Rosternomics
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Cubs CHC

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GM: Jed Hoyer (since 2012)

2016 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+18.0
WAB — wins above budget
+16.4
TAB — roster Talent above budget
103–58 (0.640)
record · World Series champions
+6M
surplus $M (value/$)
53.7
roster fWAR
$165.2M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Kris Bryant 24 pre-arb 155 7.5 0.7 +23.7
Anthony Rizzo 26 arb 155 4.8 5.0 +10.7
Dexter Fowler 30 FA-elig 125 4.3 8.0 +6.0
Jon Lester 32 FA-elig 33 4.2 25.0 -11.2
Jake Arrieta 30 FA-elig 31 4.2 10.7 +2.8
Kyle Hendricks 26 pre-arb 32 4.0 0.5 +12.4
Ben Zobrist 35 FA-elig 147 3.6 10.5 +1.1
Addison Russell 22 pre-arb 151 3.6 0.5 +11.0
John Lackey 37 FA-elig 29 2.6 16.0 -7.5
Javier Báez 23 pre-arb 142 2.6 0.5 +7.8
Willson Contreras 24 – 76 2.5 0.3 +7.8
Jason Hammel 33 FA-elig 35 1.8 9.0 -3.3
David Ross 39 FA-elig 67 1.5 2.5 +2.3
Miguel Montero 32 FA-elig 86 1.4 14.0 -9.3
Aroldis Chapman↔ NYY 28 FA-elig 28 1.3 5.4 -1.0
Pedro Strop 31 FA-elig 55 0.7 4.4 -2.1
Chris Coghlan↔ OAK 31 FA-elig 48 0.6 2.3 -0.2
Jason Heyward 26 FA-elig 142 0.6 21.7 -19.7
Héctor Rondón 28 arb 54 0.6 4.2 -2.3
Carl Edwards Jr. 24 – 37 0.6 – –
Albert Almora Jr. 22 – 47 0.5 – –
Justin Grimm 27 arb 68 0.5 1.3 +0.3
Tommy La Stella 27 pre-arb 74 0.5 0.5 +1.0
Rob Zastryzny 24 – 8 0.4 0.1 +1.3
Jorge Soler 24 pre-arb 86 0.4 3.7 -2.3
Munenori Kawasaki 35 pre-arb 14 0.3 0.1 +1.0
Matt Szczur 26 pre-arb 107 0.3 0.5 +0.4
Félix Peña 26 – 11 0.2 0.1 +0.5
Jake Buchanan 26 pre-arb 2 0.1 0.1 +0.1
Gerardo Concepción 24 – 3 0.1 1.2 -1.0
Joe Nathan↔ SFG 41 – 3 0.0 0.0 +0.1
Ryan Kalish 28 pre-arb 7 0.0 0.0 -0.0
Clayton Richard↔ SDP 32 FA-elig 26 -0.0 1.4 -1.4
Neil Ramírez↔ MIL 27 pre-arb 8 -0.0 0.2 -0.4
Trevor Cahill 28 FA-elig 51 -0.1 4.2 -4.5
Travis Wood 29 FA-elig 81 -0.1 6.2 -6.5
Mike Montgomery↔ SEA 26 pre-arb 17 -0.1 0.2 -0.5
Kyle Schwarber 23 pre-arb 2 -0.1 0.5 -0.8
Spencer Patton 28 pre-arb 16 -0.2 0.2 -0.9
Jeimer Candelario 22 – 5 -0.2 0.0 -0.8
Tim Federowicz 28 pre-arb 17 -0.2 0.2 -1.0
Joe Smith↔ ANA 32 FA-elig 16 -0.2 1.6 -2.3
Joel Peralta↔ SEA 40 FA-elig 5 -0.3 0.2 -1.0
Brian Matusz↔ BAL 29 arb 1 -0.3 0.5 -1.5
Adam Warren↔ NYY 28 arb 29 -0.7 0.8 -3.2

45 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 43 of them (96%). 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.