RRosternomics
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Tigers DET

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GM: Dave Dombrowski

Overview

REBUILD ↗ rising
cheap & losing · year 1 in this regime · payroll 0.91× league · TAB -2.5
-2.5TAB — talent above budget20th/30
-9.7WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)26th/30
7.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars15th/30
-5.0dead WAR — sub-replacement drag19th/30
36%dead money %22nd/30
0.438win %24th/30
30.5roster fWAR21st/30
-10surplus $M (value vs cost)17th/30
$66Mpayroll $M16th/30

Roster

CFNook Logan 123GCurtis Granderson 41GCraig Monroe 33G
LFCraig Monroe 69GRondell White 65GMarcus Thames 21G
RFCraig Monroe 85GMagglio Ordonez 81GMarcus Thames 10G
SSCarlos Guillén 75GJohn McDonald 54GOmar Infante 50G
2BPlacido Polanco 113GOmar Infante 69GJohn McDonald 13G
3BBrandon Inge 160GPlacido Polanco 9GJason Smith 3G
1BChris Shelton 84GCarlos Pena 51GDmitri Young 30G
STARTERSJeremy Bonderman 3.1WARJason Johnson 2.7WARMike Maroth 2.1WARNate Robertson 1.3WARSean Douglass 0.3WAR
CIvan Rodriguez 123GVance Wilson 60G
DHDmitri Young 71GRondell White 30GCarlos Pena 24G
BULLPEN★ Fernando Rodney 9svJamie Walker 14hChris Spurling 11hFranklyn German 4hCraig Dingman 4hVic Darensbourg 1hDoug Creek 1hTroy Percival 0h
CIvan Rodriguez 123 · Vance Wilson 60
1BChris Shelton 84 · Carlos Pena 51 · Dmitri Young 30
2BPlacido Polanco 113 · Omar Infante 69 · John McDonald 13
3BBrandon Inge 160 · Placido Polanco 9 · Jason Smith 3
SSCarlos Guillén 75 · John McDonald 54 · Omar Infante 50
LFCraig Monroe 69 · Rondell White 65 · Marcus Thames 21
CFNook Logan 123 · Curtis Granderson 41 · Craig Monroe 33
RFCraig Monroe 85 · Magglio Ordonez 81 · Marcus Thames 10
DHDmitri Young 71 · Rondell White 30 · Carlos Pena 24
SPJeremy Bonderman 3.1 · Jason Johnson 2.7 · Mike Maroth 2.1 · Nate Robertson 1.3 · Sean Douglass 0.3
BP★ Fernando Rodney 9 · Jamie Walker 14 · Chris Spurling 11 · Franklyn German 4 · Craig Dingman 4 · Vic Darensbourg 1 · Doug Creek 1 · Troy Percival 0

Each position lists its starter then backups by games (so platoons & bench show). Starters (mound) & bullpen (left, foul territory) are ranked by WAR; ★ marks the closer (most save chances). MLB Stats API.

2005 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Placido Polanco↔ PHI 29 FA-elig 863.5 3.1 +3.6
Brandon Inge 28 arb 1603.2 1.4 +4.8
Ivan Rodriguez 33 FA-elig 1293.2 8.0 -1.9
Jeremy Bonderman 22 pre-arb 293.1 0.4 +5.4
Jason Johnson 31 FA-elig 332.7 4.0 +1.1
Chris Shelton 25 – 1072.5 – –
Mike Maroth 27 arb 352.1 0.4 +3.7
Carlos Guillén 29 FA-elig 872.0 4.0 -0.2
Rondell White 33 FA-elig 971.7 3.2 -0.1
Nook Logan 25 pre-arb 1291.6 0.3 +2.6
Dmitri Young 31 FA-elig 1261.5 8.0 -5.2
Craig Monroe 28 arb 1571.4 0.4 +2.3
Nate Robertson 27 arb 321.3 0.4 +2.2
Magglio Ordonez 31 FA-elig 821.2 7.2 -4.8
Kyle Farnsworth↔ ATL 29 FA-elig 461.2 1.3 +1.1
Curtis Granderson 24 – 471.1 0.3 +1.8
Fernando Rodney 28 arb 390.4 0.3 +0.4
Sean Douglass 26 – 180.3 – –
Carlos Pena 27 arb 790.3 2.6 -2.1
Jamie Walker 33 FA-elig 660.3 0.9 -0.4
Jason Grilli 28 – 30.2 – –
Vic Darensbourg 34 – 220.1 – –
Ugueth Urbina↔ PHI 31 FA-elig 250.1 1.2 -1.0
Justin Verlander 22 – 20.1 0.3 -0.1
John McDonald↔ TOR 30 FA-elig 310.1 0.2 +0.0
Omar Infante 23 arb 1210.0 0.4 -0.3
Craig Dingman 31 – 340.0 – –
Andrew Good 25 – 20.0 – –
Jason Karnuth 29 – 30.0 – –
Mark Woodyard 26 – 30.0 – –
Kevin Hooper 28 – 6-0.1 – –
Matt Ginter 27 arb 14-0.1 0.3 -0.6
Jason Smith 27 arb 27-0.1 0.3 -0.6
Vance Wilson 32 FA-elig 61-0.1 0.8 -1.0
Wilfredo Ledezma 24 pre-arb 10-0.2 0.3 -0.7
Chris Spurling 28 – 56-0.2 – –
Alexis Gomez 26 – 9-0.3 – –
Roman Colon↔ ATL 25 pre-arb 12-0.3 0.1 -0.8
Doug Creek 36 – 20-0.4 – –
Tony Giarratano 22 – 15-0.4 – –
Franklyn German 25 arb 58-0.4 0.3 -1.1
Ramon Martinez↔ PHI 32 FA-elig 19-0.5 0.4 -1.2
Bobby Higginson 34 FA-elig 10-0.6 8.8 -9.9
Troy Percival 35 FA-elig 26-0.6 6.0 -7.1
Marcus Thames 28 – 38-0.6 – –

Key additions (new vs 2004)

PlayerfWAR
Placido Polanco3.5
Magglio Ordonez1.2
Kyle Farnsworth1.2
Fernando Rodney0.4
Sean Douglass0.3
Jason Grilli0.2

Key subtractions (gone from 2004)

Player2004 fWAR
Esteban Yan0.8
Gary Knotts0.6
Andres Torres0.0
Nate Cornejo0.0
Lino Urdaneta0.0
John Ennis-0.0

Current & Historical Payroll

2005 payroll
$65.6M

What the front office was committed to as of 2005, 2005–2011. Pre-2015 has no contract-terms data — forward italic $ are realized actuals (hindsight, not commitments known then). Control labels (ARB/FA) are point-in-time.

current $ guaranteed $ actual $ (hindsight) arbitration (proj) pre-arb (proj) free agent

Guaranteed / signed (17)

PlayerAgeSvc2005200620072008200920102011
Bobby Higginson3410.000$8.8MFREE AGENT
Ivan Rodriguez3314.000$8.0M$10.6M$10.6M$8.8MFREE AGENT
Dmitri Young319.000$8.0M$8.0MFREE AGENT
Magglio Ordonez318.000$7.2M$16.2M$13.2M$15.8M$19.0M$17.8M$10.0M
Troy Percival3510.000$6.0MFREE AGENT
Carlos Guillén297.000$4.0M$5.0M$5.0M$12.0M$10.0M$13.0M$12.9M
Jason Johnson318.000$4.0MFREE AGENT
Rondell White3312.000$3.2MFREE AGENT
Placido Polanco297.000$3.1M$4.6M$4.6M$4.6M$4.6MFREE AGENT
Kyle Farnsworth296.000$1.3MFREE AGENT$4.4M
Ugueth Urbina3110.000$1.2MFREE AGENT
Jamie Walker338.000$900k$1.2MFREE AGENT
Vance Wilson326.000$760k$750kFREE AGENT
Ramon Martinez327.000$375kFREE AGENT
John McDonald306.000$182kFREE AGENT
Vic Darensbourg347.000—FREE AGENT
Doug Creek3610.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (13)

PlayerAgeSvc2005200620072008200920102011
Carlos Pena274.000$2.6MARB 3FREE AGENT
Brandon Inge284.000$1.4MARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Maroth273.000$405kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Craig Monroe284.000$400kARB 3FREE AGENT
Omar Infante233.000$355kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Nate Robertson273.000$355kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Matt Ginter275.000$333kFREE AGENT
Jason Smith274.000$325kARB 3FREE AGENT
Franklyn German253.000$321kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Fernando Rodney283.000$318kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jason Grilli285.000—FREE AGENT
Sean Douglass264.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Marcus Thames283.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (15)

PlayerAgeSvc2005200620072008200920102011
Jeremy Bonderman222.000$400kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Wilfredo Ledezma242.000$335kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Nook Logan251.000$320kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Justin Verlander220.000$316kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Curtis Granderson241.000$316kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Roman Colon251.000$109kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Craig Dingman31–—
Alexis Gomez26–—
Chris Spurling282.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jason Karnuth29–—
Kevin Hooper28–—
Andrew Good25–—
Chris Shelton251.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Woodyard26–—
Tony Giarratano22–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Tigers 2005; the black line = the league-average player at each slot that season. Staying above the line deep into the roster is the depth edge; dropping below it = holes & dead weight.

What each regime is worth — every settled team-season since 1985

RegimeSeasonsWin %Playoff %Pennant %WS %
WINDOW 28152.131.05.01.1
CONTEND 30056.964.719.710.3
FORCED-SPEND 25648.09.81.61.6
REBUILD 32143.31.20.30.3
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.