Rosternomics
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Tigers DET

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GM: Dave Dombrowski (since 2003)

2004 roster — every player, value & surplus

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-5.2
WAB — wins above budget
+2.7
TAB — roster Talent above budget
72–90 (0.444)
record
+6M
surplus $M (value/$)
32.5
roster fWAR
$46.2M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Carlos Guillén 28 FA-elig 136 5.4 2.5 +6.8
Ivan Rodriguez 32 FA-elig 135 4.7 7.0 +1.1
Jason Johnson 30 FA-elig 33 2.7 3.0 +1.6
Mike Maroth 26 pre-arb 33 2.5 0.3 +4.0
Craig Monroe 27 arb 128 2.4 0.3 +3.8
Jeremy Bonderman 21 pre-arb 33 2.4 0.3 +3.7
Carlos Pena 26 arb 142 2.0 0.3 +3.1
Nate Robertson 26 pre-arb 34 1.9 0.3 +3.0
Omar Infante 22 pre-arb 142 1.9 0.3 +2.9
Brandon Inge 27 arb 131 1.7 0.3 +2.6
Marcus Thames 27 – 61 1.5 – –
Rondell White 32 FA-elig 121 1.3 2.8 -0.5
Dmitri Young 30 FA-elig 104 1.2 7.8 -5.7
Jamie Walker 32 FA-elig 70 1.0 0.8 +1.0
Bobby Higginson 33 FA-elig 131 1.0 8.8 -7.1
Wilfredo Ledezma 23 – 15 1.0 – –
Esteban Yan 29 FA-elig 69 0.8 0.7 +0.7
Gary Knotts 27 arb 36 0.6 0.3 +0.7
Nook Logan 24 – 47 0.6 – –
Jason Smith 26 – 61 0.3 – –
Ugueth Urbina 30 – 54 0.1 – –
Curtis Granderson 23 – 9 0.1 – –
Andres Torres 26 – 3 0.0 – –
Nate Cornejo 24 arb 5 0.0 0.3 -0.3
Lino Urdaneta 24 pre-arb 1 0.0 0.3 -0.3
John Ennis 24 – 12 -0.0 – –
Roberto Novoa 24 – 16 -0.1 – –
Alex Sanchez 27 arb 79 -0.1 0.4 -0.6
Fernando Viña 35 FA-elig 29 -0.1 3.0 -3.2
Chris Shelton 24 pre-arb 27 -0.2 0.3 -0.6
Eric Munson 26 arb 109 -0.2 1.5 -1.8
Mike DiFelice↔ CHC 35 – 13 -0.2 – –
Ryan Raburn 23 – 12 -0.2 – –
Al Levine 36 FA-elig 65 -0.3 0.8 -1.3
Franklyn German 24 – 16 -0.3 – –
Craig Dingman 30 – 24 -0.4 – –
Danny Patterson 33 FA-elig 37 -0.5 2.8 -3.7
Steve Colyer 25 pre-arb 41 -0.6 0.3 -1.4
Greg Norton 31 FA-elig 41 -1.3 0.6 -2.8

39 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 26 of them (67%). 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.