Rosternomics
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Cubs CHC

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GM: Jim Hendry (since 2003)

2003 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+3.6
WAB — wins above budget
+4.3
TAB — roster Talent above budget
88–74 (0.543)
record · made playoffs
-9M
surplus $M (value/$)
40.8
roster fWAR
$82.7M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Mark Prior 22 pre-arb 32 8.4 1.4 +13.5
Carlos Zambrano 22 pre-arb 32 5.4 0.3 +9.2
Kerry Wood 26 arb 32 4.3 6.2 +1.5
Moises Alou 36 FA-elig 151 3.4 9.5 -3.4
Matt Clement 28 arb 32 2.8 4.0 +1.0
Sammy Sosa 34 FA-elig 137 2.8 16.0 -11.0
Corey Patterson 23 arb 83 2.5 0.4 +4.0
Mark Grudzielanek 33 FA-elig 121 2.3 5.5 -1.4
Kenny Lofton↔ PIT 36 FA-elig 56 2.1 0.4 +3.2
Joe Borowski 32 FA-elig 68 1.8 0.4 +2.7
Alex Gonzalez 30 FA-elig 152 1.6 5.8 -2.9
Kyle Farnsworth 27 arb 77 1.2 0.6 +1.5
Hee-Seop Choi 24 pre-arb 80 1.0 0.3 +1.5
Damian Miller 33 FA-elig 114 0.9 2.7 -1.1
Juan Cruz 24 pre-arb 25 0.9 0.3 +1.2
Shawn Estes 30 FA-elig 30 0.8 3.0 -1.6
Aramis Ramirez↔ PIT 25 arb 63 0.7 1.2 +0.1
Paul Bako 31 arb 70 0.4 0.8 -0.0
Dave Veres 36 FA-elig 31 0.4 2.0 -1.3
Randall Simon↔ PIT 28 FA-elig 33 0.4 0.4 +0.3
Tom Goodwin 34 FA-elig 87 0.3 0.6 -0.1
Antonio Alfonseca 31 FA-elig 60 0.3 4.0 -3.5
Mike Remlinger 37 FA-elig 73 0.1 2.6 -2.4
Alan Benes↔ TEX 31 – 3 0.1 – –
Sergio Mitre 22 – 3 0.1 – –
Tony Womack↔ ARI 33 FA-elig 21 0.0 1.2 -1.2
Trenidad Hubbard 37 – 10 0.0 – –
Phil Norton↔ CIN 27 – 4 -0.0 – –
Bobby Hill↔ PIT 25 – 5 -0.1 – –
Todd Wellemeyer 24 – 15 -0.1 – –
Felix Sanchez 21 – 3 -0.1 – –
Mark Bellhorn↔ COL 28 FA-elig 51 -0.2 0.2 -0.5
David Kelton 23 – 10 -0.2 – –
Josh Paul↔ CHW 28 arb 3 -0.2 0.1 -0.3
Augie Ojeda 28 – 12 -0.2 – –
Doug Glanville↔ TEX 32 FA-elig 28 -0.2 0.3 -0.8
Troy O'Leary 33 FA-elig 93 -0.3 0.8 -1.3
José Hernández↔ COL 33 FA-elig 23 -0.3 0.2 -0.8
Ramon Martinez 30 arb 108 -0.4 0.8 -1.6
Mark Guthrie 37 FA-elig 65 -0.4 1.6 -2.4
Eric Karros 35 FA-elig 114 -0.5 8.4 -9.2
Lenny Harris↔ MIA 38 FA-elig 75 -0.9 0.7 -2.3

42 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 33 of them (79%). 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.