Rosternomics
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Tigers DET

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GM: Bill Lajoie (since 1984)

1989 roster — every player, value & surplus

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-24.7
WAB — wins above budget
-20.8
TAB — roster Talent above budget
59–103 (0.364)
record
-10M
surplus $M (value/$)
15.0
roster fWAR
$15.5M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Lou Whitaker 32 FA-elig 148 5.1 1.0 +0.8
Frank Tanana 35 FA-elig 33 3.1 0.9 +0.2
Alan Trammell 31 FA-elig 121 3.0 1.1 -0.0
Mike Heath 34 FA-elig 122 2.6 0.4 +0.5
Gary Pettis 31 FA-elig 119 2.4 0.4 +0.4
Jack Morris 34 FA-elig 24 1.4 2.0 -1.5
Kevin Ritz 24 pre-arb 12 1.3 0.1 +0.4
Doyle Alexander 38 FA-elig 33 0.9 1.0 -0.7
Paul Gibson 29 pre-arb 45 0.8 0.1 +0.2
Keith Moreland↔ BAL 35 FA-elig 90 0.7 1.1 -0.8
Fred Lynn 37 FA-elig 117 0.6 1.6 -1.4
Mike Henneman 27 pre-arb 60 0.5 0.2 +0.0
Gary Ward↔ NYY 35 FA-elig 105 0.4 0.1 +0.1
Dave Bergman 36 FA-elig 137 0.4 0.4 -0.3
Matt Nokes 25 arb 87 0.4 0.2 -0.1
Brian Dubois 22 pre-arb 6 0.2 0.1 +0.0
David Palmer 31 FA-elig 5 0.2 0.2 -0.1
Ramon Pena 27 – 8 0.2 – –
Jeff Datz 29 – 7 0.1 – –
Scott Lusader 24 – 40 0.1 – –
Randy Bockus 28 – 2 0.1 – –
Mike Trujillo 29 – 8 0.0 – –
Rob Richie 23 – 19 0.0 – –
Willie Hernandez 34 FA-elig 32 -0.0 1.3 -1.3
Shawn Holman 24 – 5 -0.0 – –
Al Pedrique 28 – 31 -0.1 – –
Pat Sheridan↔ SFG 31 FA-elig 50 -0.1 0.2 -0.2
Rick Schu 27 arb 98 -0.1 0.2 -0.2
Steve Searcy 25 pre-arb 8 -0.1 0.1 -0.1
Tracy Jones↔ SFG 28 arb 46 -0.2 0.2 -0.2
Jeff Robinson 27 pre-arb 16 -0.2 0.2 -0.2
Chris Brown 27 arb 17 -0.2 0.3 -0.4
Billy Bean↔ LAD 25 pre-arb 9 -0.3 0.0 -0.1
Mike Schwabe 24 – 13 -0.3 – –
Matt Sinatro 29 – 13 -0.3 – –
Randy Nosek 22 – 2 -0.3 – –
Dave Beard 29 FA-elig 2 -0.4 0.1 -0.2
Ed Nunez 26 – 27 -0.4 – –
Brad Havens↔ CLE 29 FA-elig 13 -0.4 0.1 -0.3
Kenny Williams 25 arb 94 -0.5 0.1 -0.3
Frank Williams 31 arb 42 -0.6 0.4 -0.6
Doug Strange 25 pre-arb 64 -0.6 0.1 -0.3
Torey Lovullo 23 – 29 -0.6 – –
Chet Lemon 34 FA-elig 127 -1.0 0.8 -1.2
Charles Hudson 30 FA-elig 18 -1.1 0.5 -0.9
Mike Brumley 27 pre-arb 92 -1.7 0.1 -0.7

46 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 33 of them (72%). 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 DET
Max Scherzer200922.2
Carlos Guillén200418.3
Ian Kinsler201316.3
Jeremy Bonderman200215.8
Damion Easley199615.4
Austin Jackson200914.8
Mickey Tettleton199114.4
Chet Lemon198114.2
Ones that got away
PlayerYear tradedWAR elsewhere
John Smoltz198781.6
Luis Gonzalez199833.8
Chris Hoiles198824.8
Howard Johnson198422.8
Justin Verlander201719.7
Rick Porcello201413.1
Robbie Ray201411.8
Matt Joyce200810.7
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.