RRosternomics
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Red Sox BOS

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GM: Lou Gorman

Overview

FORCED-SPEND ↘ cooling
expensive & losing · year 1 in this regime · payroll 1.49× league · TAB -1.3
-1.3TAB — talent above budget15th/26
-3.1WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)16th/26
7.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars8th/26
-3.1dead WAR — sub-replacement drag3rd/26
36%dead money %17th/26
0.519win %8th/26
37.8roster fWAR8th/26
-14surplus $M (value vs cost)23rd/26
$34Mpayroll $M3rd/26

Roster

CFEllis Burks 126GSteve Lyons 36GBob Zupcic 7G
LFMike Greenwell 143GPhil Plantier 17GKevin Romine 9G
RFTom Brunansky 136GPhil Plantier 26GCarlos Quintana 12G
SSLuis Rivera 129GMike Brumley 31GTim Naehring 17G
2BJody Reed 152GSteve Lyons 16GMike Brumley 7G
3BWade Boggs 140GMike Brumley 17GScott Cooper 13G
1BCarlos Quintana 138GMo Vaughn 49GSteve Lyons 2G
STARTERSRoger Clemens 8.5WARGreg Harris 2.5WARMatt Young 1.4WARJoe Hesketh 1.3WARMike Gardiner 1.2WAR
CTony Peña Sr. 140GJohn Marzano 48G
DHJack Clark 134GMo Vaughn 16GMike Marshall 6G
BULLPEN★ Jeff Reardon 40svTony Fossas 0hDennis Lamp 0hJeff Gray 0hDaryl Irvine 0hJeff Plympton 0hSteve Lyons 0hJohn Dopson 0h
CTony Peña Sr. 140 · John Marzano 48
1BCarlos Quintana 138 · Mo Vaughn 49 · Steve Lyons 2
2BJody Reed 152 · Steve Lyons 16 · Mike Brumley 7
3BWade Boggs 140 · Mike Brumley 17 · Scott Cooper 13
SSLuis Rivera 129 · Mike Brumley 31 · Tim Naehring 17
LFMike Greenwell 143 · Phil Plantier 17 · Kevin Romine 9
CFEllis Burks 126 · Steve Lyons 36 · Bob Zupcic 7
RFTom Brunansky 136 · Phil Plantier 26 · Carlos Quintana 12
DHJack Clark 134 · Mo Vaughn 16 · Mike Marshall 6
SPRoger Clemens 8.5 · Greg Harris 2.5 · Matt Young 1.4 · Joe Hesketh 1.3 · Mike Gardiner 1.2
BP★ Jeff Reardon 40 · Tony Fossas 0 · Dennis Lamp 0 · Jeff Gray 0 · Daryl Irvine 0 · Jeff Plympton 0 · Steve Lyons 0 · John Dopson 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.

1991 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Roger Clemens 28 FA-elig 358.5 2.7 +2.4
Wade Boggs 33 FA-elig 1446.1 2.8 +0.9
Jody Reed 28 arb 1533.0 0.8 +1.0
Carlos Quintana 25 arb 1492.6 0.3 +1.2
Greg Harris 35 FA-elig 532.5 1.3 +0.2
Jack Clark 35 FA-elig 1402.4 2.9 -1.4
Phil Plantier 22 – 532.3 – –
Ellis Burks 26 arb 1301.8 1.8 -0.7
Mike Greenwell 27 FA-elig 1471.8 2.6 -1.6
Luis Rivera 27 arb 1291.6 0.6 +0.3
Matt Young 32 FA-elig 191.4 2.3 -1.5
Joe Hesketh 32 FA-elig 391.3 0.5 +0.2
Mike Gardiner 25 – 221.2 – –
Steve Lyons 31 FA-elig 870.9 0.7 -0.1
Tony Peña Sr. 34 FA-elig 1410.7 2.3 -1.9
Scott Cooper 23 pre-arb 140.7 0.1 +0.3
Jeff Gray 28 arb 500.6 0.2 +0.2
Kevin Morton 22 – 160.6 – –
Dennis Lamp 38 FA-elig 510.4 0.8 -0.5
Tony Fossas 33 arb 640.1 0.2 -0.1
John Marzano 28 arb 490.1 0.1 -0.0
Jeff Reardon 35 FA-elig 570.1 2.5 -2.5
Mike Marshall↔ ANA 31 FA-elig 220.1 1.2 -1.2
Eric Wedge 23 – 10.0 – –
Tom Bolton 29 arb 250.0 0.3 -0.3
Jeff Plympton 25 – 4-0.0 – –
John Dopson 27 FA-elig 1-0.0 0.3 -0.3
Josias Manzanillo 23 – 1-0.0 – –
Tom Brunansky 30 FA-elig 142-0.1 2.5 -2.5
Wayne Housie 26 – 11-0.1 – –
Danny Darwin 35 FA-elig 12-0.1 3.2 -3.3
Mike Brumley 28 – 63-0.1 – –
Mo Vaughn 23 pre-arb 74-0.1 0.1 -0.2
Daryl Irvine 26 – 9-0.2 – –
Dan Petry↔ ATL 32 FA-elig 13-0.3 0.2 -0.4
Dana Kiecker 30 pre-arb 18-0.4 0.2 -0.4
Tim Naehring 24 pre-arb 20-0.5 0.1 -0.4
Bob Zupcic 24 pre-arb 18-0.6 0.1 -0.4
Kevin Romine 30 FA-elig 44-0.7 0.4 -0.8

Key additions (new vs 1990)

PlayerfWAR
Jack Clark2.4
Matt Young1.4
Mike Gardiner1.2
Steve Lyons0.9
Kevin Morton0.6
Tony Fossas0.1

Key subtractions (gone from 1990)

Player1990 fWAR
Mike Boddicker4.1
Larry Andersen1.0
Wes Gardner0.8
Dwight Evans0.4
Lee Smith0.4
Jerry Reed0.4

Current & Historical Payroll

1991 payroll
$34.0M

What the front office was committed to as of 1991, 1991–1997. 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 (17)

PlayerAgeSvc1991199219931994199519961997
Danny Darwin3513.000$3.2M$3.4M$2.8M$2.6MFREE AGENT
Jack Clark3516.000$2.9M$2.9MFREE AGENT
Wade Boggs339.000$2.8M$2.7MFREE AGENT
Roger Clemens287.000$2.7M$4.7M$4.7M$5.2M$5.7M$5.5MFREE AGENT
Mike Greenwell276.000$2.6M$3.0M$3.4M$3.3M$3.6M$3.7MFREE AGENT
Jeff Reardon3512.000$2.5M$2.0MFREE AGENT
Tom Brunansky3010.000$2.5M$2.9MFREE AGENT$825k
Tony Peña Sr.3411.000$2.3M$2.4M$2.2MFREE AGENT
Matt Young328.000$2.3M$2.3MFREE AGENT
Greg Harris3510.000$1.3M$1.4M$1.5M$1.6MFREE AGENT
Mike Marshall3110.000$1.2MFREE AGENT
Dennis Lamp3814.000$750kFREE AGENT
Steve Lyons316.000$650k$284kFREE AGENT
Joe Hesketh327.000$525k$1.8M$1.8M$1.8MFREE AGENT
Kevin Romine306.000$355kFREE AGENT
John Dopson276.000$265k$265k$750kFREE AGENT
Dan Petry3212.000$211kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (9)

PlayerAgeSvc1991199219931994199519961997
Ellis Burks264.000$1.8MARB 3FREE AGENT
Jody Reed284.000$850kARB 3FREE AGENT
Luis Rivera275.000$635kFREE AGENT
Carlos Quintana253.000$305kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tom Bolton294.000$290kARB 3FREE AGENT
Tony Fossas333.000$165kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Gray283.000$155kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Marzano284.000$105kARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Brumley284.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (13)

PlayerAgeSvc1991199219931994199519961997
Dana Kiecker301.000$168kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tim Naehring241.000$125kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Scott Cooper231.000$100kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mo Vaughn230.000$100kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bob Zupcic240.000$100kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Gardiner251.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Wayne Housie26–—
Daryl Irvine261.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Josias Manzanillo230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kevin Morton22–—
Phil Plantier221.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Plympton25–—
Eric Wedge230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Red Sox 1991; 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.