RRosternomics
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JM

Joe McDonald

Born Jul 5, 1929 · Staten Island, NY · age 97

General manager for the Mets, Cardinals, and Tigers (1975–1991).

2 seasons with salary-era data across 3 stints. All figures are franchise-level outcomes during the tenure, not solely attributable to one executive.

Overview

Titles0
Pennants1
Playoffs1
Record185–139
Win %0.571
+3.9GM WAR — wins above a replacement GM (org-adjusted, shrunk; per season) ±7.116th/195 execs
10.0Depth — 2+ WAR regulars per season (the breadth that drives TAB, not stars)2nd/195 execs
-3.9Dead WAR — WAR/yr bled by sub-replacement players (closer to 0 = better)21st/195 execs
23%Dead money — payroll on <0.5-WAR players (lower = better)19th/195 execs
$4MCheap-talent surplus — $/yr of value from cost-controlled (pre-arb/arb) players above their pay; the selection engine, and the stickiest GM skill we track144th/195 execs
$3MDrafted surplus — cheap-talent surplus from his own draftees (the develop-from-the-draft engine)125th/195 execs
$1MTraded-for surplus — cheap-talent surplus from cost-controlled players he acquired via trade121st/195 execs
$0MInt'l surplus — cheap-talent surplus from his own international signees130th/195 execs
+21.1TAB — talent above budget — roster-construction alpha (talent your budget bought above expectation), tenure total36th/195 execs
+19.9WAB — realized wins (TAB + the non-repeatable luck of converting talent to wins)38th/195 execs
3.66Acquisition Leverage — playoff pts per acquired WAR, graded once in the year each deal's wins arrive (the repeatable decision skill)24th/195 execs
+3Roster surplus $M38th/195 execs

Tenure breakdown

TeamRoleYearsSzns WAB WAB/yr TAB WAR surp HG Trade FA R5 AcqLev W-L% POPenWS Surp $M
▸ Tigers GM 1991–1991 1 +1.7 +1.75 +4.6 +0.9 +11.6 +18.8 -2.6 +0.0 3.76 0.519 ––– +0
▸ Cardinals GM 1983–1985 1 +18.2 +18.18 +16.4 +10.5 +45.1 +18.1 -5.3 +0.0 2.89 0.623 11– +3
▸ Mets GM 1975–1980 0 +0.0 – +0.0 +0.0 +50.2 +4.6 -5.4 +0.3 – – ––– –
Career total (1985+ data) 2 +19.9 +21.1 +11.4 +106.9 +41.4 -13.4 +0.3 3.66 0.571 11 – +3

Roster Construction

How the roster was sourced

by valueby volume

Share of acquired fWAR by channel vs. league average.

Build channels — net fWAR

Acquired minus surrendered / signed minus walked.

Home-grown (draft/intl)+106.9
Trade+41.4
Free agency-13.4
Rule 5 / minor draft+0.3
Sourcing mix: 60% draft · 0% FA · 40% trade · 0% R5

Roster value distribution — career average — depth vs. stars

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR, averaged across Joe McDonald's seasons. Bars = his rosters; the black line = the league-average player at each slot. Staying above the line deep into the roster is the depth edge.

Players acquired — 71 players, by realized fWAR for the franchise (scroll for more)

PlayerPosTeam How Year Szns fWAR WAR/yr Lev
Darryl Strawberry OF NYM Draft 1980 6 +29.7 +4.9 –
José Oquendo 2B/SS STL Trade 1985 10 +15.3 +1.5 –
Joe Magrane P STL Draft 1985 5 +14.7 +2.9 –
Mickey Tettleton C DET Trade 1991 4 +14.4 +3.6 20.6
Bernard Gilkey OF STL Intl FA 1984 6 +12.6 +2.1 –
John Tudor P STL Trade 1984 5 +12.0 +2.4 –
Justin Thompson P DET Draft 1991 4 +11.0 +2.8 –
Tom Pagnozzi C STL Draft 1983 9 +10.6 +1.2 –
Jack Clark 1B/OF STL Trade 1985 3 +10.1 +3.4 –
Mookie Wilson OF NYM Draft 1977 5 +9.9 +2.0 –
Wally Backman 2B NYM Draft 1977 4 +7.7 +1.9 –
Geronimo Pena 2B STL Intl FA 1984 5 +6.4 +1.3 –
Ken Dayley P STL Trade 1984 6 +6.1 +1.0 –
Rob Deer OF DET Trade 1991 3 +5.5 +1.8 3.8
Bill Gullickson P DET Trade 1991 4 +5.3 +1.3 12.8
Greg Mathews P STL Draft 1984 4 +3.8 +1.0 –
Mark Leiter P DET Trade 1991 3 +3.2 +1.1 5.1
Jesse Orosco P NYM Trade 1979 3 +3.0 +1.0 –
Kevin Mitchell OF NYM Intl FA 1980 1 +2.7 +2.7 –
Darrell Porter C STL Trade 1985 1 +2.1 +2.1 –
Ed Lynch P NYM Trade 1979 2 +1.6 +0.8 –
Tito Landrum OF STL Trade 1984 3 +1.5 +0.5 –
Dan Gladden OF DET Free agency 1991 2 +1.4 +0.7 1.8
César Cedeño OF STL Trade 1985 1 +1.4 +1.4 4.0
Skeeter Barnes 1B/3B/OF DET Free agency 1991 2 +1.3 +0.7 4.7
Sean Bergman P DET Draft 1991 2 +1.2 +0.6 –
John Gibbons C NYM Draft 1980 1 +0.6 +0.6 –
Tim Conroy P STL Trade 1985 2 +0.6 +0.3 0.1
Dan Gakeler P DET Trade 1991 1 +0.5 +0.5 –
Rick Anderson P NYM Draft 1978 1 +0.5 +0.5 –
John Morris OF STL Trade 1985 2 +0.5 +0.3 –
Andy Allanson C DET Trade 1991 1 +0.4 +0.4 1.4
Lonnie Smith OF STL Trade 1985 1 +0.4 +0.4 1.2
Bill Campbell P STL Trade 1985 1 +0.3 +0.3 –
Steve Braun 3B/OF STL Trade 1985 1 +0.2 +0.2 –
Tim Jones 2B/SS STL Draft 1985 3 +0.2 +0.1 –
Matt Keough P STL Trade 1985 1 +0.2 +0.2 –
Tom Lawless 2B/3B STL Trade 1985 2 +0.2 +0.1 –
Ronn Reynolds C NYM Draft 1980 1 +0.1 +0.1 –
Scott Arnold P STL Draft 1984 1 +0.1 +0.1 –
Rod Booker 2B/SS STL Trade 1983 2 +0.1 +0.0 –
John Costello P STL Draft 1983 2 +0.1 +0.0 –
Andy Hassler P STL Trade 1985 1 +0.1 +0.1 –
Mike Jorgensen 1B STL Trade 1984 1 +0.1 +0.1 –
Trever Miller P DET Draft 1991 – -0.0 – –
Billy Beane OF NYM Draft 1980 – -0.0 – –
Ron Gardenhire SS NYM Draft 1979 1 +0.0 +0.0 –
Doug Sisk P NYM Intl FA 1980 2 -0.0 -0.0 –
Neil Allen P STL Trade 1983 – -0.0 – –
Brian Harper C STL Trade 1984 – -0.0 – –
Howard Hilton P STL Draft 1985 – -0.0 – –
John Cerutti P DET Free agency 1991 – -0.1 – –
Mike Dalton P DET Trade 1991 – -0.1 – –
Art Howe 2B/3B STL Trade 1985 – -0.1 – –
Jeff Kaiser P DET Free agency 1991 – -0.2 – –
Phil Stidham P DET Draft 1991 – -0.2 – –
Lance Johnson OF STL Draft 1984 – -0.2 – –
Rick Ownbey P STL Trade 1983 – -0.2 – –
Mike Munoz P DET Trade 1991 2 -0.2 -0.1 0.1
Iván de Jesús SS STL Trade 1985 – -0.3 – –
Matt Kinzer P STL Draft 1984 – -0.3 – –
Ray Stephens C STL Draft 1985 – -0.3 – –
John Moses OF DET Free agency 1991 – -0.4 – –
Clint Sodowsky P DET Draft 1991 – -0.4 – –
Mike Fitzgerald 1B STL Draft 1984 – -0.4 – –
Jim Lindeman 1B/OF STL Draft 1983 1 -0.6 -0.6 –
Craig Wilson 3B STL Draft 1984 1 -0.7 -0.7 –
Kelvin Chapman 2B NYM Intl FA 1975 – -0.9 – –
Mike Walker P DET Free agency 1991 – -1.0 – –
Steve Peters P STL Draft 1985 1 -1.0 -1.0 –
Pete Incaviglia OF DET Free agency 1991 – -1.1 – –

WAB = wins above what the team's payroll predicted (resource-controlled). WAR surplus = era-neutral value (WAR minus payroll in win-equivalents). Roster surplus $M = dollar value of WAR over cost. Build channels (realized fWAR): HG = home-grown via amateur draft / international signing; Trade = acquired minus surrendered (incl. purchases/waivers); FA = signed minus walked; R5 = Rule-5 / minor-league-draft pickups. Credit follows the acquisition year — home-grown to the regime at the player's draft/signing (not whoever was in the chair when he peaked), trade/FA/R5 to the GM who made the move. Players acquired as prospects before debuting (e.g. Smoltz, Bagwell; Rule-5 picks like Uggla) are counted as trade/R5, not home-grown. All are franchise-level outcomes during the stint, not solely attributable to one executive.

Graphs

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Rosternomics — quantifying front-office skill, attribution-clean. Follow @rosternomics on X. Decision-makers on record back to 1933; resource-controlled metrics (WAR & payroll) cover 1985–2026.
Data: FanGraphs (WAR), Baseball-Reference & the Chadwick Bureau register (rosters, IDs), the Lahman Database, Baseball America prospect rankings (via The Baseball Cube), and public payroll records. Transaction and trade data was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by Retrosheet. Executive birth/death data via Wikidata (CC0); bios are original. Emoji graphics by OpenMoji (CC BY-SA 4.0).
All figures are franchise-level outcomes credited to the decision-maker in the acquisition year — not solely attributable to one executive.