Rosternomics
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White Sox CHW

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GM: Ron Schueler (since 1991)

1998 roster — every player, value & surplus

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-1.2
WAB — wins above budget
-4.8
TAB — roster Talent above budget
80–82 (0.494)
record
-9M
surplus $M (value/$)
28.7
roster fWAR
$39.2M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Albert Belle 31 FA-elig 163 7.1 10.0 -2.3
Robin Ventura 30 FA-elig 161 5.8 6.1 +0.2
Ray Durham 26 arb 158 3.2 1.9 +1.5
Frank Thomas 30 FA-elig 160 3.0 7.0 -3.7
Mike Sirotka 27 arb 33 2.8 0.2 +2.8
James Baldwin 26 arb 37 1.7 0.3 +1.6
Mike Caruso 21 pre-arb 133 1.7 0.2 +1.6
Craig Wilson 27 pre-arb 13 1.2 0.2 +1.1
Jim Parque 23 pre-arb 21 1.0 0.2 +0.9
Wil Cordero 26 FA-elig 96 1.0 1.0 +0.0
Mike Cameron 25 arb 141 0.9 0.2 +0.7
John Snyder 23 pre-arb 15 0.8 0.2 +0.7
Chad Kreuter↔ ANA 33 FA-elig 93 0.7 0.7 +0.0
Chad Bradford 23 pre-arb 29 0.6 0.2 +0.5
Bob Howry 24 pre-arb 44 0.6 0.2 +0.4
Charlie O'Brien↔ ANA 38 FA-elig 57 0.6 0.6 -0.0
Jim Abbott 30 – 5 0.5 – –
Keith Foulke 25 pre-arb 54 0.4 0.2 +0.2
Matt Karchner↔ CHC 31 arb 32 0.3 0.2 +0.2
Magglio Ordonez 24 pre-arb 145 0.3 0.2 +0.1
Brian Simmons 24 pre-arb 5 0.1 0.2 -0.1
Larry Casian 32 – 4 0.1 – –
Mike Heathcott 29 – 1 0.1 – –
Lou Frazier 33 arb 7 0.1 0.2 -0.1
Bryan Ward 26 pre-arb 28 0.1 0.2 -0.1
Bill Simas 26 arb 60 0.0 0.2 -0.2
Todd Rizzo 27 pre-arb 9 -0.0 0.2 -0.2
Robert Machado 25 pre-arb 34 -0.1 0.2 -0.3
Mark Johnson 22 pre-arb 7 -0.1 0.2 -0.3
Ruben Sierra 32 FA-elig 27 -0.2 0.5 -0.7
Chris Snopek↔ BOS 27 arb 53 -0.3 0.2 -0.4
Jason Bere↔ CIN 27 arb 18 -0.4 0.5 -0.9
Carlos Castillo 23 pre-arb 54 -0.4 0.2 -0.6
Greg Norton 25 pre-arb 105 -0.5 0.2 -0.7
Tony Castillo 35 FA-elig 25 -0.5 1.2 -1.8
Jaime Navarro 31 FA-elig 37 -0.6 5.0 -5.7
Tom Fordham 24 pre-arb 29 -0.7 0.2 -0.9
Jeff Abbott 25 pre-arb 89 -0.9 0.2 -1.2
Scott Eyre 26 pre-arb 33 -1.0 0.2 -1.3

39 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 36 of them (92%). 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.