Profile: Kris Benson

Being the #1 pick in any Major League Baseball draft class puts a certain amount of expectations on a player. So when Kris Benson, a then University of Clemson standout, was made the first pick in the 1996 draft by a Pittsburgh Pirates franchise in serious flux at the time, the expectation was that he would progress quickly to the big leagues and become the anchor of the team's pitching staff for the next 15 years. At one point, that almost looked like it would come true.

After debuting in 1999 with an 11-14 record and a respectable 4.08 ERA over 196.2 innings for a rebuilding Pirates team, Benson exploded in 2000. His record, 10-12, wasn't quite as impressive as the 184 Ks over 217.2 innings, and the 3.85 ERA. In actuality, Benson was even better than those numbers, but struggled badly down the stretch of that season, which would inflate both his loss totals (costing him a winning record for the season) and his ERA. He would later discover he needed reconstructive elbow surgery which would cost him all of the 2001 season.

Benson would come back and pitch for the Pirates in '02 and '03. He would miss the first month and a half of the 2002 season, but came back to post his first winning season in the majors, despite starting 0-4 with a 7.79 ERA in his first eight off the DL. As he worked his was back, he regained his form and put together an impressive 17 start stretch with a 9-2 record and a 3.57 ERA to round out that season. It seemed as though he had overcome the injury and was completely back.

But he inexplicably got off to a horrendous start in 2003, and then would be claimed by shoulder tendinitis after just 18 starts that season. The Pirates, ready to move on and rebuild, would bring him back one more time, but trade Benson to the Mets at the 2004 deadline for infielder Ty Wigginton.

Benson was average at best in his stint with the Mets, showing flashes of brilliance at times (2-1 with a 2.25 ERA in September '04), and then collapsing into ineffectiveness for lengthy stretches. In fact, Benson's stay in New York would be pretty forgettable, if not for his wife Anna Benson, and her infamous statement that if her husband cheated on her, she would sleep with every Met in the clubhouse as a method of revenge.

Despite a hot start for the Mets in 2005 to the tune of 9-4 with a 3.49 ERA, Benson fell apart down the stretch finishing up 1-4 with an high 6 ERA, and the Mets would would move him in the offseason to the Baltimore Orioles for pitchers John Maine and Jorge Julio.

In Baltimore, Benson's decline came quicker. He posted a below-average 2006, and would miss all of 2007 with a torn rotator cuff; an injury he's still recovering from today.

Benson is expected to rehab most of this Spring with the Phillies and start the season on the DL. If all goes well, he could be ready in late April/early May. What to expect from a healthy Kris Benson at this point is pretty up in the air. He is 33 years old, and far removed from his 1999-2002 successes. He's missed two full seasons because of injury, and suffered many more nagging ones throughout his career which have affected him on the mound at times.

It could very well be that nagging shoulder and elbow injuries over the years have just worn him down and he has nothing left. Yet, he's been surgically repaired, he's rested, and if he still has the physical capability to throw the pitches that made him what he was in Pittsburgh, close to the quality they were back then, he could be big time sleeper this season.

But let's not get too caught up in that; the reality of the situation is like the edge of the knife. As easily as he could be a sleeper, he could just as easily show he has nothing left and be cut by the Phillies out of Spring Training, or at some point early in the season, never to pitch a MLB inning for the club.

For what it's worth, though, if Benson still has something left, he should be able to find a spot in the rotation when he recovers fully. As I previously mentioned in the profile of Adam Eaton, there is no stranglehold on that 5th starter job. If Eaton starts the season there, or even someone like Chad Durbin, they're only keeping it warm until a better option shows itself. And unless that option is in the form of one of the Phillies' three wunderkids; Joe Savery, Carlos Carrasco, or Josh Outman, Benson seems a likely candidate to get an extended look.