RRosternomics
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Guardians CLE

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GM: John Hart

Overview

WINDOW ↗ rising
cheap & winning · year 1 in this regime · payroll 0.29× league · TAB +9.9
+9.9TAB — talent above budget4th/26
+10.2WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)5th/26
4.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars22nd/26
-5.0dead WAR — sub-replacement drag13th/26
53%dead money %22nd/26
0.469win %16th/26
28.9roster fWAR18th/26
+14surplus $M (value vs cost)1st/26
$9Mpayroll $M26th/26

Roster

CFKenny Lofton 143GThomas Howard 22GGlenallen Hill 1G
LFThomas Howard 68GAlbert Belle 52GGlenallen Hill 50G
RFMark Whiten 144GThomas Howard 13GGlenallen Hill 8G
SSMark Lewis 121GFelix Fermin 55GTony Perezchica 4G
2BCarlos Baerga 160GFelix Fermin 7GTony Perezchica 4G
3BBrook Jacoby 111GJim Thome 40GCarlos Martinez 28G
1BPaul Sorrento 121GCarlos Martinez 37GReggie Jefferson 15G
STARTERSCharles Nagy 7.0WARJose Mesa 1.0WARScott Scudder 0.8WARJack Armstrong 0.7WARRod Nichols 0.4WAR
CSandy Alomar Jr. 88GJunior Ortiz 86GJesse Levis 21G
DHAlbert Belle 100GGlenallen Hill 32GPaul Sorrento 11G
BULLPEN★ Steve Olin 29svDerek Lilliquist 0hTed Power 0hEric Plunk 0hKevin Wickander 0hMike Christopher 0hBrad Arnsberg 0hEric Bell 0h
CSandy Alomar Jr. 88 · Junior Ortiz 86 · Jesse Levis 21
1BPaul Sorrento 121 · Carlos Martinez 37 · Reggie Jefferson 15
2BCarlos Baerga 160 · Felix Fermin 7 · Tony Perezchica 4
3BBrook Jacoby 111 · Jim Thome 40 · Carlos Martinez 28
SSMark Lewis 121 · Felix Fermin 55 · Tony Perezchica 4
LFThomas Howard 68 · Albert Belle 52 · Glenallen Hill 50
CFKenny Lofton 143 · Thomas Howard 22 · Glenallen Hill 1
RFMark Whiten 144 · Thomas Howard 13 · Glenallen Hill 8
DHAlbert Belle 100 · Glenallen Hill 32 · Paul Sorrento 11
SPCharles Nagy 7.0 · Jose Mesa 1.0 · Scott Scudder 0.8 · Jack Armstrong 0.7 · Rod Nichols 0.4
BP★ Steve Olin 29 · Derek Lilliquist 0 · Ted Power 0 · Eric Plunk 0 · Kevin Wickander 0 · Mike Christopher 0 · Brad Arnsberg 0 · Eric Bell 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.

1992 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Charles Nagy 25 pre-arb 337.0 0.4 +5.1
Kenny Lofton 25 pre-arb 1485.8 0.1 +4.4
Carlos Baerga 23 pre-arb 1615.5 0.5 +3.8
Albert Belle 25 arb 1532.0 0.2 +1.4
Paul Sorrento 26 arb 1401.8 0.1 +1.2
Sandy Alomar Jr. 26 arb 891.3 0.5 +0.5
Mark Whiten 25 pre-arb 1481.1 0.3 +0.6
Brook Jacoby 32 FA-elig 1201.0 0.6 +0.2
Jose Mesa↔ BAL 26 arb 151.0 0.1 +0.7
Mark Lewis 22 pre-arb 1220.8 0.1 +0.5
Derek Lilliquist 26 arb 710.8 0.2 +0.5
Scott Scudder 24 arb 230.8 0.2 +0.5
Glenallen Hill 27 arb 1020.8 0.3 +0.3
Jack Armstrong 27 arb 350.7 0.3 +0.2
Reggie Jefferson 23 pre-arb 240.6 0.1 +0.3
Thomas Howard↔ SDP 27 pre-arb 1170.5 0.2 +0.2
Ted Power 37 FA-elig 640.5 0.3 +0.1
Felix Fermin 28 arb 790.4 0.9 -0.6
Rod Nichols 27 arb 300.4 0.2 +0.1
Kevin Wickander 27 – 440.3 – –
Eric Plunk 28 FA-elig 580.3 0.4 -0.1
Steve Olin 26 arb 720.3 0.3 -0.1
Jesse Levis 24 – 280.2 – –
Eric Bell 28 FA-elig 70.0 0.2 -0.2
Alan Embree 22 pre-arb 4-0.0 0.1 -0.1
Dennis Cook 29 arb 32-0.0 0.4 -0.4
Mike Christopher 28 – 10-0.1 – –
José Hernández 22 – 3-0.1 – –
Dave Mlicki 24 – 4-0.1 – –
Dave Otto 27 arb 18-0.1 0.3 -0.4
Wayne Kirby 28 pre-arb 21-0.1 0.1 -0.2
Dave Rohde 28 pre-arb 5-0.1 0.1 -0.2
Jeff Shaw 25 pre-arb 2-0.2 0.1 -0.3
Carlos Martinez 26 – 69-0.2 – –
Junior Ortiz 32 FA-elig 86-0.2 0.3 -0.4
Jim Thome 21 pre-arb 40-0.3 0.1 -0.3
Jeff Mutis 25 pre-arb 3-0.3 0.1 -0.4
Craig Worthington 27 – 9-0.4 – –
Tony Perezchica 26 arb 18-0.4 0.1 -0.5
Denis Boucher 24 pre-arb 8-0.5 0.1 -0.5
Alex Cole↔ PIT 26 pre-arb 41-0.9 0.1 -0.7
Brad Arnsberg 28 FA-elig 8-1.0 0.1 -0.9

Key additions (new vs 1991)

PlayerfWAR
Kenny Lofton5.8
Paul Sorrento1.8
Jose Mesa1.0
Derek Lilliquist0.8
Scott Scudder0.8
Jack Armstrong0.7

Key subtractions (gone from 1991)

Player1991 fWAR
Greg Swindell5.9
Tom Candiotti3.0
Eric King2.6
Beau Allred0.8
Doug Jones0.8
Mike Huff0.7

Current & Historical Payroll

1992 payroll
$8.7M

What the front office was committed to as of 1992, 1992–1998. 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 (6)

PlayerAgeSvc1992199319941995199619971998
Brook Jacoby3211.000$550kFREE AGENT
Eric Plunk286.000$358k$725k$625k$725k$750k$1.9M$1.1M
Ted Power3711.000$300k$250kFREE AGENT
Junior Ortiz3210.000$300k$395kFREE AGENT
Eric Bell287.000$158kFREE AGENT
Brad Arnsberg286.000$150kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (17)

PlayerAgeSvc1992199319941995199619971998
Felix Fermin285.000$950kFREE AGENT
Sandy Alomar Jr.264.000$525kARB 3FREE AGENT
Dennis Cook294.000$375kARB 3FREE AGENT
Glenallen Hill273.000$325kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Otto275.000$300kFREE AGENT
Steve Olin263.000$300kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jack Armstrong274.000$282kARB 3FREE AGENT
Rod Nichols274.000$250kARB 3FREE AGENT
Derek Lilliquist263.000$190kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Albert Belle253.000$175kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Scott Scudder243.000$170kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Paul Sorrento263.000$138kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tony Perezchica264.000$128kARB 3FREE AGENT
Jose Mesa265.000$72kFREE AGENT
Carlos Martinez264.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kevin Wickander273.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Craig Worthington274.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (19)

PlayerAgeSvc1992199319941995199619971998
Carlos Baerga232.000$525kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Charles Nagy252.000$392kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Whiten252.000$333kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Thomas Howard272.000$152kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Lewis221.000$145kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Shaw252.000$140kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Rohde282.000$125kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Reggie Jefferson231.000$120kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Wayne Kirby281.000$119kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Denis Boucher241.000$116kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kenny Lofton251.000$110kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Mutis251.000$110kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jim Thome211.000$110kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Alan Embree220.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Alex Cole262.000$63kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Christopher281.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
José Hernández221.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jesse Levis240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Mlicki240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Guardians 1992; 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.