RRosternomics
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Guardians CLE

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GM: Joe Klein

Overview

REBUILD ↘ cooling
cheap & losing · year 3 in this regime · payroll 0.78× league · TAB -16.3
-16.3TAB — talent above budget26th/26
-17.6WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)25th/26
4.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars23rd/26
-8.7dead WAR — sub-replacement drag26th/26
52%dead money %26th/26
0.377win %26th/26
14.8roster fWAR26th/26
-3surplus $M (value vs cost)20th/26
$8Mpayroll $M20th/26

Roster

CFBrett Butler 136GDave Gallagher 14GJoe Carter 13G
LFMel Hall 122GJoe Carter 42GCory Snyder 15G
RFCory Snyder 134GCarmen Castillo 22GJoe Carter 14G
SSJulio Franco 111GJay Bell 38GCory Snyder 18G
2BTommy Hinzo 67GJunior Noboa 21GJulio Franco 9G
3BBrook Jacoby 144GEddie Williams 22GJunior Noboa 5G
1BJoe Carter 84GPat Tabler 81GBrook Jacoby 7G
STARTERSGreg Swindell 1.4WARTom Candiotti 1.3WARJohn Farrell 0.8WARScott Bailes 0.2WARKen Schrom -0.2WAR
CChris Bando 86GRick Dempsey 59GAndy Allanson 50G
DHPat Tabler 65GCarmen Castillo 40GAndre Thornton 19G
BULLPEN★ Doug Jones 8svEd Vande Berg 0hMark Huismann 0hDon Gordon 0hSammy Stewart 0hJamie Easterly 0hErnie Camacho 0hReggie Ritter 0h
CChris Bando 86 · Rick Dempsey 59 · Andy Allanson 50
1BJoe Carter 84 · Pat Tabler 81 · Brook Jacoby 7
2BTommy Hinzo 67 · Junior Noboa 21 · Julio Franco 9
3BBrook Jacoby 144 · Eddie Williams 22 · Junior Noboa 5
SSJulio Franco 111 · Jay Bell 38 · Cory Snyder 18
LFMel Hall 122 · Joe Carter 42 · Cory Snyder 15
CFBrett Butler 136 · Dave Gallagher 14 · Joe Carter 13
RFCory Snyder 134 · Carmen Castillo 22 · Joe Carter 14
DHPat Tabler 65 · Carmen Castillo 40 · Andre Thornton 19
SPGreg Swindell 1.4 · Tom Candiotti 1.3 · John Farrell 0.8 · Scott Bailes 0.2 · Ken Schrom -0.2
BP★ Doug Jones 8 · Ed Vande Berg 0 · Mark Huismann 0 · Don Gordon 0 · Sammy Stewart 0 · Jamie Easterly 0 · Ernie Camacho 0 · Reggie Ritter 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.

1987 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Brook Jacoby 27 FA-elig 1554.7 0.6 +0.7
Brett Butler 30 FA-elig 1373.9 0.8 +0.4
Julio Franco 28 arb 1283.1 0.8 +0.1
Doug Jones 30 arb 492.6 0.1 +0.7
Pat Tabler 29 FA-elig 1511.8 0.6 -0.1
Greg Swindell 22 pre-arb 161.4 0.1 +0.3
Tom Candiotti 30 arb 321.3 0.2 +0.2
Joe Carter 27 arb 1491.3 0.2 +0.1
Mel Hall 26 FA-elig 1421.0 0.6 -0.3
John Farrell 24 pre-arb 100.8 0.1 +0.2
Phil Niekro↔ ATL 48 FA-elig 220.5 0.1 +0.1
Ed Vande Berg 28 arb 550.3 0.3 -0.2
Don Gordon↔ TOR 27 pre-arb 210.3 0.1 +0.0
Scott Bailes 25 pre-arb 390.2 0.1 -0.0
Mark Huismann↔ SEA 29 – 200.1 – –
Carmen Castillo 29 arb 890.1 0.2 -0.2
Ernie Camacho 32 – 150.1 – –
Jamie Easterly 34 FA-elig 160.1 0.4 -0.4
Tommy Hinzo 23 pre-arb 670.0 0.1 -0.1
Andy Allanson 25 pre-arb 500.0 0.1 -0.1
Brian Dorsett 26 – 5-0.0 – –
Tony Bernazard↔ OAK 30 FA-elig 79-0.0 0.4 -0.4
Frank Wills 28 – 6-0.1 – –
Eddie Williams 22 pre-arb 22-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Steve Carlton↔ MIN 42 – 23-0.1 – –
Jeff Kaiser 26 – 2-0.1 – –
Chris Bando 31 FA-elig 89-0.2 0.3 -0.4
Tom Waddell 28 – 6-0.2 – –
Ken Schrom 32 FA-elig 32-0.2 0.5 -0.5
Dave Gallagher 26 – 15-0.2 – –
Sammy Stewart 32 FA-elig 25-0.2 0.2 -0.2
Casey Parsons 33 – 18-0.3 – –
Rick Dempsey 37 FA-elig 60-0.3 0.4 -0.5
Otis Nixon 28 – 19-0.3 – –
Mike Armstrong 33 – 14-0.4 – –
Reggie Ritter 27 pre-arb 14-0.5 0.1 -0.2
Cory Snyder 24 pre-arb 157-0.5 0.1 -0.2
Dave Clark 24 – 29-0.5 – –
Doug Frobel 28 – 29-0.5 – –
Junior Noboa 22 arb 39-0.6 0.1 -0.2
Jay Bell 21 – 38-0.7 – –
Darrel Akerfelds 25 pre-arb 16-0.8 0.1 -0.3
Rich Yett 24 pre-arb 37-0.9 0.1 -0.3
Andre Thornton 37 FA-elig 36-1.1 1.1 -1.4

Key additions (new vs 1986)

PlayerfWAR
John Farrell0.8
Ed Vande Berg0.3
Don Gordon0.3
Mark Huismann0.1
Tommy Hinzo0.0
Brian Dorsett-0.0

Key subtractions (gone from 1986)

Player1986 fWAR
Don Schulze0.4
Neal Heaton0.3
John Butcher0.2
Jose Roman-0.0
Dan Rohn-0.0
Fran Mullins-0.2

Current & Historical Payroll

1987 payroll
$8.4M

What the front office was committed to as of 1987, 1987–1993. 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 (14)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Andre Thornton3714.000$1.1MFREE AGENT
Brett Butler306.000$765kFREE AGENT
Brook Jacoby276.000$612k$812k$962k$988k$622k$550kFREE AGENT
Pat Tabler296.000$605k$548kFREE AGENT
Mel Hall266.000$550k$725kFREE AGENT
Ken Schrom327.000$450kFREE AGENT
Rick Dempsey3718.000$400kFREE AGENT
Jamie Easterly3413.000$370kFREE AGENT
Tony Bernazard308.000$356kFREE AGENT
Chris Bando316.000$305kFREE AGENT
Sammy Stewart329.000$175kFREE AGENT
Phil Niekro4823.000$79kFREE AGENT
Ernie Camacho327.000—FREE AGENT
Steve Carlton4222.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (11)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Julio Franco285.000$775kFREE AGENT
Ed Vande Berg285.000$300kFREE AGENT
Joe Carter274.000$250kARB 3FREE AGENT
Carmen Castillo295.000$248kFREE AGENT
Tom Candiotti304.000$160kARB 3FREE AGENT
Junior Noboa223.000$62kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Doug Jones305.000$62kFREE AGENT
Mark Huismann294.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Otis Nixon284.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tom Waddell283.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Frank Wills284.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (19)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Cory Snyder241.000$90kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Scott Bailes251.000$80kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Andy Allanson251.000$75kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Greg Swindell221.000$69kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rich Yett242.000$68kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Farrell240.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Darrel Akerfelds251.000$62kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tommy Hinzo230.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Reggie Ritter271.000$62kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Eddie Williams221.000$62kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Don Gordon271.000$58kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Armstrong33–—
Jay Bell211.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Clark241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brian Dorsett260.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Doug Frobel28–—
Dave Gallagher260.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Kaiser262.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Casey Parsons33–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Guardians 1987; 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.