Rosternomics
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Orioles BAL

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GM: Pat Gillick (since 1996)

1996 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+0.2
WAB — wins above budget
-1.3
TAB — roster Talent above budget
88–74 (0.543)
record · made playoffs
-19M
surplus $M (value/$)
38.5
roster fWAR
$51.3M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Brady Anderson 32 FA-elig 149 6.9 3.6 +2.2
Mike Mussina 27 arb 36 5.3 4.0 +0.5
Roberto Alomar 28 FA-elig 153 5.2 4.3 +0.1
Rafael Palmeiro 31 FA-elig 162 4.5 5.4 -1.6
Cal Ripken Jr. 35 FA-elig 163 3.8 6.7 -3.4
Scott Erickson 28 FA-elig 34 3.6 2.9 +0.2
David Wells 33 FA-elig 34 3.4 3.2 -0.3
B.J. Surhoff 31 FA-elig 143 3.0 1.4 +1.1
Chris Hoiles 31 FA-elig 127 2.5 3.4 -1.3
Randy Myers 33 FA-elig 62 1.3 2.6 -1.5
Bobby Bonilla 33 FA-elig 159 1.0 5.1 -4.2
Arthur Rhodes 26 arb 28 1.0 0.3 +0.5
Jesse Orosco 39 FA-elig 66 0.8 0.8 -0.1
Rocky Coppinger 22 pre-arb 23 0.7 0.1 +0.5
Mark Smith 26 pre-arb 27 0.5 0.1 +0.3
Todd Zeile↔ PHI 30 FA-elig 29 0.4 0.5 -0.2
Armando Benitez 23 pre-arb 18 0.3 0.2 +0.1
Rick Krivda 26 – 22 0.3 – –
Mike Milchin↔ MIN 28 pre-arb 13 0.2 0.0 +0.2
Brent Bowers 25 – 21 0.2 – –
Pete Incaviglia↔ PHI 32 FA-elig 12 0.2 0.1 +0.1
Nerio Rodriguez 25 – 8 0.2 – –
Terry Mathews↔ MIA 31 arb 14 0.0 0.1 -0.0
Billy Ripken 31 FA-elig 57 0.0 0.2 -0.2
Archie Corbin 28 arb 18 -0.0 0.1 -0.1
Jimmy Haynes 23 pre-arb 26 -0.0 0.1 -0.1
Mark Parent↔ DET 34 FA-elig 18 -0.0 0.2 -0.2
Garrett Stephenson 24 – 3 -0.1 – –
Eddie Murray↔ CLE 40 FA-elig 64 -0.1 0.8 -0.9
Brian Sackinsky 25 – 3 -0.1 – –
Roger McDowell 35 FA-elig 41 -0.1 0.8 -0.8
Jeff Huson 31 FA-elig 17 -0.1 0.3 -0.4
Esteban Yan 21 – 4 -0.1 – –
Cesar Devarez 26 – 10 -0.2 – –
Jimmy Myers 27 – 11 -0.2 – –
Gregg Zaun↔ MIA 25 pre-arb 50 -0.2 0.1 -0.3
Jeffrey Hammonds 25 arb 71 -0.3 0.3 -0.6
Alan Mills 29 FA-elig 49 -0.3 0.6 -0.9
Keith Shepherd 28 – 13 -0.5 – –
Kent Mercker↔ CLE 28 FA-elig 14 -0.5 1.6 -2.0
Mike Devereaux 33 FA-elig 127 -0.7 0.9 -1.5
Tony Tarasco 25 arb 31 -0.7 0.2 -0.9
Manny Alexander 25 arb 54 -1.3 0.2 -1.3
Luis Polonia↔ ATL 32 FA-elig 58 -1.5 0.2 -1.4

44 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 35 of them (80%). Players without a salary show "–" — no single historical salary source is fully complete (especially 2020–2022).

WAR = FanGraphs (fWAR). Green = produced more value than paid (bargain); red = paid more than produced. Service: pre-arb (<3 yr) / arb (3–6) / FA-eligible (6+). Click headers to sort.

History: front-office performance & develop-vs-buy (1985–2024)

Trade ledger (realized WAR, all-time)

Best acquisitions
PlayerYearWAR for BAL
Brady Anderson198833.0
Adam Jones200829.6
Melvin Mora200026.9
Chris Hoiles198824.8
Scott Erickson199516.4
J. J. Hardy201014.3
Randy Milligan198811.9
Mike Devereaux198911.7
Ones that got away
PlayerYear tradedWAR elsewhere
Dennis Martínez198622.5
Jake Arrieta201319.6
Bryn Smith197716.4
Mickey Tettleton199114.4
Eduardo Rodríguez201414.3
Mike Yastrzemski201911.3
Eddie Murray198810.8
José Mesa19929.1
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.