Rosternomics
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Tigers DET

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GM: Randy Smith (since 1996)

1997 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+7.9
WAB — wins above budget
-0.1
TAB — roster Talent above budget
79–83 (0.488)
record
+6M
surplus $M (value/$)
23.9
roster fWAR
$17.1M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Justin Thompson 24 pre-arb 32 4.8 0.2 +4.8
Travis Fryman 28 FA-elig 154 3.1 6.4 -3.3
Tony Clark 25 pre-arb 159 3.0 0.3 +2.8
Willie Blair 31 FA-elig 29 2.9 0.8 +2.2
Bobby Higginson 26 pre-arb 146 2.6 0.4 +2.3
Damion Easley 27 arb 151 2.4 0.7 +1.7
Brian Moehler 25 pre-arb 31 2.0 0.1 +1.9
Omar Olivares↔ SEA 29 FA-elig 22 2.0 0.7 +1.4
Todd Jones 29 arb 68 1.8 1.0 +0.8
Bob Hamelin 29 – 110 1.2 – –
A.J. Sager 32 arb 38 0.9 0.2 +0.7
Scott Sanders↔ SEA 28 arb 14 0.7 0.4 +0.3
Felipe Lira↔ SEA 25 pre-arb 20 0.5 0.2 +0.3
Doug Brocail 30 arb 61 0.4 0.4 +0.0
Brian L. Hunter 26 arb 162 0.4 0.3 +0.1
Glenn Dishman 26 – 7 0.3 – –
Dan Miceli 26 arb 71 0.3 0.5 -0.2
Orlando Miller 28 arb 50 0.3 0.3 -0.1
Tim Pugh 30 – 2 0.2 – –
Matt Walbeck 27 arb 47 0.2 0.6 -0.4
Joe Hall 31 – 2 0.1 – –
Raul Casanova 24 pre-arb 101 0.1 0.2 -0.1
Greg Keagle 26 pre-arb 11 0.1 0.2 -0.1
Eddie Gaillard 26 – 16 0.0 – –
Jimmy Hurst 25 – 13 -0.0 – –
Fernando Hernandez 26 pre-arb 2 -0.0 0.1 -0.2
Kevin Jarvis↔ CIN 27 arb 17 -0.1 0.1 -0.2
Juan Encarnacion 21 – 11 -0.1 – –
Kimera Bartee 24 – 12 -0.1 – –
Marcus Jensen↔ SFG 24 pre-arb 8 -0.1 0.0 -0.1
Jose Bautista↔ STL 32 FA-elig 21 -0.1 0.1 -0.2
Roberto Duran 24 – 13 -0.1 – –
Frank Catalanotto 23 – 13 -0.2 – –
John Cummings 28 arb 19 -0.2 0.2 -0.5
Vince Coleman 35 FA-elig 6 -0.2 0.5 -0.8
Bubba Trammell 25 pre-arb 44 -0.3 0.1 -0.5
Brian Johnson↔ SFG 29 arb 45 -0.4 0.3 -0.7
Jody Reed 34 FA-elig 52 -0.5 0.7 -1.2
Mike Myers 28 pre-arb 88 -0.5 0.2 -0.7
Phil Nevin 26 pre-arb 93 -0.5 0.2 -0.7
Melvin Nieves 25 arb 116 -0.7 0.3 -1.0
Curtis Pride↔ BOS 28 arb 79 -0.9 0.2 -1.1
Deivi Cruz 24 pre-arb 147 -1.3 0.1 -1.5

43 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 33 of them (77%). 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.