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Whitey Herzog

Nov 9, 1931 (New Athens, IL) – Apr 15, 2024 (St. Louis, MO) · died at 92

General manager for the Cardinals and Angels (1981–1994).

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

Overview

Titles0
Pennants0
Playoffs0
Record47–68
Win %0.409
-1.6GM WAR — wins above a replacement GM (org-adjusted, shrunk; per season) ±7.8119th/195 execs
3.0Depth — 2+ WAR regulars per season (the breadth that drives TAB, not stars)181st/195 execs
-6.5Dead WAR — WAR/yr bled by sub-replacement players (closer to 0 = better)160th/195 execs
36%Dead money — payroll on <0.5-WAR players (lower = better)111th/195 execs
$-0MCheap-talent surplus — $/yr of value from cost-controlled (pre-arb/arb) players above their pay; the selection engine, and the stickiest GM skill we track182nd/195 execs
$2MDrafted surplus — cheap-talent surplus from his own draftees (the develop-from-the-draft engine)143rd/195 execs
$-2MTraded-for surplus — cheap-talent surplus from cost-controlled players he acquired via trade182nd/195 execs
$0MInt'l surplus — cheap-talent surplus from his own international signees147th/195 execs
-8.7TAB — talent above budget — roster-construction alpha (talent your budget bought above expectation), tenure total109th/195 execs
-7.6WAB — realized wins (TAB + the non-repeatable luck of converting talent to wins)102nd/195 execs
0.15Acquisition Leverage — playoff pts per acquired WAR, graded once in the year each deal's wins arrive (the repeatable decision skill)170th/195 execs
-6Roster surplus $M52nd/195 execs

Tenure breakdown

TeamRoleYearsSzns WAB WAB/yr TAB WAR surp HG Trade FA R5 AcqLev W-L% POPenWS Surp $M
▸ Angels GM 1994–1994 1 -7.6 -7.63 -8.7 -4.9 +3.6 -0.9 +0.2 +0.0 0.15 0.409 ––– -6
▸ Cardinals GM 1981–1982 0 +0.0 – +0.0 +0.0 +38.9 +54.5 -0.2 -0.2 – – ––– –
Career total (1985+ data) 1 -7.6 -8.7 -4.9 +42.4 +53.7 +0.1 -0.2 0.15 0.409 –– – -6

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)+42.4
Trade+53.7
Free agency+0.1
Rule 5 / minor draft-0.2
Sourcing mix: 39% draft · 6% FA · 55% trade · 0% R5

Roster value distribution — career average — depth vs. stars

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR, averaged across Whitey Herzog'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 — 34 players, by realized fWAR for the franchise (scroll for more)

PlayerPosTeam How Year Szns fWAR WAR/yr Lev
Ozzie Smith SS STL Trade 1981 11 +48.0 +4.4 –
Terry Pendleton 3B STL Draft 1982 6 +12.2 +2.0 –
Vince Coleman OF STL Draft 1982 6 +11.9 +2.0 –
Willie McGee OF STL Trade 1981 7 +10.0 +1.4 –
Danny Cox P STL Draft 1981 4 +8.9 +2.2 –
Rex Hudler 2B/OF ANA Free agency 1994 3 +4.8 +1.6 0.2
Todd Worrell P STL Draft 1982 6 +3.9 +0.7 –
Jason Dickson P ANA Draft 1994 4 +3.0 +0.8 –
Joaquín Andújar P STL Trade 1981 1 +2.9 +2.9 –
Curt Ford OF STL Draft 1981 3 +2.7 +0.9 –
Mike Holtz P ANA Draft 1994 5 +2.2 +0.4 –
Lee Smith P ANA Free agency 1994 2 +1.0 +0.5 6.8
Spike Owen SS ANA Trade 1994 1 +1.0 +1.0 0.4
Bob Patterson P ANA Free agency 1994 2 +0.9 +0.4 0.0
Greg Myers C ANA Trade 1994 2 +0.8 +0.4 0.1
Mark Leiter P ANA Free agency 1994 1 +0.7 +0.7 0.1
Jeff Lahti P STL Trade 1982 2 +0.7 +0.3 –
John Dopson P ANA Free agency 1994 1 +0.4 +0.4 0.1
Bo Jackson OF ANA Free agency 1994 1 +0.3 +0.3 0.1
Jeff Schwarz P ANA Trade 1994 1 +0.0 +0.0 0.0
Bret Hemphill C ANA Draft 1994 – -0.1 – –
Craig Lefferts P ANA Free agency 1994 – -0.1 – –
Bill Sampen P ANA Free agency 1994 – -0.1 – –
Joe Boever P STL Intl FA 1982 1 -0.1 -0.1 –
Carlos Martínez 1B/3B ANA Free agency 1994 – -0.2 – –
Randy Hunt C STL Draft 1981 – -0.2 – –
Kurt Kepshire P STL Rule 5 1982 – -0.2 – –
Ken Patterson P ANA Trade 1994 1 -0.2 -0.2 0.0
Tom Nieto C STL Draft 1981 – -0.4 – –
Mitch Williams P ANA Free agency 1994 – -0.5 – –
Russ Springer P ANA Trade 1994 1 -0.5 -0.5 0.0
John Farrell P ANA Trade 1994 1 -1.0 -1.0 0.0
Harold Reynolds 2B ANA Trade 1994 – -1.1 – –
Trent Durrington 2B ANA Intl FA 1994 – -1.6 – –

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.