Rosternomics
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Tigers DET

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GM: Randy Smith (since 1996)

2000 roster — every player, value & surplus

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-4.0
WAB — wins above budget
+1.8
TAB — roster Talent above budget
79–83 (0.488)
record
-9M
surplus $M (value/$)
37.0
roster fWAR
$59.0M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Bobby Higginson 29 arb 154 4.3 4.4 +1.7
Damion Easley 30 FA-elig 126 4.0 4.0 +1.8
Brad Ausmus 31 FA-elig 150 3.9 4.0 +1.5
Brian Moehler 28 arb 29 3.2 1.8 +2.8
Jeff Weaver 23 pre-arb 31 3.0 0.3 +4.0
Deivi Cruz 27 arb 156 2.4 2.0 +1.4
Hideo Nomo 31 arb 32 2.1 1.0 +1.9
Steve Sparks 34 – 20 2.1 – –
Juan Gonzalez 30 FA-elig 115 1.7 7.5 -5.1
Willie Blair 34 FA-elig 47 1.6 4.5 -2.2
Todd Jones 32 FA-elig 67 1.4 3.6 -1.6
Juan Encarnacion 24 arb 141 1.1 0.3 +1.2
C.J. Nitkowski 27 arb 67 1.0 0.9 +0.5
Tony Clark 28 arb 60 0.9 4.1 -2.8
Billy McMillon 28 arb 46 0.8 0.2 +1.0
Doug Brocail 33 FA-elig 49 0.8 1.3 -0.1
Dave Mlicki 32 FA-elig 24 0.8 4.5 -3.4
Danny Patterson 29 arb 58 0.7 0.6 +0.4
Dean Palmer 31 FA-elig 145 0.5 7.0 -6.2
Nelson Cruz 27 arb 27 0.5 0.2 +0.5
Shane Halter 30 arb 105 0.4 0.2 +0.3
Dusty Allen↔ SDP 27 pre-arb 18 0.4 0.1 +0.4
Adam Bernero 23 – 12 0.3 – –
Jose Macias 28 pre-arb 73 0.3 0.2 +0.2
Matt Anderson 23 pre-arb 69 0.2 0.3 +0.1
Rich Becker↔ OAK 28 FA-elig 92 0.2 0.4 -0.2
Hal Morris↔ CIN 35 FA-elig 40 0.1 0.2 -0.0
Kevin Tolar 29 – 5 0.1 – –
Robert Fick 26 pre-arb 66 0.1 0.2 -0.1
Gregg Jefferies 32 FA-elig 41 0.1 3.1 -3.0
Sean Runyan 26 pre-arb 3 0.0 0.3 -0.3
Allen McDill 28 – 13 -0.0 – –
Gabe Alvarez↔ SDP 26 – 1 -0.0 – –
Brandon Villafuerte 24 – 3 -0.0 – –
Rod Lindsey 24 – 11 -0.0 – –
Erik Hiljus 27 – 3 -0.0 – –
Luis Polonia↔ NYY 36 FA-elig 80 -0.0 0.8 -0.8
Masao Kida 31 – 2 -0.1 – –
Mark Johnson 25 pre-arb 9 -0.1 0.2 -0.4
Eric Munson 22 – 3 -0.1 – –
Wendell Magee 27 arb 91 -0.3 0.2 -0.6
Dave Borkowski 23 – 2 -0.3 – –
Jim Poole↔ WSN 34 FA-elig 18 -0.3 0.2 -0.6
Javier Cardona 24 – 26 -0.3 – –
Karim Garcia↔ BAL 24 arb 8 -0.4 0.3 -0.9

45 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 33 of them (73%). 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.