GWYNN LOOKS AT THE PADRES : Fans Ringing in New Year with Worries : Baseball: Everyone wants to know what he thinks about the Padres’ situation.

Telephone messages are stacked high at his agent’s office. They’re scattered in his locker at the Padre clubhouse. The phone has been ringing for him since October.

Tony Gwynn knows they want his views on the Padres.

“That’s why I’ve been lying low all winter,” said Gwynn. “I haven’t been talking to anyone. No one even has my phone number.

“I have my own impressions about what’s going on, but I don’t want to make things tougher for Mr. (Tom) Werner and myself. Obviously I’m not happy, because I want to win more than anybody. Every team in the division has improved themselves but us.

“But it’s not my money, either, so there’s not a whole lot I can do. It’s his (Werner’s) club, his prerogative, and he can do what he wants.”

Gwynn, chosen the Padres’ greatest and most popular athlete during the 14-year tenure of The Times’ San Diego Edition, sits back and grimaces. Everyone in baseball knows what’s going on in San Diego. He listens to Padre fans’ complaints on the talk shows and doesn’t fault a soul.

“I guess the most frustrating thing about this is that it’s been a long time since we had a team as exciting as last year,” Gwynn said. “I mean, we had a team that could match up with anyone. (Atlanta Manager) Bobby Cox was scared to death of us.

“And now just to bag it and start over, that’s tough. It’s not easy to take, watching the rest of the division getting stronger while we’re watching our budget.

“I mean, it’s going to be awfully hard to convince people that we can win, and that’s starting in our own clubhouse.”

The Padres already have given up an All-Star shortstop, All-Star catcher and bullpen stopper in cost-cutting moves. Middle reliever Mike Maddux was traded Thursday. Starter Bruce Hurst has been told he’ll go during spring training.

It’s all about money. The Padres are trying to whittle their payroll to $21 million. The only National League clubs who may have a lower payroll are the two expansion clubs.

That is why the Padres, according to an American League owner, are for sale. The club’s finances will be the focus, one Padre owner said, when the owners convene today for a board of directors meeting.

“I know it’s tough for the owners deciding whether they want to make money or win,” Gwynn said. “I know what I’d choose, but it’s not my money. So what am I going to do, sit around and feel sorry for myself?

“People may not believe this, but really, I’m happy I’m playing here. I can’t imagine playing anywhere else.”

It was this winter that Gwynn could have been a free agent. His contract originally expired at the end of the season, and for the first time, Gwynn would have finally had the choice to bolt this city for a contender.

Instead, Gwynn signed a three-year, $12.25-million extension a year ago that begins with a $3.75-million salary in 1993. Even if the Padres wanted to trade him, they couldn’t. Because Gwynn has spent 10 years in the big leagues, all with the Padres, he has the power to reject trades.

“If I had been a free agent,” Gwynn said, “I doubt very seriously whether I would have been back. You always want to feel wanted, but if I had been a free agent it would have been very hard for them to keep me.

“Now, they have no choice.”

Gwynn is among the few who have spent their entire careers in one organization. Just as George Brett has remained in Kansas City, Cal Ripken Jr. in Baltimore and Kirby Puckett in Minnesota, Gwynn appears destined to stay here.

“People ask me all the time if I want to leave here,” Gwynn said. “It’s like they feel sorry for me because I haven’t been on a winner since that ’84. team. And now it doesn’t look like we’ll win this year, either.

“But I want to stay here. If I’m ever going to be on a winner, I want it to be here. I’d be sick if I ever left here, and then they started winning.

“I’ve done everything individually, but now it’s time to win.”

Gwynn said he realized in late October how much he craved being on a winner again. He was watching the World Series, cheering heartily for the Toronto Blue Jays because of former teammates Joe Carter and Roberto Alomar.

After the game, Gwynn remembered leaping from his chair, screaming. The Blue Jays were World Series champions. He watched Carter jump into the middle of the celebratory pile near the pitcher’s mound. The next shot was the TV cameras panning the clubhouse.

“That’s when it hit me,” Gwynn. “I was really happy seeing Robbie and Joe win, but when I saw them start acting the fool in the clubhouse, spraying champagne on everybody, that’s when it got to me.

“I said to myself, ‘Hey, when is it my turn? When do I get to act the fool, too?’ That’s the feeling I want again.”

It appears it might be nearly impossible for the Padres to win this year, but Gwynn refuses to succumb to hopelessness. He hired a personal trainer and has been working out religiously six days a week since Oct. 15. The Padres are talking about batting him leadoff, and Gwynn doesn’t want to be blamed for the Padres’ woes this season.

“I’ve had two months to concentrate on myself,” said Gwynn, who has recovered from arthroscopic knee surgery, “and that’s what I’m doing. I’m going to be ready for anything. In today’s game, a lot of guys wouldn’t accept role changes, but I’m going to do whatever they ask. I just want to make us better.

“I’m not going to let everything bring me down. I know it doesn’t look good on paper, and maybe we won’t be in good shape this year. We’ve got holes, and you just can’t have holes when you’re in a division like ours.

“But in a year, we may be all right. We’ve got realignment coming up, and maybe we won’t have Atlanta or Cincinnati in our division. That’d make things a whole lot easier.”

In the meantime, Gwynn will be patient. Stranger things have happened in baseball. No one picked the Padres to win the National League pennant in 1984, either.

“I never thought I’d be waiting this long to go to the show again,” Gwynn said, “but I think it will eventually happen. Look at the Chargers. It’s taken a long time, but they’ve finally turned it around. I’ve never seen this community so excited.”

Gwynn’s face broke into an expansive grin, and he started to laugh aloud.

“Thank God for that,” he said. “The focus is on them now instead of us. If not for them, we’d really be getting hammered.”