Rosternomics
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Cubs CHC

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GM: Ed Lynch (since 1995)

1998 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+4.7
WAB — wins above budget
-0.7
TAB — roster Talent above budget
90–73 (0.552)
record · made playoffs
-12M
surplus $M (value/$)
36.5
roster fWAR
$51.8M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Sammy Sosa 29 FA-elig 159 7.1 8.3 -0.7
Kerry Wood 21 pre-arb 26 4.4 0.2 +4.5
Mickey Morandini 32 FA-elig 154 4.0 2.0 +2.3
Mark Clark 30 FA-elig 33 3.6 5.0 -1.1
Mark Grace 34 FA-elig 158 3.3 4.2 -0.7
Steve Trachsel 27 arb 33 2.7 3.0 -0.1
Kevin Tapani 34 FA-elig 35 2.3 4.0 -1.6
José Hernández 28 FA-elig 149 2.2 0.7 +1.7
Brant Brown 27 pre-arb 124 1.8 0.2 +1.7
Terry Mulholland 35 FA-elig 70 1.7 0.6 +1.3
Gary Gaetti↔ STL 39 FA-elig 37 1.5 0.3 +1.4
Glenallen Hill↔ SEA 33 FA-elig 48 1.4 0.1 +1.4
Geremi Gonzalez 23 pre-arb 21 1.1 0.2 +1.0
Rod Beck 29 FA-elig 81 1.1 3.6 -2.4
Henry Rodriguez 30 FA-elig 128 1.0 2.7 -1.6
Terry Adams 25 arb 63 0.5 0.3 +0.2
Sandy Martinez 27 arb 45 0.4 0.2 +0.2
Felix Heredia↔ MIA 23 pre-arb 30 0.4 0.1 +0.3
Tyler Houston 27 pre-arb 95 0.3 0.2 +0.1
Lance Johnson 34 FA-elig 85 0.3 4.9 -4.6
Jason Maxwell 26 – 7 0.1 – –
Kurt Miller 25 – 3 0.1 – –
Orlando Merced↔ BOS 31 FA-elig 12 0.1 0.1 -0.0
Justin Speier↔ MIA 24 pre-arb 1 0.0 0.0 +0.0
Ben Van Ryn↔ SDP 26 pre-arb 9 0.0 0.1 -0.1
Bob Patterson 39 FA-elig 33 0.0 0.9 -0.9
Tony Fossas↔ SEA 40 FA-elig 8 -0.0 0.1 -0.1
Rodney Myers 29 – 12 -0.0 – –
Pedro Valdes 25 pre-arb 14 -0.0 0.2 -0.2
Jose Nieves 23 – 2 -0.0 – –
Kevin Foster 29 arb 3 -0.1 1.4 -1.5
Derrick White↔ COL 28 – 11 -0.1 – –
Jason Hardtke 26 – 18 -0.1 – –
Kennie Steenstra 27 – 4 -0.1 – –
Scott Servais 31 FA-elig 113 -0.1 1.6 -1.8
Dave Stevens 28 arb 31 -0.1 0.2 -0.4
Chris Haney↔ KCR 29 FA-elig 5 -0.1 0.2 -0.4
Don Wengert↔ SDP 28 arb 23 -0.2 0.2 -0.3
Matt Mieske 30 arb 77 -0.2 0.6 -0.7
Marc Pisciotta 27 pre-arb 43 -0.3 0.2 -0.5
Amaury Telemaco↔ ARI 24 pre-arb 14 -0.3 0.1 -0.4
Terrell Lowery 27 – 24 -0.3 – –
Jeff Blauser 32 FA-elig 119 -0.3 4.0 -4.3
Mike Morgan↔ MIN 38 FA-elig 5 -0.4 0.3 -0.7
Matt Karchner↔ CHW 31 arb 29 -0.6 0.1 -0.8
Kevin Orie↔ MIA 25 pre-arb 64 -0.6 0.1 -0.8
Manny Alexander 27 FA-elig 108 -0.9 0.4 -1.4

47 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 39 of them (83%). 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 CHC
Sammy Sosa199260.7
Ryne Sandberg198248.2
Anthony Rizzo201231.1
Aramis Ramírez200325.0
Kyle Hendricks201224.4
Derrek Lee200321.4
Jake Arrieta201319.6
Rick Sutcliffe198417.2
Ones that got away
PlayerYear tradedWAR elsewhere
Rafael Palmeiro198842.3
Dontrelle Willis200220.7
Dennis Eckersley198719.3
Ricky Nolasco200517.5
Jon Garland199817.2
Chris Archer201116.9
Gleyber Torres201615.9
Josh Donaldson200813.8
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.