Rosternomics
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White Sox CHW

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GM: Ron Schueler (since 1991)

1997 roster — every player, value & surplus

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-5.1
WAB — wins above budget
-9.2
TAB — roster Talent above budget
80–81 (0.497)
record
-22M
surplus $M (value/$)
28.3
roster fWAR
$52.0M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Frank Thomas 29 FA-elig 146 7.2 7.2 +0.2
Mike Cameron 24 pre-arb 116 4.3 0.2 +4.3
Wilson Alvarez↔ SFG 27 FA-elig 22 3.2 3.1 +0.1
Jaime Navarro 30 FA-elig 33 3.1 5.0 -1.8
James Baldwin 25 pre-arb 32 2.8 0.2 +2.6
Dave Martinez 32 FA-elig 145 2.6 0.9 +1.7
Albert Belle 30 FA-elig 161 1.9 10.0 -8.1
Robin Ventura 29 FA-elig 54 1.8 6.0 -4.2
Harold Baines↔ BAL 38 FA-elig 93 1.3 1.3 +0.1
Magglio Ordonez 23 pre-arb 21 1.3 0.1 +1.1
Chuck McElroy↔ ANA 29 FA-elig 49 1.0 0.6 +0.3
Tony Phillips↔ ANA 38 FA-elig 36 0.9 0.6 +0.4
Jorge Fabregas↔ ANA 27 arb 100 0.8 0.2 +0.6
Darren Lewis↔ LAD 29 FA-elig 81 0.6 1.0 -0.4
Mike Sirotka 26 pre-arb 7 0.5 0.2 +0.4
Roberto Hernandez↔ SFG 32 FA-elig 46 0.4 2.9 -2.4
Tony Castillo 34 FA-elig 64 0.4 1.2 -0.8
Ray Durham 25 pre-arb 155 0.3 0.3 +0.0
Danny Darwin↔ SFG 41 FA-elig 21 0.3 0.3 +0.0
Chad Kreuter↔ ANA 32 FA-elig 19 0.3 0.1 +0.2
Keith Foulke↔ SFG 24 pre-arb 16 0.3 0.1 +0.2
Matt Karchner 30 pre-arb 52 0.2 0.2 +0.0
Mike Bertotti 27 pre-arb 9 0.1 0.2 -0.1
Jeff Darwin 27 arb 14 0.1 0.2 -0.1
Jason Bere 26 arb 6 0.0 0.4 -0.4
Robert Machado 24 – 10 -0.0 – –
Mario Valdez 22 pre-arb 54 -0.0 0.1 -0.2
Scott Eyre 25 pre-arb 11 -0.1 0.1 -0.2
Doug Drabek 34 FA-elig 32 -0.1 1.3 -1.4
Greg Norton 24 pre-arb 18 -0.1 0.2 -0.3
Larry Thomas 27 – 5 -0.1 – –
Tom Fordham 23 – 7 -0.1 – –
Carlos Castillo 22 pre-arb 37 -0.2 0.1 -0.3
Bill Simas 25 pre-arb 40 -0.2 0.2 -0.4
Chad Fonville↔ LAD 26 pre-arb 9 -0.2 0.1 -0.3
Ron Karkovice 33 FA-elig 51 -0.2 1.5 -1.7
Nelson Cruz 24 – 19 -0.2 – –
Al Levine 29 pre-arb 25 -0.2 0.2 -0.4
Jeff Abbott 24 – 19 -0.2 – –
Chris Clemons 24 – 5 -0.3 – –
Norberto Martin 30 arb 71 -0.4 0.3 -0.7
Lyle Mouton 28 pre-arb 88 -0.5 0.2 -0.7
Tony Peña Sr.↔ HOU 40 FA-elig 31 -1.0 0.3 -1.3
Chris Snopek 26 pre-arb 86 -1.5 0.2 -1.8
Ozzie Guillen 33 FA-elig 142 -2.0 4.5 -6.5

45 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 39 of them (87%). 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 CHW
Paul Konerko199824.5
Carlton Fisk198518.3
John Danks200617.4
José Valentín200017.3
Lance Johnson198817.3
Jon Garland199817.2
Gavin Floyd200615.3
Tim Raines199014.5
Ones that got away
PlayerYear tradedWAR elsewhere
Sammy Sosa199260.7
Fernando Tatís201627.7
Bobby Bonilla198620.6
Brian Downing197716.9
Chris Young200514.5
Nick Swisher200814.4
Chet Lemon198114.2
José DeLeón198811.7
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.