Rosternomics
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Cubs CHC

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GM: Jed Hoyer (since 2012)

2018 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+6.9
WAB — wins above budget
-0.3
TAB — roster Talent above budget
95–68 (0.583)
record · made playoffs
-67M
surplus $M (value/$)
39.5
roster fWAR
$201.6M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Javier Báez 25 arb 160 5.8 0.7 +19.2
Anthony Rizzo 28 FA-elig 153 3.3 7.3 +3.9
Kyle Hendricks 28 arb 33 3.1 4.2 +6.4
Ben Zobrist 37 FA-elig 139 2.9 16.5 -6.5
Kris Bryant 26 arb 102 2.8 10.8 -1.3
Addison Russell 24 arb 130 2.3 3.2 +4.7
Kyle Schwarber 25 arb 137 2.2 0.6 +7.1
Albert Almora Jr. 24 pre-arb 152 2.1 0.6 +6.6
Jon Lester 34 FA-elig 34 1.8 27.5 -21.5
Jason Heyward 28 FA-elig 127 1.7 28.2 -22.3
Cole Hamels↔ TEX 34 FA-elig 12 1.7 8.8 -3.1
Mike Montgomery 28 arb 39 1.4 0.6 +4.0
Jose Quintana 29 FA-elig 32 1.2 8.8 -4.6
Carl Edwards Jr. 26 arb 58 1.1 0.6 +3.3
Jesse Chavez↔ TEX 34 FA-elig 32 1.1 0.6 +3.2
Willson Contreras 26 pre-arb 138 1.0 0.6 +2.8
Ian Happ 23 pre-arb 142 1.0 0.6 +2.8
Pedro Strop 33 FA-elig 60 0.9 5.8 -2.9
Steve Cishek 32 FA-elig 80 0.8 6.5 -3.7
David Bote 25 – 74 0.8 0.3 +2.4
Brandon Morrow 33 FA-elig 35 0.6 9.0 -6.8
Justin Wilson 30 FA-elig 71 0.6 4.2 -2.4
Jorge De La Rosa↔ ARI 37 FA-elig 17 0.5 0.6 +1.1
Alec Mills 26 pre-arb 7 0.5 0.1 +1.5
Daniel Murphy↔ WSN 33 FA-elig 35 0.3 6.7 -5.9
Anthony Bass 30 arb 16 0.2 0.2 +0.6
Yu Darvish 31 FA-elig 8 0.2 25.0 -24.4
James Norwood 24 – 11 0.1 0.1 +0.3
Tommy La Stella 29 arb 123 0.1 0.9 -0.5
Eddie Butler↔ TEX 27 arb 8 0.1 0.2 +0.2
Mark Zagunis 25 pre-arb 5 0.1 0.1 +0.2
Terrance Gore 27 pre-arb 14 0.1 0.1 +0.2
Cory Mazzoni 28 pre-arb 8 0.1 0.0 +0.2
Jaime García↔ TOR 31 FA-elig 8 0.0 1.9 -1.8
Taylor Davis 28 pre-arb 5 0.0 0.1 -0.1
Mike Freeman 30 pre-arb 1 -0.0 0.0 -0.1
Jen-Ho Tseng 23 pre-arb 1 -0.0 0.0 -0.1
Rob Zastryzny 26 pre-arb 6 -0.0 0.1 -0.2
Justin Hancock 27 – 10 -0.1 0.4 -0.6
Efren Navarro 32 – 4 -0.1 0.0 -0.3
Duane Underwood Jr. 23 – 1 -0.1 – –
Allen Webster 28 pre-arb 3 -0.1 0.0 -0.3
Randy Rosario 24 pre-arb 44 -0.2 0.4 -1.0
Dillon Maples 26 pre-arb 9 -0.2 0.1 -0.7
Chris Gimenez↔ MIN 35 – 12 -0.2 0.1 -0.7
Luke Farrell 27 – 20 -0.3 0.2 -1.1
Brandon Kintzler↔ WSN 33 FA-elig 25 -0.3 1.8 -2.8
Victor Caratini 24 pre-arb 76 -0.3 0.4 -1.5
Tyler Chatwood 28 FA-elig 25 -0.4 12.5 -13.8
Brian Duensing 35 FA-elig 48 -0.9 3.5 -6.5

50 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 49 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.