Padres’ Staton Says His Stats Aren’t a Priority Right Now

The way Dave Staton’s right rotator cuff shredded last summer, you would have thought he was a pitcher.

Never before, said the doctor who repaired Orel Hershiser’s shoulder, had he seen such damage to a non-pitcher.

And now Staton, who twice was within weeks of his major league debut, is toiling away as a designated hitter in the San Diego Padres’ extended spring training camp in Peoria, Ariz. Suddenly, home runs and batting average are taking a back seat to simply putting on a uniform.

“I’m not interested in positive or negative results,” said Staton, who played at Tustin High, Orange Coast College and Cal State Fullerton before being selected by the Padres in the fifth round of the June, 1989 free-agent draft. “The main thing I’m interested in is being pain-free. I think it’s virtually impossible to take eight months away and not lose anything.

“It’s been very grueling to be within, you’d like to think, a couple of weeks of your first day in the big leagues two years in a row and then have a season-ending injury. It’s been very trying, not only on my body but on my frame of mind and on my spirit.

“It’s like everything you work for and then, boom, someone pulls the rug out from under your feet and you’re back to square one.”

In August, 1991, Staton cracked a vertebrae in his back a couple of weeks before major league teams expanded their rosters in September. He had 22 homers and 74 runs batted in at the time and was batting .267 while at Las Vegas.

Then, last August, his shoulder gave out while he was making a throw from left field. He was batting .281, with 19 homers and 76 RBIs, again at Las Vegas.

Dr. Frank Jobe, Hershiser’s surgeon, operated on Staton Sept. 8 and Staton spent the winter recovering. A member of the Padres’ 40-man roster, Staton suffered a setback during spring training when he re-injured his shoulder--although not severely--while checking a swing.

So there he is, in Peoria, and he will not be allowed to throw for another three months.

“The problem we have is that indications I have from doctors are that he will not be able to throw 100% until July,” said Ed Lynch, the Padres’ director of minor leagues. “I really don’t want to add him to a (Padre minor league roster) until he can throw, but we’ll see how he’s hitting. . . .

“I’d hate to release somebody and add Dave.”

So add another role--designated hitter--to Staton’s ever-increasing arsenal. The Padres have shuffled Staton between third base, first base and left field, which has added to Staton’s frustrating minor league experience.

“It seems like they want to make a commitment to me at a certain position and, three or four months later, before I’ve been given a chance, they shift me,” Staton said. “I have no problem adjusting to new positions. The frustrating thing is when you’re told in spring training, ‘We’re going to give you a shot in left field’--and, in my opinion, I thought I did very well--and then to be told at the midway point of the season, ‘We’re done with you there, move back to first base.’ ”

Said Lynch: “First base is probably his best position, but we have Fred McGriff and Guillermo Velasquez there. We’re trying to see if he has the ability to play a position other than first base.

“Dave’s problem was not his arm, it was a lack of range in the outfield. Same at third base. He’s a big, lumbering kind of guy.”

Staton doesn’t blame his rotator-cuff injury on the long throws from the outfield, though.

“Dr. Jobe said that with the amount of damage in there, it had been building up for a long time,” he said.

Now, the Padres must be as patient as Staton has been.

The club cannot remove him from its 40-man roster without putting him through waivers. But if they test the waiver waters, another team could claim Staton for a mere $20,000.

Add Staton: There is a story in the Las Vegas game program this season about Staton’s monstrous home run last July 21 against Albuquerque, the longest ever hit at Cashman Field.

“We still have a dent in the scoreboard, 40 feet high and 474 feet away from home plate,” said Bryan Dangerfield, director of public relations. “We figured the ball would have gone 500 feet, easy.”

The blast knocked out three scoreboard lights.

“We called it ‘Staton’s Statement,’ ” Dangerfield said. “It still had some oomph to it when it hit the scoreboard.”

Another comeback is in progress in Winter Haven, Fla.: That of Jason Friedman, from Cypress College.

The Boston Red Sox had planned to have him open the season at double-A New Britain, but then a baseball hit Friedman in the face at the end of spring training. As a result, he spent most of April at home in Cypress before traveling back to Florida over the weekend for, yes, extended spring training.

Friedman, a left-handed first baseman who batted .267 with 14 homers and 68 RBIs at single-A Lynchburg (Va.) last summer, fractured his cheekbone in one of the final spring training games while attempting to break up a double play against Texas.

“The shortstop came across, dropped down and hit him in the face,” said Ed Kenney, Boston’s director of minor league operations. “From what our people said, there really was no need for it. The shortstop came down real low and gave Jason no opportunity to get away from the ball.

“It hit him right in the face.”

Friedman, 23, had to have his jaw wired shut and lost 15 pounds during April while on a liquid diet. He is expected to be out a minimum of two months, but don’t tell that to Friedman.

“He’s optimistic that he might be back sooner than that,” Kenney said. “He may be able to swing a bat in extended spring training.

“Right now, it’s just a matter of getting him playing someplace, any place.”

The Mariners shipped second baseman Bret Boone, from Villa Park, to triple-A Calgary last Monday. Boone was hitting .286 (eight for 28) with a homer and two RBIs in seven games, but there was this problem . . .

He had struck out nine times in 28 at-bats. So when Wally Backman came off the disabled list, Manager Lou Piniella didn’t have to look too far when he made his cut.