Rosternomics
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Cubs CHC

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GM: Jed Hoyer (since 2012)

2017 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+6.5
WAB — wins above budget
+6.3
TAB — roster Talent above budget
92–70 (0.568)
record · made playoffs
-26M
surplus $M (value/$)
43.9
roster fWAR
$171.2M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Kris Bryant 25 pre-arb 151 7.0 1.1 +22.5
Anthony Rizzo 27 FA-elig 157 4.4 7.0 +7.9
Jon Lester 33 FA-elig 32 3.2 25.0 -14.3
Javier Báez 24 arb 145 3.1 0.6 +9.9
Jake Arrieta 31 FA-elig 32 2.6 15.6 -7.0
Kyle Hendricks 27 arb 25 2.3 0.8 +7.0
Willson Contreras 25 pre-arb 117 2.3 0.5 +7.2
Addison Russell 23 pre-arb 110 2.3 0.6 +7.0
Jose Quintana↔ CHW 28 arb 14 2.0 3.1 +3.6
Ian Happ 22 – 115 1.8 0.4 +5.8
Mike Montgomery 27 pre-arb 44 1.5 0.6 +4.4
Jon Jay 32 FA-elig 141 1.2 8.0 -4.1
Wade Davis 31 FA-elig 59 1.1 10.0 -6.2
Kyle Schwarber 24 pre-arb 129 1.1 0.6 +3.2
Albert Almora Jr. 23 pre-arb 132 1.1 0.6 +3.1
Jason Heyward 27 FA-elig 126 1.0 28.2 -24.8
Pedro Strop 32 FA-elig 69 1.0 5.5 -2.1
Carl Edwards Jr. 25 pre-arb 74 1.0 0.6 +2.7
Tommy La Stella 28 – 73 0.8 – –
Brian Duensing 34 FA-elig 68 0.7 2.0 +0.5
René Rivera↔ NYM 33 FA-elig 20 0.7 0.5 +1.8
Koji Uehara 42 FA-elig 49 0.6 6.0 -3.9
Miguel Montero↔ TOR 33 FA-elig 44 0.6 8.1 -6.1
John Lackey 38 FA-elig 32 0.6 16.0 -14.1
Eddie Butler 26 pre-arb 13 0.5 0.2 +1.6
Héctor Rondón 29 arb 61 0.4 5.8 -4.6
Alex Avila↔ DET 30 FA-elig 35 0.3 0.6 +0.4
Brett Anderson↔ TOR 29 FA-elig 6 0.2 1.6 -0.8
Justin Wilson↔ DET 29 arb 23 0.2 1.0 -0.4
Ben Zobrist 36 FA-elig 128 0.1 16.5 -16.1
Dillon Maples 25 – 6 0.1 0.1 +0.2
Victor Caratini 23 – 31 0.1 0.2 +0.0
Pierce Johnson 26 – 1 0.0 0.0 +0.1
Zac Rosscup↔ COL 29 – 1 0.0 0.0 +0.0
Rob Zastryzny 25 pre-arb 4 -0.0 0.1 -0.1
Leonys Martin↔ SEA 29 FA-elig 15 -0.0 1.5 -1.6
Jen-Ho Tseng 22 pre-arb 2 -0.1 0.1 -0.2
Jack Leathersich↔ PIT 26 – 1 -0.1 0.0 -0.2
Seth Frankoff 28 – 1 -0.1 0.0 -0.3
Dylan Floro 26 – 3 -0.1 0.0 -0.4
Taylor Davis 27 – 8 -0.1 0.1 -0.5
Jeimer Candelario↔ DET 23 – 11 -0.1 0.0 -0.5
Matt Szczur↔ SDP 27 arb 15 -0.1 0.1 -0.5
Mark Zagunis 24 – 7 -0.2 0.0 -0.6
Félix Peña 27 pre-arb 25 -0.2 0.2 -1.0
Mike Freeman↔ LAD 29 pre-arb 15 -0.3 0.0 -1.0
Justin Grimm 28 arb 50 -0.4 1.8 -3.3

47 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 46 of them (98%). 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.