Rosternomics
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Reds CIN

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GM: Jim Bowden (since 1993)

1998 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+2.9
WAB — wins above budget
+4.3
TAB — roster Talent above budget
77–85 (0.475)
record
+11M
surplus $M (value/$)
31.1
roster fWAR
$22.7M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Barry Larkin 34 FA-elig 145 5.9 5.3 +1.1
Brett Tomko 25 pre-arb 36 3.3 0.2 +3.4
Pete Harnisch 31 FA-elig 32 2.7 0.3 +2.6
Willie Greene↔ BAL 26 FA-elig 111 2.5 1.4 +1.3
Dmitri Young 24 pre-arb 144 2.5 0.2 +2.4
Reggie Sanders 30 FA-elig 135 1.9 3.7 -1.6
Steve Parris 30 arb 18 1.6 0.2 +1.6
Bret Boone 29 FA-elig 157 1.5 2.8 -1.2
David Weathers↔ MIL 28 FA-elig 16 1.3 0.1 +1.3
Eddie Taubensee 29 FA-elig 130 1.3 1.0 +0.4
Jeff Shaw↔ LAD 31 FA-elig 39 1.2 0.3 +0.9
Sean Casey 23 pre-arb 96 0.8 0.2 +0.7
Mike Remlinger 32 FA-elig 35 0.8 0.3 +0.6
Aaron Boone 25 pre-arb 58 0.7 0.2 +0.6
Dennys Reyes↔ LAD 21 pre-arb 8 0.7 0.1 +0.7
Roberto Petagine 27 arb 34 0.6 0.2 +0.5
Jason Bere↔ CHW 27 arb 9 0.6 0.2 +0.4
Jeffrey Hammonds↔ BAL 27 arb 26 0.5 0.4 +0.2
Chris Stynes 25 arb 123 0.4 0.2 +0.3
Damian Jackson 24 pre-arb 13 0.4 0.2 +0.2
Brook Fordyce 28 arb 57 0.4 0.2 +0.2
Danny Graves 24 pre-arb 62 0.3 0.2 +0.2
Pat Watkins 25 pre-arb 83 0.3 0.2 +0.2
Stan Belinda 31 FA-elig 40 0.3 0.8 -0.5
Eduardo Perez 28 arb 84 0.3 0.3 -0.0
Steve Cooke 28 FA-elig 1 0.2 0.3 -0.0
Tony Tarasco 27 – 15 0.2 – –
Gabe White 26 arb 69 0.2 0.2 +0.0
Lenny Harris↔ NYM 33 FA-elig 57 0.2 0.3 -0.1
Melvin Nieves 26 FA-elig 83 0.2 0.8 -0.6
Keith Glauber 26 pre-arb 3 0.2 0.2 +0.0
Scott Winchester 25 – 16 0.2 – –
Jon Nunnally 26 arb 74 0.2 0.2 -0.1
Guillermo Garcia 26 – 12 0.1 – –
Stephen Larkin 24 – 1 -0.0 – –
Scott Sullivan 27 arb 67 -0.1 0.2 -0.3
Marc Kroon↔ SDP 25 arb 4 -0.1 0.1 -0.2
Mike Frank 24 – 28 -0.1 – –
Todd Williams 27 – 6 -0.1 – –
Eddie Priest 24 – 2 -0.2 – –
Scott Klingenbeck 27 – 4 -0.3 – –
Paul Konerko↔ LAD 22 pre-arb 26 -0.3 0.1 -0.4
Ricardo Jordan 28 arb 6 -0.3 0.2 -0.6
Pokey Reese 25 pre-arb 59 -0.3 0.2 -0.6
Mark Hutton 28 arb 10 -0.4 0.3 -0.7
John Hudek↔ NYM 31 arb 30 -0.5 0.3 -0.8
Rick Krivda↔ CLE 28 arb 16 -0.8 0.1 -1.0

47 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 39 of them (83%). 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.