RRosternomics
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Cubs CHC

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GM: Jim Frey

Overview

FORCED-SPEND ↗ rising
expensive & losing · year 4 in this regime · payroll 1.12× league · TAB -5.2
-5.2TAB — talent above budget18th/26
-6.4WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)20th/26
7.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars11th/26
-3.9dead WAR — sub-replacement drag12th/26
42%dead money %19th/26
0.475win %18th/26
30.5roster fWAR17th/26
-4surplus $M (value vs cost)20th/26
$13Mpayroll $M10th/26

Roster

CFMitch Webster 105GDarrin Jackson 46GDoug Dascenzo 20G
LFRafael Palmeiro 145GMitch Webster 20GDarrin Jackson 11G
RFAndre Dawson 147GMitch Webster 22GDarrin Jackson 20G
SSShawon Dunston 151GAngel Salazar 29GManny Trillo 7G
2BRyne Sandberg 153GManny Trillo 13GAngel Salazar 2G
3BVance Law 150GManny Trillo 17GAngel Salazar 1G
1BMark Grace 133GManny Trillo 24GRafael Palmeiro 5G
STARTERSGreg Maddux 4.0WARRick Sutcliffe 3.5WARCalvin Schiraldi 2.5WARJamie Moyer 1.8WARJeff Pico 1.3WAR
CDamon Berryhill 90GRick Wrona 2G
BULLPEN★ Rich Gossage 13svFrank DiPino 0hPat Perry 0hLes Lancaster 0hMike Capel 0hDrew Hall 0hScott Sanderson 0hBill Landrum 0h
CDamon Berryhill 90 · Rick Wrona 2
1BMark Grace 133 · Manny Trillo 24 · Rafael Palmeiro 5
2BRyne Sandberg 153 · Manny Trillo 13 · Angel Salazar 2
3BVance Law 150 · Manny Trillo 17 · Angel Salazar 1
SSShawon Dunston 151 · Angel Salazar 29 · Manny Trillo 7
LFRafael Palmeiro 145 · Mitch Webster 20 · Darrin Jackson 11
CFMitch Webster 105 · Darrin Jackson 46 · Doug Dascenzo 20
RFAndre Dawson 147 · Mitch Webster 22 · Darrin Jackson 20
SPGreg Maddux 4.0 · Rick Sutcliffe 3.5 · Calvin Schiraldi 2.5 · Jamie Moyer 1.8 · Jeff Pico 1.3
BP★ Rich Gossage 13 · Frank DiPino 0 · Pat Perry 0 · Les Lancaster 0 · Mike Capel 0 · Drew Hall 0 · Scott Sanderson 0 · Bill Landrum 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.

1988 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Ryne Sandberg 28 FA-elig 1554.2 0.8 +0.5
Andre Dawson 33 FA-elig 1574.2 1.9 -0.5
Greg Maddux 22 pre-arb 374.0 0.1 +1.2
Rick Sutcliffe 32 FA-elig 333.5 2.1 -1.0
Calvin Schiraldi 26 arb 292.5 0.2 +0.6
Rafael Palmeiro 23 pre-arb 1522.4 0.1 +0.7
Vance Law 31 FA-elig 1512.0 0.4 +0.3
Damon Berryhill 24 pre-arb 951.9 0.1 +0.5
Jamie Moyer 25 pre-arb 341.8 0.1 +0.4
Jeff Pico 22 pre-arb 291.3 0.1 +0.4
Mark Grace 24 pre-arb 1341.1 0.1 +0.3
Darrin Jackson 24 arb 1000.8 0.1 +0.2
Mitch Webster↔ WSN 29 arb 700.8 0.3 -0.0
Frank DiPino 31 FA-elig 630.8 0.5 -0.2
Jody Davis↔ ATL 31 FA-elig 880.6 1.1 -0.9
Mike Harkey 21 – 50.5 – –
Mike Bielecki 28 arb 190.4 0.1 +0.0
Jim Sundberg↔ TEX 37 FA-elig 240.3 0.3 -0.1
Shawon Dunston 25 arb 1550.3 0.2 -0.1
Doug Dascenzo 24 – 260.2 – –
Rich Gossage 36 FA-elig 460.2 1.3 -1.3
Pat Perry↔ CIN 29 arb 350.2 0.1 -0.0
Leon Durham↔ CIN 30 FA-elig 240.2 0.7 -0.7
Manny Trillo 37 FA-elig 760.1 0.4 -0.3
Scott Sanderson 31 FA-elig 110.1 0.9 -0.9
Les Lancaster 26 pre-arb 440.1 0.1 -0.1
Bill Landrum 30 – 7-0.0 – –
Dave Meier 28 – 2-0.1 – –
Rick Wrona 24 – 4-0.1 – –
Bob Tewksbury 27 – 1-0.1 – –
Drew Hall 25 pre-arb 19-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Kevin Blankenship↔ ATL 25 – 1-0.2 – –
Dave Martinez↔ WSN 23 pre-arb 75-0.2 0.1 -0.1
Gary Varsho 27 pre-arb 46-0.2 0.1 -0.1
Rolando Roomes 26 pre-arb 17-0.4 0.1 -0.2
Al Nipper 29 arb 22-0.4 0.4 -0.5
Angel Salazar 26 – 34-0.5 – –
Mike Capel 26 pre-arb 22-0.5 0.1 -0.2
Jerry Mumphrey 35 FA-elig 63-1.0 0.6 -0.9

Key additions (new vs 1987)

PlayerfWAR
Calvin Schiraldi2.5
Vance Law2.0
Jeff Pico1.3
Mark Grace1.1
Mitch Webster0.8
Mike Harkey0.5

Key subtractions (gone from 1987)

Player1987 fWAR
Lee Smith2.9
Steve Trout1.4
Keith Moreland1.3
Bob Dernier0.7
Dickie Noles0.6
Brian Dayett0.2

Current & Historical Payroll

1988 payroll
$13.2M

What the front office was committed to as of 1988, 1988–1994. 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)

PlayerAgeSvc1988198919901991199219931994
Rick Sutcliffe3212.000$2.1M$2.3M$1.9M$2.3MFREE AGENT
Andre Dawson3312.000$1.9M$2.1M$2.1M$3.3M$3.3MFREE AGENT
Rich Gossage3616.000$1.3MFREE AGENT
Jody Davis317.000$1.1MFREE AGENT
Scott Sanderson3110.000$950k$800kFREE AGENT
Ryne Sandberg287.000$840k$950k$1.6MFREE AGENT$2.1M$6.0M$6.0M
Leon Durham308.000$738kFREE AGENT
Jerry Mumphrey3514.000$608kFREE AGENT
Frank DiPino317.000$465kFREE AGENT
Vance Law318.000$375k$425kFREE AGENT
Manny Trillo3715.000$357kFREE AGENT
Jim Sundberg3714.000$252kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (8)

PlayerAgeSvc1988198919901991199219931994
Al Nipper295.000$397kFREE AGENT
Mitch Webster295.000$255kFREE AGENT
Shawon Dunston253.000$208kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Calvin Schiraldi264.000$208kARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Bielecki284.000$110kARB 3FREE AGENT
Pat Perry293.000$99kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Darrin Jackson243.000$64kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Angel Salazar265.000—FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (19)

PlayerAgeSvc1988198919901991199219931994
Jamie Moyer252.000$142kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Les Lancaster261.000$90kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rafael Palmeiro232.000$90kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Greg Maddux222.000$82kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Martinez232.000$73kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Drew Hall252.000$68kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Capel260.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Damon Berryhill241.000$62kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Grace240.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Pico220.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rolando Roomes260.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Gary Varsho270.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kevin Blankenship250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Doug Dascenzo240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Harkey210.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bill Landrum302.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Meier28–—
Bob Tewksbury272.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rick Wrona240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Cubs 1988; 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.