Rosternomics
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Guardians CLE

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GM: John Hart (since 1992)

1997 roster — every player, value & surplus

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-0.1
WAB — wins above budget
+4.7
TAB — roster Talent above budget
86–75 (0.534)
record · won pennant
-13M
surplus $M (value/$)
43.1
roster fWAR
$56.5M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Jim Thome 26 FA-elig 147 5.1 2.6 +2.6
Manny Ramirez 25 arb 150 4.6 2.1 +2.6
David Justice 31 FA-elig 139 4.2 6.3 -2.0
Sandy Alomar Jr. 31 FA-elig 125 4.2 2.6 +1.7
Matt Williams 31 FA-elig 151 4.1 7.2 -2.9
Charles Nagy 30 FA-elig 34 2.9 3.4 -0.5
Omar Vizquel 30 FA-elig 153 2.7 3.0 -0.3
Tony Fernandez 35 FA-elig 120 2.1 1.6 +0.6
Brian Giles 26 pre-arb 130 2.1 0.2 +1.9
Marquis Grissom 30 FA-elig 144 2.0 4.8 -2.9
Mike Jackson 32 FA-elig 71 1.7 2.0 -0.3
Chad Ogea 26 arb 21 1.6 0.5 +1.1
Orel Hershiser 38 FA-elig 32 1.4 3.1 -1.6
Jaret Wright 21 pre-arb 16 1.2 0.1 +1.1
Jose Mesa 31 FA-elig 66 1.0 1.9 -0.9
Paul Assenmacher 36 FA-elig 75 1.0 0.9 +0.1
Bartolo Colon 24 pre-arb 19 0.7 0.1 +0.5
Pat Borders 34 FA-elig 55 0.6 0.4 +0.2
Jack McDowell 31 FA-elig 8 0.5 4.8 -4.3
Brian Anderson 25 – 8 0.4 – –
Chad Curtis↔ NYY 28 arb 22 0.3 0.2 +0.1
Jeff Branson↔ CIN 30 arb 29 0.2 0.2 +0.0
Jeff Juden↔ WSN 26 FA-elig 8 0.2 0.0 +0.2
Terry Clark↔ TEX 36 FA-elig 4 0.2 0.1 +0.1
Casey Candaele 36 – 14 0.1 – –
Julio Franco↔ MIL 38 FA-elig 78 0.1 2.1 -2.0
Paul Shuey 26 arb 40 0.1 0.2 -0.1
Bip Roberts↔ KCR 33 FA-elig 23 0.1 0.4 -0.3
David Weathers↔ NYY 27 FA-elig 9 0.1 0.2 -0.1
Jeff Manto 32 FA-elig 16 0.0 0.2 -0.2
Enrique Wilson 23 – 5 0.0 – –
Trenidad Hubbard 31 – 7 0.0 – –
Albie Lopez 25 arb 37 0.0 0.2 -0.2
John Smiley↔ CIN 32 FA-elig 6 -0.0 0.9 -0.9
Einar Díaz 24 – 5 -0.1 – –
Sean Casey 22 – 6 -0.1 – –
Richie Sexson 22 – 5 -0.1 – –
Bruce Aven 25 – 13 -0.1 – –
Damian Jackson↔ CIN 23 – 8 -0.1 – –
Jason Jacome↔ KCR 26 arb 21 -0.1 0.2 -0.3
Alvin Morman 28 pre-arb 34 -0.2 0.2 -0.4
Danny Graves↔ CIN 23 pre-arb 5 -0.3 0.1 -0.3
Kevin Seitzer 35 FA-elig 64 -0.3 1.2 -1.5
Eric Plunk 33 FA-elig 55 -0.3 1.9 -2.2
Kevin Mitchell 35 FA-elig 20 -0.5 0.5 -1.0
Steve Kline↔ WSN 24 pre-arb 20 -0.5 0.1 -0.5

46 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 37 of them (80%). 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.