Rosternomics
𝕏

Tigers DET

Switch team:

GM: Dave Dombrowski (since 2003)

2009 roster — every player, value & surplus

‹ Prev Next ›
-0.5
WAB — wins above budget
-6.3
TAB — roster Talent above budget
86–77 (0.528)
record
-49M
surplus $M (value/$)
31.9
roster fWAR
$123.7M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Justin Verlander 26 arb 35 8.4 3.7 +16.2
Miguel Cabrera 26 FA-elig 160 5.0 14.4 -2.4
Edwin Jackson 25 FA-elig 33 3.6 2.2 +6.4
Curtis Granderson 28 arb 160 3.0 3.5 +3.6
Placido Polanco 33 FA-elig 153 2.9 4.6 +2.2
Brandon Inge 32 FA-elig 161 2.0 6.3 -1.5
Rick Porcello 20 pre-arb 31 1.8 2.1 +2.2
Ryan Raburn 28 arb 113 1.5 0.4 +3.2
Clete Thomas 25 pre-arb 102 1.2 0.4 +2.5
Magglio Ordonez 35 FA-elig 131 0.9 19.0 -16.9
Brandon Lyon 29 FA-elig 65 0.8 4.2 -2.3
Bobby Seay 31 FA-elig 67 0.8 1.3 +0.6
Adam Everett 32 FA-elig 118 0.7 1.0 +0.7
Alex Avila 22 – 29 0.7 – –
Luke French↔ SEA 23 – 7 0.6 – –
Armando Galarraga 27 pre-arb 29 0.5 0.4 +0.8
Ramon Santiago 29 FA-elig 93 0.5 0.8 +0.3
Nate Robertson 31 FA-elig 28 0.5 7.0 -5.9
Zach Miner 27 arb 51 0.4 0.4 +0.5
Fu-Te Ni 26 pre-arb 36 0.4 0.4 +0.5
Fernando Rodney 32 FA-elig 73 0.3 2.7 -1.9
Freddy Dolsi 26 pre-arb 6 0.3 0.4 +0.2
Jeff Larish 26 pre-arb 32 0.2 0.4 +0.2
Josh Anderson↔ KCR 26 pre-arb 74 0.2 0.3 +0.2
Ryan Perry 22 pre-arb 53 0.2 0.4 +0.1
Wilkin Ramirez 23 pre-arb 15 0.2 0.4 -0.0
Don Kelly 29 pre-arb 31 0.0 0.4 -0.3
Marcus Thames 32 FA-elig 87 0.0 2.3 -2.3
Alfredo Figaro 24 pre-arb 5 -0.0 0.4 -0.4
Casey Fien 25 pre-arb 9 -0.0 0.4 -0.5
Juan Rincon↔ COL 30 FA-elig 7 -0.1 0.2 -0.3
Brent Dlugach 26 pre-arb 5 -0.1 0.4 -0.5
Clay Rapada 28 pre-arb 3 -0.1 0.4 -0.6
Eddie Bonine 28 pre-arb 10 -0.1 0.4 -0.6
Dontrelle Willis 27 FA-elig 7 -0.1 10.0 -10.3
Carlos Guillén 33 FA-elig 81 -0.2 10.0 -10.4
Joel Zumaya 24 arb 29 -0.2 0.7 -1.3
Dusty Ryan 24 pre-arb 12 -0.2 0.4 -1.0
Chris Lambert↔ BAL 26 – 2 -0.3 – –
Jeremy Bonderman 26 FA-elig 8 -0.4 12.5 -13.3
Matt Treanor 33 arb 4 -0.4 0.8 -1.6
Jarrod Washburn↔ SEA 34 FA-elig 8 -0.4 2.8 -3.9
Dane Sardinha 30 – 12 -0.7 – –
Aubrey Huff↔ BAL 32 FA-elig 40 -0.9 2.1 -4.2
Gerald Laird 29 FA-elig 135 -1.6 2.8 -6.6

45 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 41 of them (91%). 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.