RRosternomics
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Braves ATL

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GM: John Schuerholz

Overview

CONTEND ↗ rising
expensive & winning · year 3 in this regime · payroll 1.37× league · TAB +16.2
+16.2TAB — talent above budget3rd/28
+7.5WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)6th/28
6.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars6th/28
-1.2dead WAR — sub-replacement drag2nd/28
23%dead money %6th/28
0.596win %3rd/28
38.2roster fWAR1st/28
+1surplus $M (value vs cost)6th/28
$44Mpayroll $M2nd/28

Roster

CFRoberto Kelly 110GMike Kelly 6GDave Gallagher 5G
LFRyan Klesko 74GDave Gallagher 71GTony Tarasco 25G
RFDavid Justice 102GTony Tarasco 22GDave Gallagher 7G
SSJeff Blauser 96GRafael Belliard 26GMike Mordecai 4G
2BMark Lemke 103GRafael Belliard 18GBill Pecota 1G
3BTerry Pendleton 77GBill Pecota 31GJose Oliva 16G
1BFred McGriff 112GRyan Klesko 6GDave Gallagher 1G
STARTERSGreg Maddux 7.7WARTom Glavine 3.9WARJohn Smoltz 2.4WARSteve Avery 2.2WARKent Mercker 1.3WAR
CJavy Lopez 75GCharlie O'Brien 48G
BULLPEN★ Greg McMichael 21svMark Wohlers 0hMike Stanton 0hSteve Bedrosian 0hMike Bielecki 0hGregg Olson 0hBrad Woodall 0h
CJavy Lopez 75 · Charlie O'Brien 48
1BFred McGriff 112 · Ryan Klesko 6 · Dave Gallagher 1
2BMark Lemke 103 · Rafael Belliard 18 · Bill Pecota 1
3BTerry Pendleton 77 · Bill Pecota 31 · Jose Oliva 16
SSJeff Blauser 96 · Rafael Belliard 26 · Mike Mordecai 4
LFRyan Klesko 74 · Dave Gallagher 71 · Tony Tarasco 25
CFRoberto Kelly 110 · Mike Kelly 6 · Dave Gallagher 5
RFDavid Justice 102 · Tony Tarasco 22 · Dave Gallagher 7
SPGreg Maddux 7.7 · Tom Glavine 3.9 · John Smoltz 2.4 · Steve Avery 2.2 · Kent Mercker 1.3
BP★ Greg McMichael 21 · Mark Wohlers 0 · Mike Stanton 0 · Steve Bedrosian 0 · Mike Bielecki 0 · Gregg Olson 0 · Brad Woodall 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.

1994 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Greg Maddux 28 FA-elig 257.7 5.0 +4.0
Fred McGriff 30 FA-elig 1134.8 3.8 +1.8
Tom Glavine 28 FA-elig 263.9 4.8 -0.3
David Justice 28 arb 1043.7 3.2 +1.1
John Smoltz 27 FA-elig 212.4 3.2 -0.5
Steve Avery 24 arb 242.2 2.8 -0.2
Jeff Blauser 28 FA-elig 961.9 3.8 -1.6
Greg McMichael 27 pre-arb 511.6 0.2 +1.6
Ryan Klesko 23 pre-arb 921.4 0.1 +1.5
Mark Lemke 28 FA-elig 1041.3 1.1 +0.4
Kent Mercker 26 arb 201.3 1.2 +0.2
Deion Sanders↔ CIN 26 arb 461.2 1.8 -0.4
Mark Wohlers 24 arb 511.1 0.2 +1.1
Charlie O'Brien 34 FA-elig 511.0 0.6 +0.7
Jose Oliva 23 pre-arb 190.8 0.1 +0.8
Roberto Kelly↔ CIN 29 FA-elig 630.6 1.8 -1.1
Bill Pecota 34 FA-elig 640.5 0.6 -0.0
Steve Bedrosian 36 FA-elig 460.5 0.8 -0.2
Terry Pendleton 33 FA-elig 770.5 3.2 -2.7
Mike Stanton 27 arb 490.4 1.4 -0.9
Javy Lopez 23 pre-arb 800.2 0.1 +0.2
Mike Mordecai 26 pre-arb 40.2 0.1 +0.1
Tony Tarasco 23 pre-arb 870.2 0.1 +0.1
Mike Bielecki 34 FA-elig 190.1 0.1 -0.1
Brad Woodall 25 – 1-0.1 – –
Mike Kelly 24 pre-arb 30-0.1 0.1 -0.2
Dave Gallagher 33 FA-elig 89-0.1 0.7 -0.9
Gregg Olson 27 FA-elig 16-0.1 1.9 -2.1
Milt Hill↔ SEA 28 arb 10-0.2 0.1 -0.2
Jarvis Brown 27 – 17-0.2 – –
Rafael Belliard 32 FA-elig 46-0.4 0.8 -1.3

Key additions (new vs 1993)

PlayerfWAR
Charlie O'Brien1.0
Jose Oliva0.8
Roberto Kelly0.6
Mike Mordecai0.2
Mike Bielecki0.1
Brad Woodall-0.1

Key subtractions (gone from 1993)

Player1993 fWAR
Ron Gant5.7
Otis Nixon2.5
Sid Bream0.9
Damon Berryhill0.9
Jay Howell0.7
Marvin Freeman0.3

Current & Historical Payroll

1994 payroll
$43.7M

What the front office was committed to as of 1994, 1994–2000. 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 (15)

PlayerAgeSvc1994199519961997199819992000
Greg Maddux288.000$5.0M$6.5M$6.7M$6.8M$9.6M$10.6M$11.1M
Tom Glavine287.000$4.8M$4.8M$5.3M$5.0M$7.0M$7.0M$9.5M
Fred McGriff308.000$3.8M$4.3M$5.0M$5.5MFREE AGENT
Jeff Blauser287.000$3.8M$3.4M$3.5M$4.0MFREE AGENT
John Smoltz276.000$3.2M$4.9M$6.0M$7.0M$7.8M$7.8MFREE AGENT
Terry Pendleton3310.000$3.2MFREE AGENT$1.2M
Gregg Olson276.000$1.9MFREE AGENT
Roberto Kelly297.000$1.8MFREE AGENT
Mark Lemke286.000$1.1M$1.2M$1.5M$2.0MFREE AGENT
Rafael Belliard3212.000$800k$550k$575k$250k$250kFREE AGENT
Steve Bedrosian3613.000$750k$750kFREE AGENT
Dave Gallagher337.000$735kFREE AGENT
Bill Pecota348.000$575kFREE AGENT
Charlie O'Brien349.000$550k$550kFREE AGENT
Mike Bielecki3410.000$150kFREE AGENT$125k$708k

Arbitration-eligible (8)

PlayerAgeSvc1994199519961997199819992000
David Justice285.000$3.2MFREE AGENT
Steve Avery244.000$2.8MARB 3FREE AGENT
Deion Sanders265.000$1.8MFREE AGENT
Mike Stanton275.000$1.4MFREE AGENT
Kent Mercker265.000$1.2MFREE AGENT
Mark Wohlers243.000$180kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Milt Hill283.000$69kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jarvis Brown273.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (8)

PlayerAgeSvc1994199519961997199819992000
Greg McMichael271.000$245kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Javy Lopez232.000$112kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ryan Klesko232.000$112kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tony Tarasco231.000$112kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jose Oliva230.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Kelly240.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Mordecai260.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brad Woodall250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Braves 1994; 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.