RRosternomics
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Reds CIN

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GM: Jim Bowden

Overview

WINDOW ↗ rising
cheap & winning · year 1 in this regime · payroll 0.54× league · TAB +4.3
+4.3TAB — talent above budget10th/30
+3.0WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)10th/30
5.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars19th/30
-3.4dead WAR — sub-replacement drag8th/30
24%dead money %10th/30
0.475win %17th/30
31.1roster fWAR15th/30
+11surplus $M (value vs cost)4th/30
$23Mpayroll $M25th/30

Roster

CFReggie Sanders 88GJeffrey Hammonds 49GPat Watkins 39G
LFDmitri Young 91GChris Stynes 64GPaul Konerko 18G
RFReggie Sanders 57GJon Nunnally 53GPat Watkins 28G
SSBarry Larkin 145GPokey Reese 18GDamian Jackson 10G
2BBret Boone 156GChris Stynes 11GPokey Reese 3G
3BWillie Greene 76GAaron Boone 52GPokey Reese 32G
1BSean Casey 86GEduardo Perez 51GDmitri Young 44G
STARTERSBrett Tomko 3.3WARPete Harnisch 2.7WARSteve Parris 1.6WARMike Remlinger 0.8WARDennys Reyes 0.7WAR
CEddie Taubensee 126GBrook Fordyce 54GGuillermo Garcia 11G
DHMelvin Nieves 3GWillie Greene 1GLenny Harris 1G
BULLPEN★ Gabe White 9svScott Sullivan 0hDanny Graves 0hJohn Hudek 0hStan Belinda 0hRick Krivda 0hMark Hutton 0hRicardo Jordan 0h
CEddie Taubensee 126 · Brook Fordyce 54 · Guillermo Garcia 11
1BSean Casey 86 · Eduardo Perez 51 · Dmitri Young 44
2BBret Boone 156 · Chris Stynes 11 · Pokey Reese 3
3BWillie Greene 76 · Aaron Boone 52 · Pokey Reese 32
SSBarry Larkin 145 · Pokey Reese 18 · Damian Jackson 10
LFDmitri Young 91 · Chris Stynes 64 · Paul Konerko 18
CFReggie Sanders 88 · Jeffrey Hammonds 49 · Pat Watkins 39
RFReggie Sanders 57 · Jon Nunnally 53 · Pat Watkins 28
DHMelvin Nieves 3 · Willie Greene 1 · Lenny Harris 1
SPBrett Tomko 3.3 · Pete Harnisch 2.7 · Steve Parris 1.6 · Mike Remlinger 0.8 · Dennys Reyes 0.7
BP★ Gabe White 9 · Scott Sullivan 0 · Danny Graves 0 · John Hudek 0 · Stan Belinda 0 · Rick Krivda 0 · Mark Hutton 0 · Ricardo Jordan 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.

1998 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Barry Larkin 34 FA-elig 1455.9 5.3 +1.1
Brett Tomko 25 pre-arb 363.3 0.2 +3.4
Pete Harnisch 31 FA-elig 322.7 0.3 +2.6
Willie Greene↔ BAL 26 FA-elig 1112.5 1.4 +1.3
Dmitri Young 24 pre-arb 1442.5 0.2 +2.4
Reggie Sanders 30 FA-elig 1351.9 3.7 -1.6
Steve Parris 30 arb 181.6 0.2 +1.6
Bret Boone 29 FA-elig 1571.5 2.8 -1.2
David Weathers↔ MIL 28 FA-elig 161.3 0.1 +1.3
Eddie Taubensee 29 FA-elig 1301.3 1.0 +0.4
Jeff Shaw↔ LAD 31 FA-elig 391.2 0.3 +0.9
Sean Casey 23 pre-arb 960.8 0.2 +0.7
Mike Remlinger 32 FA-elig 350.8 0.3 +0.6
Aaron Boone 25 pre-arb 580.7 0.2 +0.6
Dennys Reyes↔ LAD 21 pre-arb 80.7 0.1 +0.7
Roberto Petagine 27 arb 340.6 0.2 +0.5
Jason Bere↔ CHW 27 arb 90.6 0.2 +0.4
Jeffrey Hammonds↔ BAL 27 arb 260.5 0.4 +0.2
Chris Stynes 25 arb 1230.4 0.2 +0.3
Damian Jackson 24 pre-arb 130.4 0.2 +0.2
Brook Fordyce 28 arb 570.4 0.2 +0.2
Danny Graves 24 pre-arb 620.3 0.2 +0.2
Pat Watkins 25 pre-arb 830.3 0.2 +0.2
Stan Belinda 31 FA-elig 400.3 0.8 -0.5
Eduardo Perez 28 arb 840.3 0.3 -0.0
Steve Cooke 28 FA-elig 10.2 0.3 -0.0
Tony Tarasco 27 – 150.2 – –
Gabe White 26 arb 690.2 0.2 +0.0
Lenny Harris↔ NYM 33 FA-elig 570.2 0.3 -0.1
Melvin Nieves 26 FA-elig 830.2 0.8 -0.6
Keith Glauber 26 pre-arb 30.2 0.2 +0.0
Scott Winchester 25 – 160.2 – –
Jon Nunnally 26 arb 740.2 0.2 -0.1
Guillermo Garcia 26 – 120.1 – –
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

Key additions (new vs 1997)

PlayerfWAR
Pete Harnisch2.7
Dmitri Young2.5
Steve Parris1.6
David Weathers1.3
Sean Casey0.8
Dennys Reyes0.7

Key subtractions (gone from 1997)

Player1997 fWAR
Mike Morgan2.4
Dave Burba1.3
Joe Oliver1.2
John Smiley1.2
Kent Mercker1.1
Mike Kelly1.1

Current & Historical Payroll

1998 payroll
$22.7M

What the front office was committed to as of 1998, 1998–2004. 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 (13)

PlayerAgeSvc1998199920002001200220032004
Barry Larkin3412.000$5.3M$5.3M$5.3M$9.0M$9.0M$9.0M$700k
Reggie Sanders307.000$3.7MFREE AGENT
Bret Boone296.000$2.8MFREE AGENT
Willie Greene266.000$1.4MFREE AGENT
Eddie Taubensee297.000$975k$1.2M$1.4MFREE AGENT
Stan Belinda319.000$835k$835kFREE AGENT
Melvin Nieves266.000$820kFREE AGENT
Jeff Shaw318.000$347kFREE AGENT
Lenny Harris3310.000$335kFREE AGENT
Steve Cooke286.000$300kFREE AGENT
Pete Harnisch3110.000$300k$3.0M$3.2M$3.8MFREE AGENT
Mike Remlinger327.000$300kFREE AGENT
David Weathers287.000$109kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (18)

PlayerAgeSvc1998199920002001200220032004
Jeffrey Hammonds275.000$390kFREE AGENT
Eduardo Perez285.000$300kFREE AGENT
Mark Hutton285.000$265kFREE AGENT
John Hudek314.000$258kARB 3FREE AGENT
Jon Nunnally263.000$245kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Scott Sullivan273.000$235kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jason Bere275.000$233kFREE AGENT
Ricardo Jordan283.000$200kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris Stynes253.000$200kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Gabe White264.000$190kARB 3FREE AGENT
Brook Fordyce283.000$180kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Parris303.000$175kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Roberto Petagine274.000$175kARB 3FREE AGENT
Rick Krivda283.000$121kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Marc Kroon253.000$117kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Scott Klingenbeck274.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tony Tarasco275.000—FREE AGENT
Todd Williams273.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (16)

PlayerAgeSvc1998199920002001200220032004
Brett Tomko251.000$230kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Pokey Reese251.000$220kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dmitri Young242.000$215kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Sean Casey231.000$175kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Danny Graves242.000$175kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Aaron Boone251.000$170kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Keith Glauber260.000$170kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Pat Watkins251.000$170kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Damian Jackson242.000$170kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dennys Reyes211.000$72kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Paul Konerko221.000$59kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Scott Winchester251.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Eddie Priest24–—
Mike Frank24–—
Guillermo Garcia260.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Stephen Larkin24–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Reds 1998; 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.