Rosternomics
𝕏

Tigers DET

Switch team:

GM: Bill Lajoie (since 1984)

1990 roster — every player, value & surplus

‹ Prev Next ›
-4.4
WAB — wins above budget
-6.7
TAB — roster Talent above budget
79–83 (0.488)
record
-6M
surplus $M (value/$)
28.8
roster fWAR
$19.0M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Cecil Fielder 26 arb 159 6.5 1.2 +1.6
Alan Trammell 32 FA-elig 146 6.2 1.8 +0.9
Tony Phillips 31 FA-elig 152 4.4 0.9 +1.1
Lou Whitaker 33 FA-elig 132 3.5 1.8 -0.2
Jack Morris 35 FA-elig 36 2.9 2.1 -0.8
Chet Lemon 35 FA-elig 104 2.1 0.8 +0.1
Travis Fryman 21 pre-arb 66 2.0 0.1 +0.8
Lloyd Moseby 30 FA-elig 122 1.3 1.4 -0.8
Mike Henneman 28 arb 69 1.2 0.3 +0.2
Jerry Don Gleaton 32 – 57 1.1 – –
Ed Nunez 27 FA-elig 42 1.1 0.4 +0.1
Frank Tanana 36 FA-elig 34 0.8 1.1 -0.7
Dan Petry 31 FA-elig 32 0.8 0.5 -0.1
Mark Salas 29 FA-elig 74 0.6 0.2 +0.0
Mike Heath 35 FA-elig 122 0.6 0.6 -0.4
Walt Terrell↔ PIT 32 FA-elig 13 0.5 0.4 -0.1
Dave Bergman 37 FA-elig 100 0.4 0.5 -0.4
Steve Searcy 26 pre-arb 16 0.3 0.1 +0.0
Matt Nokes↔ NYY 26 arb 44 0.2 0.2 -0.1
Lance McCullers Sr.↔ NYY 26 arb 9 0.2 0.3 -0.2
Brian Dubois 23 pre-arb 12 0.2 0.1 -0.0
Milt Cuyler 21 pre-arb 19 0.2 0.1 -0.0
Scott Aldred 22 pre-arb 4 0.2 0.1 -0.0
Mike Schwabe 25 pre-arb 1 0.1 0.1 -0.1
Jim Lindeman 28 – 12 -0.0 – –
Matt Kinzer 27 – 1 -0.0 – –
Steve Wapnick 24 pre-arb 4 -0.1 0.1 -0.1
Johnny Paredes↔ WSN 27 pre-arb 6 -0.1 0.1 -0.1
Paul Gibson 30 pre-arb 61 -0.2 0.1 -0.2
Randy Nosek 23 pre-arb 3 -0.2 0.1 -0.2
Scott Lusader 25 arb 45 -0.2 0.1 -0.2
Kevin Ritz 25 pre-arb 4 -0.2 0.1 -0.2
Rich Rowland 26 – 7 -0.3 – –
Ed Romero 32 FA-elig 32 -0.3 0.3 -0.5
Clay Parker↔ NYY 27 arb 24 -0.4 0.1 -0.3
John Shelby↔ LAD 32 FA-elig 78 -0.5 0.4 -0.6
Gary Ward 36 FA-elig 106 -0.6 0.5 -0.8
Tracy Jones↔ SEA 29 arb 50 -0.7 0.2 -0.6
Jeff Robinson 28 arb 27 -0.8 0.3 -0.7
Darnell Coles↔ SEA 28 FA-elig 52 -0.9 0.4 -0.8
Kenny Williams↔ TOR 26 arb 57 -0.9 0.1 -0.5
Larry Sheets 30 FA-elig 131 -0.9 0.7 -1.1
Urbano Lugo 27 – 13 -1.0 – –

43 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 38 of them (88%). 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.