Rosternomics
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Cubs CHC

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President of baseball ops: Jed Hoyer (since 2021) · GM: Carter Hawkins (since 2021)

2023 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+0.6
WAB — wins above budget
+6.7
TAB — roster Talent above budget
83–79 (0.512)
record
+5M
surplus $M (value/$)
41.4
roster fWAR
$159.1M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Dansby Swanson 29 FA-elig 147 4.8 14.0 +5.2
Justin Steele 27 pre-arb 30 4.8 0.7 +18.4
Nico Hoerner 26 arb 150 4.5 2.5 +15.2
Cody Bellinger 27 FA-elig 130 4.4 12.5 +4.8
Ian Happ 28 FA-elig 158 3.2 10.8 +2.0
Seiya Suzuki 28 pre-arb 138 3.1 18.0 -5.9
Kyle Hendricks 33 FA-elig 24 2.7 14.0 -3.2
Marcus Stroman 32 FA-elig 27 2.7 25.0 -14.3
Mike Tauchman 32 arb 108 1.7 0.5 +6.1
Christopher Morel 24 pre-arb 107 1.6 0.6 +5.7
Jameson Taillon 31 FA-elig 30 1.5 14.0 -7.9
Adbert Alzolay 28 arb 58 1.5 0.7 +5.1
Nick Madrigal 26 arb 92 1.2 1.2 +3.4
Yan Gomes 35 FA-elig 116 1.0 6.0 -2.0
Drew Smyly 34 FA-elig 41 0.9 8.0 -4.4
Javier Assad 25 pre-arb 32 0.9 0.7 +2.8
Julian Merryweather 31 arb 69 0.9 0.7 +2.7
Miguel Amaya 24 – 53 0.7 0.5 +2.1
Patrick Wisdom 31 arb 97 0.6 0.8 +1.8
Mark Leiter Jr. 32 FA-elig 69 0.6 0.8 +1.6
Michael Fulmer 30 FA-elig 58 0.4 4.0 -2.4
Jordan Wicks 23 – 7 0.3 0.1 +0.9
Daniel Palencia 23 – 27 0.3 0.3 +0.7
Tucker Barnhart 32 FA-elig 47 0.2 3.2 -2.4
Jeimer Candelario↔ WSN 29 FA-elig 41 0.2 1.5 -0.7
Nelson Velázquez↔ KCR 24 – 13 0.2 0.1 +0.5
Luke Little 22 – 7 0.1 0.5 +0.0
Keegan Thompson 28 pre-arb 19 0.1 0.7 -0.5
Miles Mastrobuoni 27 pre-arb 61 0.0 0.7 -0.6
Shane Greene 34 FA-elig 2 0.0 0.0 +0.1
Alexander Canario 23 – 6 0.0 0.1 -0.0
Nick Burdi 30 arb 3 0.0 0.5 -0.5
Caleb Kilian 26 pre-arb 3 0.0 0.0 +0.0
Tyler Duffey 32 FA-elig 1 -0.0 0.1 -0.1
Brandon Hughes 27 pre-arb 17 -0.0 0.7 -0.9
Anthony Kay↔ NYM 28 – 13 -0.1 0.2 -0.4
Michael Rucker 29 pre-arb 35 -0.1 0.7 -1.0
Jose Cuas↔ KCR 29 pre-arb 27 -0.1 0.3 -0.6
Luis Torrens↔ SEA 27 FA-elig 13 -0.1 0.9 -1.2
Jared Young 27 pre-arb 16 -0.2 0.1 -0.8
Brad Boxberger 35 FA-elig 22 -0.2 2.0 -2.7
Pete Crow-Armstrong 21 – 13 -0.2 0.1 -0.8
Edwin Rios 29 arb 18 -0.3 1.0 -2.1
Eric Hosmer 33 FA-elig 31 -0.3 0.7 -1.9
Hayden Wesneski 25 pre-arb 34 -0.3 0.7 -2.1
Jeremiah Estrada 24 pre-arb 12 -0.4 0.2 -1.9
Matt Mervis 25 – 27 -0.7 0.2 -2.8
Trey Mancini 31 FA-elig 79 -0.8 7.0 -10.1

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.