Rosternomics
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Tigers DET

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GM: Dave Dombrowski (since 2003)

2012 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+3.2
WAB — wins above budget
+7.9
TAB — roster Talent above budget
88–74 (0.543)
record · won pennant
-8M
surplus $M (value/$)
44.8
roster fWAR
$124.1M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Miguel Cabrera 29 FA-elig 161 7.3 21.0 -2.2
Justin Verlander 29 FA-elig 33 6.8 20.0 -2.4
Austin Jackson 25 pre-arb 137 5.1 0.5 +12.6
Prince Fielder 28 FA-elig 162 5.0 23.0 -10.1
Max Scherzer 27 arb 32 4.5 3.8 +7.8
Doug Fister 28 arb 26 3.5 0.5 +8.5
Alex Avila 25 arb 116 3.0 0.5 +7.1
Rick Porcello 23 arb 31 2.9 3.1 +4.5
Jhonny Peralta 30 FA-elig 150 2.0 5.5 -0.4
Andy Dirks 26 pre-arb 88 1.8 0.5 +4.2
Drew Smyly 23 – 23 1.8 0.4 +4.1
Octavio Dotel 38 FA-elig 57 1.5 3.0 +1.0
Aníbal Sánchez↔ MIA 28 FA-elig 12 1.3 3.1 +0.3
Quintin Berry 27 – 94 1.0 0.5 +2.1
Brayan Villarreal 25 pre-arb 50 1.0 0.5 +2.0
Jose Valverde 34 FA-elig 71 0.9 9.0 -6.6
Brandon Inge↔ OAK 35 FA-elig 9 0.8 0.6 +1.5
Phil Coke 29 arb 66 0.7 1.1 +0.7
Al Alburquerque 26 pre-arb 8 0.4 0.5 +0.7
Omar Infante↔ MIA 30 FA-elig 64 0.3 1.7 -0.9
Darin Downs 27 pre-arb 18 0.2 0.5 +0.1
Luke Putkonen 26 pre-arb 12 0.2 0.5 +0.0
Duane Below 26 pre-arb 27 0.2 0.5 +0.0
Joaquín Benoit 34 FA-elig 73 0.1 5.5 -5.2
Avisaíl García 21 – 23 0.0 0.1 +0.0
Hernán Pérez 21 – 2 0.0 0.5 -0.4
Bryan Holaday 24 – 6 0.0 0.5 -0.4
Thad Weber 27 – 2 0.0 – –
Matt Young 29 – 5 0.0 – –
Clete Thomas↔ MIN 28 arb 3 -0.0 0.1 -0.1
Brad Eldred 31 – 5 -0.1 – –
Jose Ortega 23 pre-arb 2 -0.1 0.5 -0.7
Danny Worth 26 pre-arb 43 -0.1 0.5 -0.8
Casey Crosby 23 – 3 -0.1 0.5 -0.9
Luis Marte 25 pre-arb 13 -0.2 0.5 -0.9
Adam Wilk 24 pre-arb 3 -0.2 0.5 -1.1
Omir Santos 31 – 3 -0.2 – –
Ramon Santiago 32 FA-elig 93 -0.3 2.1 -2.8
Jeff Baker↔ ATL 31 FA-elig 15 -0.3 0.2 -1.0
Jacob Turner↔ MIA 21 pre-arb 3 -0.3 0.4 -1.2
Daniel Schlereth 26 arb 6 -0.4 0.5 -1.6
Collin Balester 26 arb 11 -0.5 0.5 -1.8
Gerald Laird 32 FA-elig 63 -0.6 1.0 -2.7
Brennan Boesch 27 pre-arb 132 -0.7 0.5 -2.3
Don Kelly 32 arb 75 -0.8 0.9 -2.9
Delmon Young 26 FA-elig 151 -1.2 6.8 -9.7
Ryan Raburn 31 FA-elig 66 -1.4 2.1 -5.8

47 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 43 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.