RRosternomics
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Tigers DET

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GM: Bill Lajoie

Overview

CONTEND → steady
expensive & winning · year 2 in this regime · payroll 1.09× league · TAB +7.8
+7.8TAB — talent above budget5th/26
+4.0WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)9th/26
10.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars4th/26
-2.1dead WAR — sub-replacement drag3rd/26
22%dead money %5th/26
0.537win %6th/26
43.1roster fWAR5th/26
+1surplus $M (value vs cost)7th/26
$12Mpayroll $M9th/26

Roster

CFChet Lemon 124GPat Sheridan 51GDave Collins 10G
LFLarry Herndon 83GDave Collins 76GBruce Fields 14G
RFKirk Gibson 114GPat Sheridan 32GDave Collins 11G
SSAlan Trammell 149GTom Brookens 14GDoug Baker 10G
2BLou Whitaker 141GTom Brookens 31GDoug Baker 2G
3BDarnell Coles 133GTom Brookens 35GDarrell Evans 2G
1BDarrell Evans 105GDave Bergman 41GDave Engle 23G
STARTERSJack Morris 4.0WARFrank Tanana 2.3WAREric King 1.5WARRandy O'Neal 0.9WARWalt Terrell 0.6WAR
CMike Heath 92GLance Parrish 85GDwight Lowry 55G
DHJohnny Grubb 46GDarrell Evans 40GDave Collins 23G
BULLPEN★ Willie Hernandez 24svBill Campbell 0hChuck Cary 0hBill Scherrer 0hBryan Kelly 0hJohn Pacella 0hJack Lazorko 0h
CMike Heath 92 · Lance Parrish 85 · Dwight Lowry 55
1BDarrell Evans 105 · Dave Bergman 41 · Dave Engle 23
2BLou Whitaker 141 · Tom Brookens 31 · Doug Baker 2
3BDarnell Coles 133 · Tom Brookens 35 · Darrell Evans 2
SSAlan Trammell 149 · Tom Brookens 14 · Doug Baker 10
LFLarry Herndon 83 · Dave Collins 76 · Bruce Fields 14
CFChet Lemon 124 · Pat Sheridan 51 · Dave Collins 10
RFKirk Gibson 114 · Pat Sheridan 32 · Dave Collins 11
DHJohnny Grubb 46 · Darrell Evans 40 · Dave Collins 23
SPJack Morris 4.0 · Frank Tanana 2.3 · Eric King 1.5 · Randy O'Neal 0.9 · Walt Terrell 0.6
BP★ Willie Hernandez 24 · Bill Campbell 0 · Chuck Cary 0 · Bill Scherrer 0 · Bryan Kelly 0 · John Pacella 0 · Jack Lazorko 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.

1986 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Alan Trammell 28 FA-elig 1515.7 0.6 +1.1
Lou Whitaker 29 FA-elig 1444.5 0.7 +0.7
Jack Morris 31 FA-elig 354.0 0.9 +0.3
Darrell Evans 39 FA-elig 1513.8 0.8 +0.3
Kirk Gibson 29 FA-elig 1193.6 1.2 -0.1
Lance Parrish 30 FA-elig 913.4 0.8 +0.1
Chet Lemon 31 FA-elig 1263.0 0.7 +0.2
Darnell Coles 24 arb 1422.6 0.1 +0.7
Johnny Grubb 37 FA-elig 812.6 0.2 +0.5
Frank Tanana 32 FA-elig 322.3 0.7 +0.0
Eric King 22 pre-arb 331.5 0.1 +0.4
Dave Collins 33 FA-elig 1241.4 0.7 -0.3
Dwight Lowry 28 pre-arb 561.4 0.1 +0.4
Larry Herndon 32 FA-elig 1061.0 0.7 -0.4
Randy O'Neal 25 pre-arb 370.9 0.1 +0.2
Willie Hernandez 31 FA-elig 640.8 1.0 -0.7
Walt Terrell 28 arb 340.6 0.3 -0.1
Dan Petry 27 FA-elig 200.4 0.9 -0.7
Bill Campbell 37 FA-elig 340.4 0.2 -0.1
Mike Heath↔ STL 31 FA-elig 300.3 0.2 -0.1
Pat Sheridan 28 arb 980.2 0.1 -0.1
Matt Nokes 22 – 70.2 – –
Mike Laga↔ STL 26 arb 150.1 0.0 -0.0
Harry Spilman↔ SFG 31 FA-elig 240.1 0.0 +0.0
Chuck Cary 26 – 220.1 – –
Tom Brookens 32 FA-elig 980.1 0.3 -0.3
Jack Lazorko 30 – 30.0 – –
Bryan Kelly 27 – 60.0 – –
Dave Engle 29 – 350.0 – –
Mark Thurmond↔ SDP 29 arb 250.0 0.2 -0.2
Dave Bergman 33 FA-elig 650.0 0.3 -0.3
Bruce Fields 25 – 16-0.1 – –
Jim Slaton↔ ANA 36 FA-elig 22-0.1 0.2 -0.3
Dave LaPoint↔ SDP 26 FA-elig 16-0.1 0.2 -0.3
John Pacella 29 – 5-0.2 – –
Tim Tolman 30 – 16-0.2 – –
Scotti Madison 26 – 2-0.3 – –
Doug Baker 25 – 13-0.3 – –
Brian Harper 26 – 19-0.4 – –
Bill Scherrer 28 – 13-0.4 – –

Key additions (new vs 1985)

PlayerfWAR
Darnell Coles2.6
Eric King1.5
Dave Collins1.4
Dwight Lowry1.4
Bill Campbell0.4
Mike Heath0.3

Key subtractions (gone from 1985)

Player1985 fWAR
Juan Berenguer0.9
Mickey Mahler0.6
Doug Bair0.4
Milt Wilcox0.2
Barbaro Garbey0.2
Bob Stoddard-0.1

Current & Historical Payroll

1986 payroll
$12.2M

What the front office was committed to as of 1986, 1986–1992. 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 (21)

PlayerAgeSvc1986198719881989199019911992
Kirk Gibson297.000$1.2M$1.3MFREE AGENT
Willie Hernandez319.000$960k$1.1M$1.2M$1.3MFREE AGENT
Jack Morris319.000$875k$1.9M$2.0M$2.0M$2.1MFREE AGENT
Dan Petry277.000$875k$975kFREE AGENT$475k$276k
Lance Parrish309.000$850kFREE AGENT
Darrell Evans3917.000$793k$525k$860kFREE AGENT
Dave Collins3311.000$700kFREE AGENT
Chet Lemon3111.000$699k$699k$829k$829k$829kFREE AGENT
Larry Herndon3212.000$688k$225k$375kFREE AGENT
Lou Whitaker299.000$670k$420k$975k$1.0M$1.8M$2.0M$2.2M
Frank Tanana3213.000$662k$662k$1.1M$925k$1.1M$1.9M$1.7M
Alan Trammell289.000$567k$617k$1.0M$1.1M$1.8M$2.2M$2.4M
Tom Brookens327.000$325k$360k$350kFREE AGENT
Dave Bergman3311.000$317k$332k$360k$438k$525k$575k$375k
Johnny Grubb3714.000$250k$365kFREE AGENT
Jim Slaton3615.000$244kFREE AGENT
Dave LaPoint266.000$220kFREE AGENT
Bill Campbell3713.000$200kFREE AGENT
Mike Heath318.000$168k$650k$400k$425k$600kFREE AGENT
Harry Spilman318.000$18kFREE AGENT
Brian Harper267.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (7)

PlayerAgeSvc1986198719881989199019911992
Walt Terrell284.000$260kARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Thurmond293.000$157kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Pat Sheridan285.000$150kFREE AGENT
Darnell Coles243.000$75kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Laga264.000$33kARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Engle295.000—FREE AGENT
Bill Scherrer284.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (12)

PlayerAgeSvc1986198719881989199019911992
Randy O'Neal252.000$80kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dwight Lowry282.000$62kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Eric King220.000$60kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Doug Baker252.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chuck Cary261.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bruce Fields250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bryan Kelly27–—
Jack Lazorko302.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Scotti Madison261.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Matt Nokes221.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Pacella29–—
Tim Tolman30–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Tigers 1986; 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.