Rosternomics
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Reds CIN

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GM: Murray Cook (since 1988)

1988 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+8.3
WAB — wins above budget
+7.4
TAB — roster Talent above budget
87–74 (0.540)
record
+3M
surplus $M (value/$)
38.7
roster fWAR
$9.5M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Barry Larkin 24 pre-arb 151 6.3 0.1 +1.8
Danny Jackson 26 arb 35 5.2 0.4 +1.2
Kal Daniels 24 pre-arb 140 5.0 0.2 +1.4
Chris Sabo 26 pre-arb 137 4.8 0.1 +1.4
Eric Davis 26 arb 135 4.3 0.9 +0.4
Jose Rijo 23 arb 49 3.5 0.1 +1.0
Paul O'Neill 25 arb 145 2.2 0.1 +0.6
Jeff Treadway 25 pre-arb 103 1.8 0.1 +0.5
Nick Esasky 28 arb 122 1.2 0.5 -0.1
Rob Murphy 28 arb 76 1.2 0.2 +0.2
John Franco 27 arb 70 1.1 0.7 -0.3
Rob Dibble 24 pre-arb 37 1.1 0.1 +0.3
Ron Robinson 26 arb 17 1.0 0.4 -0.1
Tom Browning 28 arb 41 0.8 0.4 -0.2
Lenny Harris 23 – 16 0.6 – –
Jeff Reed↔ WSN 25 arb 49 0.6 0.0 +0.2
Bo Diaz 35 FA-elig 92 0.4 0.8 -0.7
Norm Charlton 25 pre-arb 10 0.4 0.1 +0.1
Ron Oester 32 FA-elig 54 0.4 0.3 -0.2
Mario Soto 31 FA-elig 14 0.4 1.2 -1.1
Luis Quinones 26 arb 23 0.2 0.1 -0.0
Terry McGriff 24 pre-arb 35 0.1 0.1 -0.0
Keith Brown 24 – 4 0.1 – –
Van Snider 24 – 11 0.1 – –
Candy Sierra↔ SDP 21 pre-arb 1 0.0 0.0 +0.0
Jeff Gray 25 – 5 0.0 – –
Ken Griffey Sr.↔ ATL 38 FA-elig 25 0.0 0.1 -0.1
Herm Winningham↔ WSN 26 arb 53 0.0 0.1 -0.1
Tracy Jones↔ WSN 27 pre-arb 37 0.0 0.1 -0.1
Dennis Rasmussen↔ SDP 29 arb 11 -0.0 0.2 -0.2
Lloyd McClendon 29 pre-arb 72 -0.1 0.1 -0.1
Pat Pacillo 24 – 6 -0.1 – –
Eddie Milner 33 FA-elig 23 -0.1 0.2 -0.3
Marty Brown 25 – 10 -0.1 – –
Jack Armstrong 23 – 14 -0.1 – –
Tim Birtsas 27 arb 36 -0.2 0.1 -0.1
Leon Durham↔ CHC 30 FA-elig 21 -0.2 0.6 -0.7
Randy St. Claire↔ WSN 27 arb 10 -0.2 0.1 -0.1
Buddy Bell↔ HOU 36 FA-elig 21 -0.3 0.2 -0.3
Leo Garcia 25 – 23 -0.4 – –
Ron Roenicke 31 – 14 -0.4 – –
Frank Williams 30 arb 60 -0.5 0.4 -0.6
Pat Perry↔ CHC 29 arb 12 -0.5 0.0 -0.2
Dave Concepcion 40 FA-elig 84 -0.5 0.4 -0.5
Dave Collins 35 FA-elig 99 -0.7 0.2 -0.4

45 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 36 of them (80%). 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 CIN
Brandon Phillips200630.1
Aaron Harang200319.3
Sean Casey199815.9
Luis Castillo201713.9
Ken Griffey200010.6
Anthony DeSclafani20148.2
Dmitri Young19977.5
Norm Charlton19867.3
Ones that got away
PlayerYear tradedWAR elsewhere
Paul Konerko199824.5
Mike Cameron200019.8
Charlie Leibrandt198316.8
Jeff Montgomery198812.0
Dave Burba199811.7
Luis Castillo20228.7
John Franco19898.7
Brad Keller20177.9
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.