RRosternomics
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Braves ATL

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GM: Bobby Cox

Overview

FORCED-SPEND ↗ rising
expensive & losing · year 2 in this regime · payroll 1.4× league · TAB -14.6
-14.6TAB — talent above budget26th/26
-13.8WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)25th/26
7.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars10th/26
-4.5dead WAR — sub-replacement drag15th/26
47%dead money %24th/26
0.447win %21st/26
23.7roster fWAR25th/26
-8surplus $M (value vs cost)25th/26
$16Mpayroll $M3rd/26

Roster

CFDale Murphy 155GOmar Moreno 12G
LFKen Griffey Sr. 127GTerry Harper 66GGerald Perry 21G
RFOmar Moreno 71GDarryl Motley 65GBill Sample 48G
SSAndres Thomas 97GRafael Ramirez 87G
2BGlenn Hubbard 142GKen Oberkfell 41GPaul Runge 6G
3BKen Oberkfell 130GRafael Ramirez 58GTed Simmons 9G
1BBob Horner 139GChris Chambliss 20GTed Simmons 14G
STARTERSDavid Palmer 3.3WARZane Smith 2.9WARDoyle Alexander 2.9WARRick Mahler 2.4WARJim Acker 1.0WAR
COzzie Virgil Jr. 111GBruce Benedict 57GTed Simmons 10G
BULLPEN★ Gene Garber 24svPaul Assenmacher 0hJeff Dedmon 0hEd Olwine 0hBruce Sutter 0hCliff Speck 0hCharlie Puleo 0h
COzzie Virgil Jr. 111 · Bruce Benedict 57 · Ted Simmons 10
1BBob Horner 139 · Chris Chambliss 20 · Ted Simmons 14
2BGlenn Hubbard 142 · Ken Oberkfell 41 · Paul Runge 6
3BKen Oberkfell 130 · Rafael Ramirez 58 · Ted Simmons 9
SSAndres Thomas 97 · Rafael Ramirez 87
LFKen Griffey Sr. 127 · Terry Harper 66 · Gerald Perry 21
CFDale Murphy 155 · Omar Moreno 12
RFOmar Moreno 71 · Darryl Motley 65 · Bill Sample 48
SPDavid Palmer 3.3 · Zane Smith 2.9 · Doyle Alexander 2.9 · Rick Mahler 2.4 · Jim Acker 1.0
BP★ Gene Garber 24 · Paul Assenmacher 0 · Jeff Dedmon 0 · Ed Olwine 0 · Bruce Sutter 0 · Cliff Speck 0 · Charlie Puleo 0

Each position lists its starter then backups by games (so platoons & bench show). Starters (mound) & bullpen (left, foul territory) are ranked by WAR; ★ marks the closer (most save chances). MLB Stats API.

1986 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
David Palmer 28 FA-elig 353.3 0.4 +0.6
Ken Oberkfell 30 FA-elig 1512.9 0.8 +0.1
Doyle Alexander↔ TOR 35 FA-elig 182.9 0.4 +0.5
Zane Smith 25 pre-arb 432.9 0.2 +0.7
Rick Mahler 32 FA-elig 402.4 0.7 +0.0
Dale Murphy 30 FA-elig 1602.2 1.8 -1.2
Gene Garber 38 FA-elig 612.0 0.8 -0.2
Ozzie Virgil Jr. 29 FA-elig 1141.7 0.6 -0.1
Ken Griffey Sr.↔ NYY 36 FA-elig 801.4 0.6 -0.2
Bob Horner 28 FA-elig 1411.1 1.8 -1.5
Jim Acker↔ TOR 27 arb 211.0 0.2 +0.1
Paul Assenmacher 25 pre-arb 610.9 0.1 +0.2
Joe Johnson↔ TOR 24 pre-arb 170.7 0.1 +0.2
Bill Sample 31 FA-elig 920.5 0.5 -0.3
Glenn Hubbard 28 FA-elig 1430.4 0.5 -0.4
Andres Thomas 22 pre-arb 1020.4 0.1 +0.1
Bruce Benedict 30 FA-elig 640.4 0.6 -0.5
Chris Chambliss 37 FA-elig 970.3 0.8 -0.7
Ed Olwine 28 pre-arb 370.3 0.1 +0.0
Jeff Dedmon 26 arb 570.2 0.2 -0.1
Cliff Speck 29 pre-arb 130.1 0.1 -0.0
Craig McMurtry 26 arb 400.1 0.2 -0.2
Paul Runge 28 – 70.0 – –
Charlie Puleo 31 – 50.0 – –
Brad Komminsk 25 – 5-0.0 – –
Darryl Motley↔ KCR 26 arb 5-0.1 0.0 -0.0
Albert Hall 28 – 16-0.1 – –
Duane Ward↔ TOR 22 – 10-0.1 – –
Bruce Sutter 33 FA-elig 16-0.1 1.7 -1.8
Claudell Washington↔ NYY 31 FA-elig 40-0.2 0.3 -0.4
Rafael Ramirez 28 FA-elig 134-0.3 0.8 -0.9
Steve Shields↔ KCR 27 – 6-0.3 – –
Gerald Perry 25 – 29-0.4 – –
Ted Simmons 36 FA-elig 76-0.5 1.0 -1.2
Terry Harper 30 FA-elig 106-0.7 0.4 -0.6
Omar Moreno 33 FA-elig 118-1.6 0.1 -0.6

Key additions (new vs 1985)

PlayerfWAR
David Palmer3.3
Doyle Alexander2.9
Ozzie Virgil Jr.1.7
Ken Griffey Sr.1.4
Jim Acker1.0
Paul Assenmacher0.9

Key subtractions (gone from 1985)

Player1985 fWAR
Steve Bedrosian1.2
Milt Thompson0.6
Pascual Perez0.2
John Rabb-0.0
Len Barker-0.1
Rick Camp-0.1

Current & Historical Payroll

1986 payroll
$15.7M

What the front office was committed to as of 1986, 1986–1992. Pre-2015 has no contract-terms data — forward italic $ are realized actuals (hindsight, not commitments known then). Control labels (ARB/FA) are point-in-time.

current $ guaranteed $ actual $ (hindsight) arbitration (proj) pre-arb (proj) free agent

Guaranteed / signed (19)

PlayerAgeSvc1986198719881989199019911992
Dale Murphy3010.000$1.8M$1.9M$2.0M$2.0M$1.3MFREE AGENT
Bob Horner288.000$1.8MFREE AGENT
Bruce Sutter3310.000$1.7MFREE AGENT$1.7M
Ted Simmons3618.000$1.0M$500k$470kFREE AGENT
Ken Oberkfell309.000$825k$725k$621kFREE AGENT
Rafael Ramirez286.000$825k$875kFREE AGENT
Gene Garber3817.000$787k$622kFREE AGENT
Chris Chambliss3715.000$769kFREE AGENT
Rick Mahler327.000$688k$695k$738kFREE AGENT
Ken Griffey Sr.3613.000$604k$1.1M$367kFREE AGENT
Ozzie Virgil Jr.296.000$575k$760k$900kFREE AGENT
Bruce Benedict308.000$565k$615k$665k$395kFREE AGENT
Glenn Hubbard288.000$505k$555kFREE AGENT
Bill Sample318.000$470kFREE AGENT
Terry Harper306.000$425kFREE AGENT
David Palmer288.000$390k$725kFREE AGENT
Doyle Alexander3515.000$360k$385kFREE AGENT
Claudell Washington3112.000$319kFREE AGENT
Omar Moreno3311.000$100kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (9)

PlayerAgeSvc1986198719881989199019911992
Craig McMurtry263.000$225kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Dedmon263.000$200kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jim Acker273.000$175kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Darryl Motley265.000$17kFREE AGENT
Albert Hall285.000—FREE AGENT
Brad Komminsk253.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Gerald Perry253.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Charlie Puleo315.000—FREE AGENT
Paul Runge285.000—FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (8)

PlayerAgeSvc1986198719881989199019911992
Zane Smith252.000$200kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Cliff Speck290.000$60kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Paul Assenmacher250.000$60kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Andres Thomas221.000$60kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ed Olwine280.000$60kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Joe Johnson241.000$54kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Shields271.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Duane Ward220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Braves 1986; the black line = the league-average player at each slot that season. Staying above the line deep into the roster is the depth edge; dropping below it = holes & dead weight.

What each regime is worth — every settled team-season since 1985

RegimeSeasonsWin %Playoff %Pennant %WS %
WINDOW 28152.131.05.01.1
CONTEND 30056.964.719.710.3
FORCED-SPEND 25648.09.81.61.6
REBUILD 32143.31.20.30.3
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.