Rosternomics
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Tigers DET

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GM: Randy Smith (since 1996)

1996 roster — every player, value & surplus

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-23.8
WAB — wins above budget
-26.3
TAB — roster Talent above budget
53–109 (0.327)
record
-16M
surplus $M (value/$)
3.1
roster fWAR
$22.0M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Bobby Higginson 25 pre-arb 130 3.6 0.2 +2.9
Felipe Lira 24 pre-arb 32 2.2 0.2 +1.7
Travis Fryman 27 FA-elig 157 2.1 5.2 -3.4
Omar Olivares 28 FA-elig 25 2.0 0.5 +1.2
Curtis Pride 27 arb 95 1.1 0.1 +0.8
A.J. Sager 31 pre-arb 22 1.1 0.2 +0.7
Mike Myers 27 pre-arb 83 1.1 0.1 +0.8
Cecil Fielder↔ NYY 32 FA-elig 107 1.0 6.2 -5.3
Justin Thompson 23 pre-arb 11 0.8 0.1 +0.6
Phil Nevin 25 pre-arb 38 0.7 0.1 +0.5
Jose Lima 23 pre-arb 39 0.6 0.1 +0.4
Brad Ausmus↔ SDP 27 arb 75 0.6 0.2 +0.3
Chad Curtis↔ LAD 27 arb 104 0.4 1.4 -1.1
Richie Lewis 30 arb 72 0.3 0.2 +0.1
Mark Parent↔ BAL 34 FA-elig 38 0.3 0.3 -0.1
John Cummings↔ LAD 27 arb 21 0.1 0.1 -0.0
John Flaherty↔ SDP 28 arb 47 0.1 0.1 -0.0
Danny Bautista↔ ATL 24 arb 25 0.1 0.1 -0.1
Joey Eischen↔ LAD 26 pre-arb 24 0.0 0.1 -0.0
Damion Easley↔ ANA 26 arb 21 0.0 0.1 -0.1
Scott Aldred↔ MIN 28 FA-elig 11 0.0 0.0 -0.0
Brian Moehler 24 – 2 0.0 – –
Phil Hiatt 27 – 7 -0.0 – –
Trever Miller 23 pre-arb 5 -0.0 0.1 -0.1
Greg Gohr↔ ANA 28 arb 17 -0.0 0.1 -0.1
Bob Scanlan↔ KCR 29 – 8 -0.1 – –
Gregg Olson↔ HOU 29 FA-elig 43 -0.1 0.3 -0.5
C.J. Nitkowski 23 – 11 -0.1 – –
John Farrell 33 – 2 -0.2 – –
Brian Maxcy 25 – 2 -0.2 – –
Kimera Bartee 23 pre-arb 110 -0.3 0.1 -0.3
Jeff McCurry 26 – 2 -0.3 – –
Shannon Penn 26 – 6 -0.3 – –
Randy Veres 30 FA-elig 25 -0.3 0.2 -0.4
Clint Sodowsky 23 pre-arb 7 -0.3 0.1 -0.4
Tom Urbani↔ STL 28 arb 16 -0.3 0.1 -0.4
Brian Williams 27 arb 40 -0.4 0.5 -0.8
Greg Keagle 25 pre-arb 26 -0.4 0.1 -0.4
Tony Clark 24 pre-arb 100 -0.4 0.1 -0.5
Chris Gomez↔ SDP 25 arb 48 -0.4 0.1 -0.5
Fausto Cruz 24 – 14 -0.5 – –
Ruben Sierra↔ NYY 30 FA-elig 46 -0.5 2.0 -2.5
Tim Hyers 24 – 17 -0.6 – –
Duane Singleton 23 – 18 -0.6 – –
Raul Casanova 23 – 25 -0.7 – –
Mark Lewis 26 arb 145 -0.7 0.7 -1.3
Todd Van Poppel↔ OAK 24 arb 9 -0.7 0.1 -0.7
Mike Christopher 32 arb 13 -0.7 0.2 -0.8
Melvin Nieves 24 arb 120 -0.8 0.2 -0.8
Mike Walker 29 – 20 -1.0 – –
Alan Trammell 38 FA-elig 66 -1.3 0.6 -1.7
Eddie Williams 31 FA-elig 77 -1.3 0.3 -1.4
Andujar Cedeno↔ HOU 26 FA-elig 52 -1.5 0.2 -1.5

53 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 40 of them (75%). 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.