Rosternomics
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Tigers DET

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GM: Randy Smith (since 1996)

1999 roster — every player, value & surplus

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-9.3
WAB — wins above budget
-3.2
TAB — roster Talent above budget
69–92 (0.429)
record
-2M
surplus $M (value/$)
27.9
roster fWAR
$38.1M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Brian Moehler 27 arb 32 3.4 0.5 +3.8
Brad Ausmus 30 FA-elig 127 3.3 2.2 +2.0
Tony Clark 27 arb 143 2.9 2.4 +1.3
Dave Mlicki↔ LAD 31 FA-elig 31 2.8 2.1 +1.4
Doug Brocail 32 FA-elig 70 1.8 0.9 +1.4
Gabe Kapler 23 pre-arb 130 1.8 0.2 +2.1
Jeff Weaver 22 pre-arb 31 1.8 0.2 +2.0
Damion Easley 29 FA-elig 151 1.7 3.4 -1.2
Deivi Cruz 26 pre-arb 155 1.7 0.4 +1.7
Dean Palmer 30 FA-elig 150 1.5 5.0 -3.1
Juan Encarnacion 23 pre-arb 132 1.5 0.2 +1.7
Luis Polonia 35 FA-elig 87 1.1 0.3 +1.1
Justin Thompson 26 arb 24 1.0 0.7 +0.6
Todd Jones 31 FA-elig 65 0.8 2.5 -1.5
Dave Borkowski 22 pre-arb 17 0.6 0.2 +0.6
Bryce Florie↔ BOS 29 arb 27 0.6 0.9 -0.2
C.J. Nitkowski 26 arb 69 0.5 0.3 +0.4
Brian L. Hunter↔ SEA 28 arb 18 0.5 0.2 +0.4
Frank Catalanotto 25 pre-arb 100 0.5 0.2 +0.3
Masao Kida 30 pre-arb 49 0.4 1.6 -1.0
Kimera Bartee 26 arb 41 0.4 0.2 +0.3
Nelson Cruz 26 pre-arb 29 0.4 0.2 +0.3
Bobby Higginson 28 arb 107 0.3 3.8 -3.4
Bill Haselman 33 FA-elig 48 0.2 0.7 -0.4
Jose Macias 27 pre-arb 5 0.2 0.2 +0.0
Karim Garcia 23 arb 96 0.1 0.3 -0.2
Robert Fick 25 pre-arb 15 0.1 0.2 -0.1
Willie Blair 33 FA-elig 39 0.1 3.8 -3.7
Willis Roberts 24 – 1 -0.0 – –
Francisco Cordero 24 pre-arb 20 -0.0 0.2 -0.2
Sean Runyan 25 pre-arb 12 -0.0 0.3 -0.3
Will Brunson 29 – 17 -0.1 – –
Felipe Lira 27 arb 2 -0.2 0.4 -0.6
Erik Hiljus 26 – 6 -0.2 – –
Luis Garcia 24 – 8 -0.2 – –
Beiker Graterol 24 – 1 -0.3 – –
Gabe Alvarez 25 – 22 -0.3 – –
Mel Rojas↔ LAD 32 FA-elig 5 -0.4 1.8 -2.2
Jason Wood 29 pre-arb 27 -0.5 0.2 -0.9
Matt Anderson 22 pre-arb 37 -0.6 0.2 -1.0
Gregg Jefferies 31 FA-elig 70 -1.3 1.4 -3.1

41 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 35 of them (85%). 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.