RRosternomics
𝕏

Red Sox BOS

‹ ›

GM: Lou Gorman

Overview

CONTEND ↘ cooling
expensive & winning · year 3 in this regime · payroll 1.17× league · TAB +1.0
+1.0TAB — talent above budget11th/26
-6.0WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)18th/26
7.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars12th/26
-6.6dead WAR — sub-replacement drag24th/26
35%dead money %16th/26
0.481win %15th/26
37.2roster fWAR7th/26
-1surplus $M (value vs cost)12th/26
$13Mpayroll $M9th/26

Roster

CFEllis Burks 132GTodd Benzinger 5GKevin Romine 4G
LFJim Rice 94GMike Greenwell 64GTodd Benzinger 14G
RFDwight Evans 77GTodd Benzinger 47GMike Greenwell 28G
SSSpike Owen 130GEd Romero 25GJody Reed 6G
2BMarty Barrett 137GEd Romero 28GJody Reed 2G
3BWade Boggs 145GEd Romero 24GGlenn Hoffman 3G
1BDwight Evans 79GPat Dodson 21GEd Romero 8G
STARTERSRoger Clemens 8.4WARBruce Hurst 3.5WARJeff Sellers 2.6WARBob Stanley 1.9WARAl Nipper 0.5WAR
CMarc Sullivan 60GJohn Marzano 52GRich Gedman 51G
DHSam Horn 40GMike Greenwell 15GJim Rice 12G
BULLPEN★ Wes Gardner 10svCalvin Schiraldi 0hJoe Sambito 0hTom Bolton 0hSteve Crawford 0h
CMarc Sullivan 60 · John Marzano 52 · Rich Gedman 51
1BDwight Evans 79 · Pat Dodson 21 · Ed Romero 8
2BMarty Barrett 137 · Ed Romero 28 · Jody Reed 2
3BWade Boggs 145 · Ed Romero 24 · Glenn Hoffman 3
SSSpike Owen 130 · Ed Romero 25 · Jody Reed 6
LFJim Rice 94 · Mike Greenwell 64 · Todd Benzinger 14
CFEllis Burks 132 · Todd Benzinger 5 · Kevin Romine 4
RFDwight Evans 77 · Todd Benzinger 47 · Mike Greenwell 28
DHSam Horn 40 · Mike Greenwell 15 · Jim Rice 12
SPRoger Clemens 8.4 · Bruce Hurst 3.5 · Jeff Sellers 2.6 · Bob Stanley 1.9 · Al Nipper 0.5
BP★ Wes Gardner 10 · Calvin Schiraldi 0 · Joe Sambito 0 · Tom Bolton 0 · Steve Crawford 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.

1987 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Wade Boggs 29 arb 1478.9 1.7 +0.9
Roger Clemens 24 arb 368.4 0.7 +1.8
Dwight Evans 35 FA-elig 1544.9 1.1 +0.3
Bruce Hurst 29 FA-elig 333.5 0.7 +0.3
Mike Greenwell 23 pre-arb 1253.4 0.1 +0.9
Ellis Burks 22 pre-arb 1332.7 0.1 +0.7
Jeff Sellers 23 pre-arb 252.6 0.1 +0.7
Marty Barrett 29 arb 1371.9 0.6 -0.0
Bob Stanley 32 FA-elig 341.9 1.1 -0.5
Todd Benzinger 24 pre-arb 731.1 0.1 +0.3
Sam Horn 23 pre-arb 461.1 0.1 +0.3
Jim Rice 34 FA-elig 1080.6 2.1 -1.9
John Marzano 24 pre-arb 520.5 0.1 +0.1
Al Nipper 28 arb 300.5 0.3 -0.2
Tom Bolton 25 pre-arb 290.5 0.1 +0.1
Don Baylor↔ MIN 38 – 1080.4 – –
Calvin Schiraldi 25 arb 610.3 0.1 -0.1
Dave Henderson↔ SFG 28 FA-elig 750.2 0.4 -0.4
Spike Owen 26 arb 1320.2 0.3 -0.3
Glenn Hoffman↔ LAD 28 FA-elig 210.1 0.1 -0.1
Oil Can Boyd 27 arb 70.1 0.6 -0.5
Bob Woodward 24 – 90.0 – –
Jody Reed 24 – 9-0.0 – –
Dave Sax 28 – 2-0.1 – –
Joe Sambito 35 FA-elig 47-0.2 0.4 -0.4
Kevin Romine 26 – 9-0.3 – –
John Leister 26 – 8-0.4 – –
Pat Dodson 27 – 26-0.4 – –
Rich Gedman 27 FA-elig 52-0.5 0.8 -0.9
Marc Sullivan 28 arb 60-0.6 0.1 -0.3
Steve Crawford 29 FA-elig 29-0.6 0.4 -0.6
Wes Gardner 26 arb 49-0.7 0.1 -0.3
Danny Sheaffer 25 – 25-0.8 – –
Ed Romero 29 FA-elig 88-0.9 0.4 -0.7
Bill Buckner↔ ANA 37 FA-elig 75-1.1 0.2 -0.5

Key additions (new vs 1986)

PlayerfWAR
Ellis Burks2.7
Todd Benzinger1.1
Sam Horn1.1
John Marzano0.5
Tom Bolton0.5
Jody Reed-0.0

Key subtractions (gone from 1986)

Player1986 fWAR
Tom Seaver2.3
Steve Lyons0.2
Mike Trujillo-0.0
Mike Stenhouse-0.0
Mike Brown-0.0
Rey Quinones-0.1

Current & Historical Payroll

1987 payroll
$12.6M

What the front office was committed to as of 1987, 1987–1993. 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 (12)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Jim Rice3413.000$2.1M$2.2M$2.4MFREE AGENT
Bob Stanley3210.000$1.1M$1.1M$1.1MFREE AGENT
Dwight Evans3515.000$1.1M$1.6M$1.1M$1.5MFREE AGENT
Rich Gedman277.000$773k$953k$1.1M$736kFREE AGENT
Bruce Hurst297.000$700k$900kFREE AGENT
Dave Henderson286.000$438kFREE AGENT
Ed Romero2910.000$415k$415k$46kFREE AGENT
Steve Crawford297.000$396kFREE AGENT
Joe Sambito3511.000$360kFREE AGENT
Bill Buckner3718.000$208kFREE AGENT
Glenn Hoffman287.000$103kFREE AGENT
Don Baylor3817.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (9)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Wade Boggs295.000$1.7MFREE AGENT
Roger Clemens243.000$650kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Marty Barrett295.000$575kFREE AGENT
Oil Can Boyd275.000$550kFREE AGENT
Spike Owen264.000$350kARB 3FREE AGENT
Al Nipper284.000$325kARB 3FREE AGENT
Calvin Schiraldi253.000$150kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Marc Sullivan285.000$150kFREE AGENT
Wes Gardner263.000$85kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (14)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Mike Greenwell232.000$80kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Sellers232.000$78kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Todd Benzinger240.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tom Bolton250.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ellis Burks220.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Marzano240.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Sam Horn230.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Pat Dodson27–—
John Leister26–—
Jody Reed240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kevin Romine262.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Sax28–—
Danny Sheaffer250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bob Woodward242.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Red Sox 1987; 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.