisions as Perez Works Out

While Manager Jim Tracy clarified the Dodgers’ hopes for left-hander Odalis Perez on Tuesday should he return this season from the disabled list, Perez threw his first bullpen workout since going out Aug. 18 with a strained right rib-cage muscle.

Tracy said it was a “line of thinking,” rather than a “plan,” to have Perez work exclusively from the bullpen upon his return. Perez said Monday that the team should ask him first before making a decision.

After his 25-pitch workout, Perez, who has not pitched in relief since 2001 when he was with the Atlanta Braves, said he felt “very good” after the session.

As far as Perez’s possibly starting one or more of the Dodgers’ final 18 games, Tracy was noncommittal.

“If Odalis Perez is able to do that, great,” Tracy said.

Perez, 28, is in the first year of a three-year, $24-million deal. He was also on the DL with a sore pitching shoulder from May 15 to July 19. Perez is 7-7 with a 4.72 earned-run average this year.

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Hee-Seop Choi was “a little bit surprised” when told of former Dodger Eric Karros’ weekend radio comments in which he suggested no one should be surprised that Choi had failed to make it as the Dodgers’ everyday first baseman because he had failed to make it in Florida and Chicago.

Interestingly, Karros could not win the everyday first base position from Choi when the two were teammates with the Chicago Cubs in 2003.

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Left-hander Wilson Alvarez, who threw 40 to 45 pitches for the first time since going on the DL with a sore pitching shoulder Aug. 7, hopes to come back this year to make his final career appearance.

“I might cry,” he said. “It’s going to be very emotional. I just don’t know how I’m going to act.”

As far as returning this year to close out a career that began in 1989, “I want to know how I feel in the next couple of days,” Alvarez said. “So far, so good. The nice thing is I was throwing strikes.”

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Left-hander Kelly Wunsch underwent surgery on his left hip Tuesday and should be ready for spring training, Dodger spokesman Josh Rawitch said.... Catcher Dioner Navarro was not at the park; his wife, Sherley, gave birth to son Dioner Jr. earlier in the day.