Rosternomics
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Tigers DET

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GM: Jerry Walker (since 1992)

1994 roster — every player, value & surplus

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-7.4
WAB — wins above budget
-11.8
TAB — roster Talent above budget
53–62 (0.461)
record
-18M
surplus $M (value/$)
18.0
roster fWAR
$40.7M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Tony Phillips 35 FA-elig 114 4.4 2.4 +2.7
David Wells 31 FA-elig 16 2.3 2.5 +0.2
Lou Whitaker 37 FA-elig 92 2.1 2.8 -0.4
Cecil Fielder 30 FA-elig 109 2.0 4.2 -1.9
Travis Fryman 25 arb 114 1.9 2.4 -0.2
Mickey Tettleton 33 FA-elig 107 1.4 1.9 -0.3
Kirk Gibson 37 FA-elig 98 1.2 1.5 -0.1
Tim Belcher 32 FA-elig 25 1.2 3.4 -2.1
Junior Felix 26 arb 86 1.1 0.3 +0.9
Juan Samuel 33 FA-elig 59 1.1 0.4 +0.8
John Doherty 27 pre-arb 18 0.9 0.3 +0.7
Bill Gullickson 35 FA-elig 21 0.7 2.4 -1.6
Greg Gohr 26 pre-arb 8 0.3 0.1 +0.3
Storm Davis 32 FA-elig 35 0.3 0.8 -0.5
Sean Bergman 24 pre-arb 3 0.3 0.1 +0.2
Buddy Groom 28 pre-arb 40 0.2 0.1 +0.1
Greg Cadaret↔ TOR 32 FA-elig 17 0.2 0.2 -0.0
Gene Harris↔ SDP 29 arb 11 0.2 0.3 -0.1
Chad Kreuter 29 FA-elig 65 0.2 1.0 -0.8
Danny Bautista 22 pre-arb 31 0.1 0.1 -0.0
Mike Henneman 32 FA-elig 30 0.0 1.3 -1.3
Jose Lima 21 pre-arb 3 -0.0 0.1 -0.2
Skeeter Barnes 37 – 24 -0.1 – –
Milt Cuyler 25 arb 48 -0.1 0.3 -0.3
Mike Gardiner 28 arb 38 -0.1 0.1 -0.2
Joe Boever 33 FA-elig 46 -0.2 0.8 -1.0
Alan Trammell 36 FA-elig 76 -0.2 3.0 -3.2
Bill Krueger↔ SDP 36 FA-elig 16 -0.2 0.9 -1.1
Scott Livingstone↔ SDP 28 arb 15 -0.2 0.1 -0.3
Phil Stidham 25 – 5 -0.2 – –
Mike Moore 34 FA-elig 25 -0.3 3.3 -3.7
Riccardo Ingram 27 – 12 -0.4 – –
Eric Davis 32 FA-elig 37 -0.4 3.0 -3.5
Chris Gomez 23 pre-arb 84 -0.5 0.1 -0.7
John Flaherty 26 pre-arb 34 -0.6 0.1 -0.8
Kurt Knudsen 27 – 4 -0.6 – –

36 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 32 of them (89%). 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.