Padres Leaning on Benes : Baseball: With Whitson’s problems, Benes has become crucial to the team’s rotation.

Padre starter Andy Benes listens to the discouraging news on Ed Whitson. He reads the trade talks involving Ricky Bones. He watches the struggles of Bruce Hurst and Greg Harris.

Now, more than ever, he realizes he no longer is just another pitcher in the Padre rotation. He very well could be the key to the fate of the pitching staff.

Benes made his spring-training debut Monday in a B game against the San Francisco Giants, and vowed afterward that he’ll be ready by opening day. He threw 23 pain-free pitches Monday, and although it was the first time he pitched competitively since October, he still was able to throw 91 m.p.h. Benes underwent minor surgery near his lower abdomen in February.

“If you can tell something in one inning,” Benes said, “I felt fine. “I haven’t really cut loose yet, but my mechanics are solid. I just have to build up my arm strength, and I’ll be ready by opening day.”

Said Padre Manager Greg Riddoch: “He looked good today. He’s just a little behind. We’ll have enough time for him to catch up.”

But while Benes was making his debut, delighting the Padre management, Whitson was preparing to take a flight to Columbus, Ohio, where his future might be determined.

Whitson has again been experiencing pain in his right elbow, and will have a magnetic resonance imaging test, arthrogram and CAT-scan performed on his right elbow Wednesday in Columbus. He’ll be at the Ohio State University hospital, anyway, to be with his wife--who’s scheduled to give birth that day--and decided to have his elbow examined at the same time. “Hell, I’ve tried everything else,” he said, “I might as well see what these tests say. Hopefully, they can pinpoint about what it is, and go from there.

“I’m concerned, for sure. I don’t think it’s serious. I mean, how serious can it be, something so close to the skin and so refined?

“But I’m stuck, I’ve just to go wait and see what the results of the tests are.”

Whitson’s setback, which could now sideline him until May or longer, makes it imperative that Benes returns to his form of the second half of the 1991 season. He went 11-1 with a 1.77 ERA in his last 15 starts, and wound up with a 15-11 record.

“I probably put more pressure on myself than anybody else would ever put on me, anyway,” Benes said. “I expect myself to pitch a shutout every time, and when I gave up runs, particularly in the first half, it was really tough on me.

“Instead of waiting for something bad to happen, I started thinking of all the good things. Believe me, my sanity’s a lot better now.”

Benes is expected to start the season as the Padres’ No. 3 starter, following Bruce Hurst and Greg Harris in the rotation. It’s anyone’s guess who’ll follow Benes.

Joe McIlvaine, Padre general manager, said Bones will definitely be in the rotation, providing he’s not traded first to the Milwaukee Brewers in a package for Gary Sheffield. Whitson’s spot, for at least the first few weeks, likely will be occupied by Dave Eiland or Mark Knudson.

“We’re looking for all the pitching we can get our hands on,” Riddoch said. “It’s going to have an impact when you lose a starting pitcher with the experience Ed Whitson has. There’s absolutely no way he’ll start the season now.”

Said Whitson, valiantly trying to remain optimistic: “If we can get it out of there, we’ll have all season to go. But right now, it feels like someone reach up in there and stuck a hot poker.

“I don’t know what to think.”