Rosternomics
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Guardians CLE

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GM: John Hart (since 1992)

1998 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+3.1
WAB — wins above budget
+4.1
TAB — roster Talent above budget
89–73 (0.549)
record · made playoffs
-10M
surplus $M (value/$)
42.1
roster fWAR
$56.4M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Kenny Lofton 31 FA-elig 154 5.6 7.5 -1.5
Manny Ramirez 26 arb 150 5.4 2.9 +3.0
Bartolo Colon 25 pre-arb 31 4.4 0.2 +4.6
Brian Giles 27 arb 112 4.0 0.3 +4.0
Omar Vizquel 31 FA-elig 151 3.4 3.0 +0.7
Jim Thome 27 FA-elig 123 3.3 4.8 -1.2
Travis Fryman 29 FA-elig 146 2.6 5.4 -2.5
Jaret Wright 22 pre-arb 32 2.3 0.2 +2.2
Dave Burba 31 FA-elig 32 1.9 2.8 -0.7
Mike Jackson 33 FA-elig 69 1.9 2.0 +0.0
Mark Whiten 31 FA-elig 88 1.8 0.2 +1.7
Dwight Gooden 33 FA-elig 23 1.7 2.8 -0.9
David Justice 32 FA-elig 146 1.7 6.5 -4.7
Charles Nagy 31 FA-elig 33 1.2 3.4 -2.1
Richie Sexson 23 pre-arb 49 1.0 0.2 +0.9
Doug Jones↔ MIL 41 FA-elig 23 0.7 0.8 -0.0
Paul Assenmacher 37 FA-elig 69 0.6 1.3 -0.6
Paul Shuey 27 arb 43 0.5 0.6 -0.0
David Bell↔ SEA 25 arb 107 0.5 0.2 +0.4
Enrique Wilson 24 pre-arb 32 0.5 0.2 +0.3
Chad Ogea 27 arb 19 0.4 1.0 -0.6
Alvin Morman↔ SFG 29 pre-arb 31 0.3 0.2 +0.1
Jim Poole↔ SFG 32 FA-elig 12 0.2 0.3 -0.1
Eric Plunk↔ MIL 34 FA-elig 37 0.2 1.1 -0.9
Steve Reed↔ SFG 33 FA-elig 20 0.1 0.3 -0.1
Einar Díaz 25 pre-arb 17 0.1 0.2 -0.0
Steve Karsay 26 arb 11 0.1 0.4 -0.3
Tim Worrell↔ DET 30 arb 3 0.1 0.1 -0.0
Sandy Alomar Jr. 32 FA-elig 117 0.0 2.7 -2.7
Torey Lovullo 32 – 6 -0.0 – –
Jacob Cruz↔ SFG 25 pre-arb 1 -0.0 0.0 -0.1
Jose Mesa↔ SFG 32 FA-elig 44 -0.0 1.0 -1.0
Jason Rakers 25 – 1 -0.0 – –
Jolbert Cabrera 25 pre-arb 1 -0.0 0.2 -0.2
Matt Luke↔ LAD 27 pre-arb 2 -0.0 0.0 -0.1
Rick Krivda↔ CIN 28 arb 11 -0.1 0.1 -0.2
Russell Branyan 22 pre-arb 1 -0.1 0.2 -0.3
Alex Ramirez 23 – 3 -0.1 – –
Jason Jacome 27 – 1 -0.2 – –
Geronimo Berroa↔ DET 33 FA-elig 20 -0.3 0.6 -0.9
Jeff Manto↔ DET 33 FA-elig 15 -0.3 0.1 -0.5
Ron Villone 28 arb 25 -0.3 0.2 -0.6
Shawon Dunston↔ SFG 35 FA-elig 62 -0.3 0.6 -1.0
Tom Martin 28 pre-arb 14 -0.4 0.2 -0.6
Joey Cora↔ SEA 33 FA-elig 24 -0.5 0.3 -0.8
Pat Borders 35 FA-elig 54 -0.5 0.5 -1.0
Cecil Fielder↔ ANA 34 FA-elig 14 -0.6 0.3 -1.0
Jeff Branson 31 FA-elig 63 -0.6 0.6 -1.2

48 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 44 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.