RRosternomics
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Rockies COL

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GM: Bob Gebhard

Overview

REBUILD ↘ cooling
cheap & losing · year 2 in this regime · payroll 0.74× league · TAB -13.3
-13.3TAB — talent above budget28th/28
-3.4WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)15th/28
1.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars26th/28
-3.5dead WAR — sub-replacement drag11th/28
39%dead money %23rd/28
0.453win %22nd/28
12.5roster fWAR28th/28
-9surplus $M (value vs cost)17th/28
$24Mpayroll $M23rd/28

Roster

CFMike Kingery 77GEllis Burks 39GChris Jones 13G
LFHoward Johnson 62GEric Young Sr. 60GMike Kingery 20G
RFDante Bichette 116GMike Kingery 2GJohn Vander Wal 2G
SSWalt Weiss 110GVinny Castilla 18GNelson Liriano 3G
2BNelson Liriano 79GRoberto Mejia 34GVinny Castilla 14G
3BCharlie Hayes 110GVinny Castilla 9GNelson Liriano 2G
1BAndres Galarraga 103GJohn Vander Wal 14GVinny Castilla 2G
STARTERSMarvin Freeman 2.1WARDavid Nied 0.8WARKevin Ritz 0.8WARLance Painter 0.6WARMike Harkey 0.5WAR
CJoe Girardi 93GDanny Sheaffer 30GJayhawk Owens 6G
BULLPEN★ Bruce Ruffin 16svSteve Reed 0hMike Munoz 0hWillie Blair 0hDarren Holmes 0hMarcus Moore 0hCurt Leskanic 0hJim Czajkowski 0h
CJoe Girardi 93 · Danny Sheaffer 30 · Jayhawk Owens 6
1BAndres Galarraga 103 · John Vander Wal 14 · Vinny Castilla 2
2BNelson Liriano 79 · Roberto Mejia 34 · Vinny Castilla 14
3BCharlie Hayes 110 · Vinny Castilla 9 · Nelson Liriano 2
SSWalt Weiss 110 · Vinny Castilla 18 · Nelson Liriano 3
LFHoward Johnson 62 · Eric Young Sr. 60 · Mike Kingery 20
CFMike Kingery 77 · Ellis Burks 39 · Chris Jones 13
RFDante Bichette 116 · Mike Kingery 2 · John Vander Wal 2
SPMarvin Freeman 2.1 · David Nied 0.8 · Kevin Ritz 0.8 · Lance Painter 0.6 · Mike Harkey 0.5
BP★ Bruce Ruffin 16 · Steve Reed 0 · Mike Munoz 0 · Willie Blair 0 · Darren Holmes 0 · Marcus Moore 0 · Curt Leskanic 0 · Jim Czajkowski 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.

1994 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Marvin Freeman 31 FA-elig 192.1 0.5 +1.9
Andres Galarraga 33 FA-elig 1031.7 3.9 -1.8
Dante Bichette 30 FA-elig 1161.5 2.9 -1.1
Mike Kingery 33 FA-elig 1051.5 0.2 +1.5
Ellis Burks 29 FA-elig 421.2 2.3 -0.9
Charlie Hayes 29 FA-elig 1130.9 3.1 -2.0
David Nied 25 pre-arb 220.8 0.2 +0.8
Eric Young Sr. 27 pre-arb 900.8 0.2 +0.7
Kevin Ritz 29 arb 150.8 0.2 +0.7
Bruce Ruffin 30 FA-elig 560.7 0.8 +0.0
John Vander Wal 28 arb 910.6 0.2 +0.5
Lance Painter 26 pre-arb 150.6 0.1 +0.5
Mike Harkey 27 FA-elig 240.5 0.6 -0.1
Nelson Liriano 30 FA-elig 870.5 0.3 +0.3
Armando Reynoso 28 arb 90.3 0.2 +0.2
Curt Leskanic 26 pre-arb 80.3 0.1 +0.2
Greg Harris 30 FA-elig 290.3 1.9 -1.6
Kent Bottenfield↔ SFG 25 pre-arb 150.2 0.2 +0.1
Joe Girardi 29 arb 930.2 1.0 -0.8
Jayhawk Owens 25 pre-arb 60.2 0.1 +0.1
Willie Blair 28 arb 470.1 0.3 -0.2
Roberto Mejia 22 pre-arb 380.1 0.1 -0.1
Mike Munoz 28 arb 570.0 0.2 -0.1
Trenidad Hubbard 30 pre-arb 180.0 0.1 -0.1
Ty Van Burkleo 30 – 2-0.0 – –
Vinny Castilla 26 arb 52-0.1 0.2 -0.3
Marcus Moore 23 pre-arb 29-0.1 0.1 -0.2
Bruce Walton 31 – 4-0.1 – –
Steve Reed 29 pre-arb 61-0.2 0.2 -0.4
Jim Czajkowski 30 – 5-0.2 – –
Howard Johnson 33 FA-elig 93-0.2 1.7 -2.0
Mark Thompson 23 pre-arb 2-0.3 0.1 -0.4
Chris Jones 28 arb 21-0.3 0.2 -0.6
Darren Holmes 28 arb 29-0.4 0.7 -1.2
Danny Sheaffer 32 FA-elig 44-0.6 0.2 -0.8
Walt Weiss 30 FA-elig 110-0.9 0.6 -1.6

Key additions (new vs 1993)

PlayerfWAR
Marvin Freeman2.1
Mike Kingery1.5
Ellis Burks1.2
Kevin Ritz0.8
John Vander Wal0.6
Mike Harkey0.5

Key subtractions (gone from 1993)

Player1993 fWAR
Jerald Clark1.3
Freddie Benavides0.5
Jeff Parrett0.4
Andy Ashby0.3
Bryn Smith0.2
Gary Wayne0.1

Current & Historical Payroll

1994 payroll
$23.8M

What the front office was committed to as of 1994, 1994–2000. 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 (13)

PlayerAgeSvc1994199519961997199819992000
Andres Galarraga339.000$3.9M$4.0M$4.5M$5.0MFREE AGENT
Charlie Hayes296.000$3.1MFREE AGENT
Dante Bichette306.000$2.9M$3.4M$3.6M$5.2M$5.3M$7.2MFREE AGENT
Ellis Burks297.000$2.3M$3.3M$4.0M$4.0M$3.5MFREE AGENT
Greg Harris306.000$1.9MFREE AGENT
Howard Johnson3312.000$1.7MFREE AGENT
Bruce Ruffin308.000$800k$1.0M$1.0MFREE AGENT
Mike Harkey276.000$625kFREE AGENT
Walt Weiss307.000$600k$2.3M$1.6M$2.7MFREE AGENT
Marvin Freeman318.000$512k$1.9M$2.4MFREE AGENT
Nelson Liriano307.000$275kFREE AGENT
Mike Kingery338.000$250k$700kFREE AGENT
Danny Sheaffer327.000$185kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (10)

PlayerAgeSvc1994199519961997199819992000
Joe Girardi295.000$1.0MFREE AGENT
Darren Holmes284.000$740kARB 3FREE AGENT
Willie Blair284.000$325kARB 3FREE AGENT
Armando Reynoso283.000$224kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Vander Wal283.000$195kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Munoz285.000$195kFREE AGENT
Vinny Castilla263.000$192kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris Jones283.000$175kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kevin Ritz295.000$165kFREE AGENT
Bruce Walton313.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (13)

PlayerAgeSvc1994199519961997199819992000
Eric Young Sr.272.000$205kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
David Nied252.000$190kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Reed292.000$185kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kent Bottenfield252.000$176kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Roberto Mejia221.000$130kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Marcus Moore231.000$123kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Curt Leskanic261.000$122kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jayhawk Owens251.000$122kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Lance Painter261.000$120kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Trenidad Hubbard300.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Thompson230.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jim Czajkowski30–—
Ty Van Burkleo301.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Rockies 1994; 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.