Rosternomics
𝕏

Cubs CHC

Switch team:

GM: Jim Hendry (since 2003)

2009 roster — every player, value & surplus

‹ Prev Next ›
-4.0
WAB — wins above budget
-6.5
TAB — roster Talent above budget
83–78 (0.516)
record
-63M
surplus $M (value/$)
32.8
roster fWAR
$139.3M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Derrek Lee 33 FA-elig 141 5.2 13.2 -0.9
Carlos Zambrano 28 FA-elig 35 4.5 18.8 -8.2
Ryan Dempster 32 FA-elig 31 3.5 9.0 -0.8
Ted Lilly 33 FA-elig 27 3.4 13.0 -4.9
Randy Wells 26 pre-arb 27 3.4 0.4 +7.6
Kosuke Fukudome 32 pre-arb 146 2.4 12.5 -6.9
Ryan Theriot 29 arb 154 2.2 0.5 +4.7
Aramis Ramirez 31 FA-elig 82 2.1 16.6 -11.7
Rich Harden 27 FA-elig 27 2.0 7.0 -2.2
Jeff Baker↔ COL 28 arb 69 1.5 0.4 +3.3
Geovany Soto 26 arb 102 1.2 0.6 +2.3
Carlos Marmol 26 arb 79 0.8 0.6 +1.4
Milton Bradley 31 FA-elig 124 0.7 7.0 -5.4
Sean Marshall 26 arb 55 0.7 0.5 +1.2
Sam Fuld 27 pre-arb 65 0.6 0.4 +1.1
Tom Gorzelanny↔ PIT 26 arb 13 0.5 0.3 +1.0
Esmailin Caridad 25 – 14 0.5 – –
Bobby Scales 31 – 51 0.4 – –
Mike Fontenot 29 arb 135 0.3 0.4 +0.2
Aaron Heilman 30 FA-elig 70 0.3 1.6 -1.0
John Grabow↔ PIT 30 FA-elig 30 0.2 0.9 -0.4
Justin Berg 25 pre-arb 11 0.2 0.4 +0.1
Reed Johnson 32 FA-elig 65 0.2 3.0 -2.6
Luis Vizcaino↔ CLE 34 FA-elig 4 0.2 0.9 -0.6
Jose Ascanio↔ PIT 24 pre-arb 14 0.1 0.4 -0.1
Jason Waddell 28 – 3 0.1 – –
Jake Fox 26 pre-arb 82 0.1 0.4 -0.2
Angel Guzman 27 arb 55 0.0 0.4 -0.3
Mitch Atkins 23 – 2 0.0 – –
Kevin Hart↔ PIT 26 pre-arb 8 0.0 0.2 -0.2
Micah Hoffpauir 29 pre-arb 105 -0.0 0.4 -0.5
So Taguchi 39 – 6 -0.0 – –
Chad Fox 38 – 2 -0.1 – –
Andrés Blanco 25 – 53 -0.1 – –
Tyler Colvin 23 – 6 -0.1 – –
Jeff Stevens 25 pre-arb 11 -0.1 0.4 -0.7
Alfonso Soriano 33 FA-elig 117 -0.1 17.0 -17.3
Jeff Samardzija 24 pre-arb 20 -0.2 2.0 -2.5
Joey Gathright↔ BOS 28 arb 20 -0.3 0.4 -1.0
David Patton 25 pre-arb 20 -0.3 0.4 -1.0
Kevin Gregg 31 FA-elig 72 -0.3 4.2 -4.8
Ryan Freel↔ BAL 33 FA-elig 14 -0.3 1.4 -2.0
Neal Cotts 29 FA-elig 19 -0.4 1.1 -2.1
Koyie Hill 30 FA-elig 83 -0.7 0.5 -2.1
Aaron Miles 32 FA-elig 74 -1.4 2.2 -5.6

45 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 37 of them (82%). 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.