Rosternomics
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Guardians CLE

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GM: John Hart (since 1992)

1994 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+9.2
WAB — wins above budget
+15.4
TAB — roster Talent above budget
66–47 (0.584)
record
+8M
surplus $M (value/$)
34.2
roster fWAR
$30.6M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Kenny Lofton 27 arb 112 6.6 0.9 +6.8
Albert Belle 27 arb 106 5.3 2.8 +3.3
Dennis Martinez 40 FA-elig 24 3.6 4.5 -0.4
Charles Nagy 27 arb 23 3.5 1.2 +2.8
Carlos Baerga 25 arb 103 2.2 2.4 +0.2
Jack Morris 39 FA-elig 23 2.0 0.3 +2.0
Sandy Alomar Jr. 28 FA-elig 80 2.0 2.2 +0.1
Jim Thome 23 arb 98 1.8 0.3 +1.8
Jose Mesa 28 FA-elig 51 1.7 0.6 +1.4
Mark Clark 26 arb 20 1.6 0.3 +1.6
Eric Plunk 30 FA-elig 41 1.6 0.6 +1.2
Manny Ramirez 22 pre-arb 91 1.5 0.1 +1.6
Jason Grimsley 26 – 14 1.4 – –
Omar Vizquel 27 arb 69 0.7 2.4 -1.5
Paul Sorrento 28 arb 95 0.6 0.7 +0.0
Tony Peña Sr. 37 FA-elig 40 0.5 0.4 +0.1
Rene Gonzales 33 FA-elig 22 0.4 0.3 +0.1
Albie Lopez 22 pre-arb 4 0.2 0.1 +0.2
Ruben Amaro Jr. 29 arb 26 0.1 0.2 +0.0
Jeff Russell↔ BOS 32 FA-elig 13 0.1 0.9 -0.8
Alvaro Espinoza 32 FA-elig 90 0.1 0.5 -0.4
Chad Ogea 23 pre-arb 4 0.1 0.1 +0.0
Matt Turner 27 pre-arb 9 0.1 0.1 -0.1
Bill Wertz 27 – 1 0.0 – –
Jesse Levis 26 pre-arb 1 0.0 0.1 -0.1
Paul Shuey 23 pre-arb 14 0.0 0.1 -0.1
Candy Maldonado 33 FA-elig 42 0.0 1.6 -1.6
Jerry Dipoto 26 pre-arb 7 0.0 0.1 -0.1
Chris Nabholz↔ BOS 27 arb 6 -0.0 0.4 -0.4
Wayne Kirby 30 arb 78 -0.1 0.2 -0.2
Larry Casian↔ MIN 28 arb 7 -0.1 0.0 -0.1
Julian Tavarez 21 pre-arb 1 -0.1 0.1 -0.2
Russ Swan 30 arb 12 -0.2 0.4 -0.6
Herbert Perry Jr. 24 pre-arb 4 -0.2 0.1 -0.3
Matt Merullo 28 arb 4 -0.3 0.2 -0.5
Derek Lilliquist 28 arb 36 -0.3 1.4 -1.7
Brian Barnes↔ LAD 27 – 6 -0.4 – –
Steve Farr↔ BOS 37 FA-elig 19 -0.4 0.6 -1.1
Eddie Murray 38 FA-elig 108 -0.7 3.0 -3.8
Mark Lewis 24 arb 20 -0.9 0.2 -1.2

40 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 37 of them (92%). 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 CLE
Kenny Lofton199142.5
Corey Kluber201034.6
Grady Sizemore200230.3
Carlos Carrasco200925.5
Travis Hafner200222.3
Carlos Santana200821.6
Michael Brantley200820.0
Shin-Soo Choo200619.2
Ones that got away
PlayerYear tradedWAR elsewhere
Jeff Kent199630.9
Brandon Phillips200630.1
Brian Giles199825.4
Von Hayes198222.3
Yandy Díaz201819.5
Rick Sutcliffe198417.2
Jeromy Burnitz199617.1
Sean Casey199815.9
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.