RRosternomics
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White Sox CHW

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GM: Ron Schueler

Overview

WINDOW ↘ cooling
cheap & winning · year 3 in this regime · payroll 1.0× league · TAB +5.9
+5.9TAB — talent above budget8th/26
+4.1WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)12th/26
8.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars6th/26
-4.3dead WAR — sub-replacement drag9th/26
55%dead money %23rd/26
0.531win %10th/26
40.1roster fWAR8th/26
+2surplus $M (value vs cost)7th/26
$30Mpayroll $M13th/26

Roster

CFLance Johnson 157GShawn Abner 14GMike Huff 3G
LFTim Raines Sr. 129GWarren Newson 17GGeorge Bell 15G
RFDan Pasqua 81GShawn Abner 75GMike Huff 45G
SSCraig Grebeck 85GDale Sveum 71GEsteban Beltre 43G
2BSteve Sax 141GJoey Cora 28G
3BRobin Ventura 157GCraig Grebeck 7GDale Sveum 7G
1BFrank Thomas 158GDale Sveum 6GDan Pasqua 5G
STARTERSJack McDowell 4.8WARKirk McCaskill 2.7WARAlex Fernandez 1.8WARGreg Hibbard 1.2WARCharlie Hough 0.9WAR
CRon Karkovice 119GCarlton Fisk 54GMatt Merullo 16G
DHGeorge Bell 140GTim Raines Sr. 14GWarren Newson 2G
BULLPEN★ Bobby Thigpen 22svScott Radinsky 0hTerry Leach 0hRoberto Hernandez 0hDonn Pall 0hBrian Drahman 0hMike Dunne 0h
CRon Karkovice 119 · Carlton Fisk 54 · Matt Merullo 16
1BFrank Thomas 158 · Dale Sveum 6 · Dan Pasqua 5
2BSteve Sax 141 · Joey Cora 28
3BRobin Ventura 157 · Craig Grebeck 7 · Dale Sveum 7
SSCraig Grebeck 85 · Dale Sveum 71 · Esteban Beltre 43
LFTim Raines Sr. 129 · Warren Newson 17 · George Bell 15
CFLance Johnson 157 · Shawn Abner 14 · Mike Huff 3
RFDan Pasqua 81 · Shawn Abner 75 · Mike Huff 45
DHGeorge Bell 140 · Tim Raines Sr. 14 · Warren Newson 2
SPJack McDowell 4.8 · Kirk McCaskill 2.7 · Alex Fernandez 1.8 · Greg Hibbard 1.2 · Charlie Hough 0.9
BP★ Bobby Thigpen 22 · Scott Radinsky 0 · Terry Leach 0 · Roberto Hernandez 0 · Donn Pall 0 · Brian Drahman 0 · Mike Dunne 0

Each position lists its starter then backups by games (so platoons & bench show). Starters (mound) & bullpen (left, foul territory) are ranked by WAR; ★ marks the closer (most save chances). MLB Stats API.

1992 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Frank Thomas 24 pre-arb 1607.1 0.6 +4.9
Robin Ventura 24 arb 1576.1 0.6 +4.1
Tim Raines Sr. 32 FA-elig 1445.5 3.5 +0.8
Jack McDowell 26 arb 344.8 1.6 +2.2
Lance Johnson 28 arb 1573.4 0.5 +2.1
Kirk McCaskill 31 FA-elig 342.7 2.3 -0.3
Craig Grebeck 27 pre-arb 882.3 0.2 +1.6
Ron Karkovice 28 FA-elig 1232.3 0.7 +1.1
Alex Fernandez 22 pre-arb 291.8 0.4 +1.0
Roberto Hernandez 27 pre-arb 431.7 0.1 +1.2
Shawn Abner 26 arb 971.6 0.3 +0.9
Greg Hibbard 27 arb 311.2 0.2 +0.8
Charlie Hough 44 FA-elig 270.9 1.1 -0.4
Terry Leach 38 FA-elig 510.5 0.3 +0.2
Scott Radinsky 24 pre-arb 680.5 0.2 +0.2
Carlton Fisk 44 FA-elig 620.5 1.0 -0.6
Joey Cora 27 arb 680.4 0.2 +0.1
George Bell 32 FA-elig 1550.4 3.6 -3.4
Nelson Santovenia 30 – 20.2 – –
Mike Dunne 29 – 40.1 – –
Ozzie Guillen 28 FA-elig 120.1 1.9 -1.8
Dale Sveum↔ PHI 28 FA-elig 400.1 0.2 -0.1
Bobby Thigpen 28 FA-elig 550.1 3.2 -3.1
Brian Drahman 25 pre-arb 50.0 0.1 -0.1
Warren Newson 27 pre-arb 630.0 0.1 -0.1
Dan Pasqua 30 FA-elig 93-0.1 2.5 -2.6
Scott Hemond↔ OAK 26 arb 8-0.1 0.0 -0.1
Shawn Jeter 26 – 13-0.2 – –
Steve Sax 32 FA-elig 143-0.3 3.6 -3.8
Chris Cron 28 – 6-0.3 – –
Matt Merullo 26 arb 24-0.5 0.1 -0.5
Wilson Alvarez 22 arb 34-0.6 0.1 -0.6
Donn Pall 30 arb 39-0.6 0.4 -0.8
Mike Huff 28 arb 60-0.7 0.1 -0.7
Esteban Beltre 24 – 49-1.0 – –

Key additions (new vs 1991)

PlayerfWAR
Kirk McCaskill2.7
Shawn Abner1.6
Terry Leach0.5
George Bell0.4
Nelson Santovenia0.2
Mike Dunne0.1

Key subtractions (gone from 1991)

Player1991 fWAR
Melido Perez2.0
Sammy Sosa0.5
Bo Jackson0.1
Rodney McCray-0.0
Jeff Carter-0.0
Steve Wapnick-0.0

Current & Historical Payroll

1992 payroll
$29.8M

What the front office was committed to as of 1992, 1992–1998. Pre-2015 has no contract-terms data — forward italic $ are realized actuals (hindsight, not commitments known then). Control labels (ARB/FA) are point-in-time.

current $ guaranteed $ actual $ (hindsight) arbitration (proj) pre-arb (proj) free agent

Guaranteed / signed (12)

PlayerAgeSvc1992199319941995199619971998
George Bell3211.000$3.6M$3.6MFREE AGENT
Steve Sax3211.000$3.6M$2.0MFREE AGENT
Tim Raines Sr.3213.000$3.5M$3.5M$3.6M$3.7MFREE AGENT
Bobby Thigpen286.000$3.2M$2.0MFREE AGENT
Dan Pasqua307.000$2.5M$1.8M$1.8MFREE AGENT
Kirk McCaskill317.000$2.3M$2.5M$2.1M$940k$800kFREE AGENT
Ozzie Guillen287.000$1.9M$2.0M$2.1M$3.5M$4.0M$4.5MFREE AGENT
Charlie Hough4422.000$1.1MFREE AGENT
Carlton Fisk4423.000$1.0MFREE AGENT
Ron Karkovice286.000$650k$1.6M$1.4M$1.8M$2.2M$1.5MFREE AGENT
Terry Leach3811.000$260k$260kFREE AGENT
Dale Sveum286.000$160kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (13)

PlayerAgeSvc1992199319941995199619971998
Jack McDowell265.000$1.6MFREE AGENT
Robin Ventura243.000$640kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Lance Johnson285.000$530kFREE AGENT
Donn Pall304.000$354kARB 3FREE AGENT
Shawn Abner265.000$298kFREE AGENT
Joey Cora275.000$235kFREE AGENT
Greg Hibbard273.000$210kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Huff283.000$145kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Matt Merullo263.000$140kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Wilson Alvarez223.000$130kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Scott Hemond263.000$38kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Dunne295.000—FREE AGENT
Nelson Santovenia305.000—FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (10)

PlayerAgeSvc1992199319941995199619971998
Frank Thomas242.000$620kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Alex Fernandez222.000$373kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Craig Grebeck272.000$200kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Scott Radinsky242.000$190kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Warren Newson271.000$135kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brian Drahman251.000$130kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Roberto Hernandez271.000$112kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Esteban Beltre241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris Cron28–—
Shawn Jeter26–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = White Sox 1992; the black line = the league-average player at each slot that season. Staying above the line deep into the roster is the depth edge; dropping below it = holes & dead weight.

What each regime is worth — every settled team-season since 1985

RegimeSeasonsWin %Playoff %Pennant %WS %
WINDOW 28152.131.05.01.1
CONTEND 30056.964.719.710.3
FORCED-SPEND 25648.09.81.61.6
REBUILD 32143.31.20.30.3
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.