Rosternomics
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Tigers DET

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GM: Dave Dombrowski (since 2003)

2013 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+6.0
WAB — wins above budget
+15.1
TAB — roster Talent above budget
93–69 (0.574)
record · made playoffs
-8M
surplus $M (value/$)
54.1
roster fWAR
$152.8M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Miguel Cabrera 30 FA-elig 148 8.6 21.0 +2.0
Max Scherzer 28 arb 32 6.0 6.7 +9.3
Aníbal Sánchez 29 FA-elig 29 5.9 8.8 +6.9
Justin Verlander 30 FA-elig 34 4.8 20.0 -7.2
Doug Fister 29 arb 33 4.2 4.0 +7.2
Jhonny Peralta 31 FA-elig 107 3.6 6.0 +3.7
Austin Jackson 26 arb 129 3.2 3.5 +5.1
Torii Hunter 37 FA-elig 144 3.0 12.0 -3.9
Rick Porcello 24 arb 32 2.9 5.1 +2.7
Omar Infante 31 FA-elig 118 2.9 4.0 +3.8
Prince Fielder 29 FA-elig 162 2.7 23.0 -15.9
Drew Smyly 24 pre-arb 63 1.8 0.5 +4.3
Alex Avila 26 arb 102 1.4 3.0 +0.9
Joaquín Benoit 35 FA-elig 66 1.4 5.5 -1.7
Andy Dirks 27 pre-arb 131 1.0 0.5 +2.3
Victor Martinez 34 FA-elig 159 0.8 13.0 -10.9
Jose Iglesias↔ BOS 23 pre-arb 46 0.5 0.9 +0.5
Brayan Peña 31 FA-elig 71 0.5 0.9 +0.3
Bruce Rondón 22 – 30 0.4 0.3 +0.8
Ramon Santiago 33 FA-elig 80 0.4 2.1 -1.1
Matt Tuiasosopo 27 arb 81 0.3 0.5 +0.2
Darin Downs 28 pre-arb 29 0.2 0.5 +0.1
Al Alburquerque 27 pre-arb 53 0.2 0.5 -0.0
Jose Veras↔ HOU 32 FA-elig 25 0.1 0.7 -0.5
Luke Putkonen 27 pre-arb 30 0.0 0.3 -0.2
Evan Reed 27 – 16 0.0 – –
Don Kelly 33 FA-elig 112 0.0 0.9 -0.8
Octavio Dotel 39 FA-elig 6 0.0 3.5 -3.5
Phil Coke 30 arb 49 -0.0 1.9 -1.9
Nick Castellanos 21 – 11 -0.1 0.1 -0.5
Bryan Holaday 25 pre-arb 16 -0.1 0.2 -0.6
Jose Alvarez 24 – 14 -0.2 0.1 -0.5
Jose Ortega 24 pre-arb 11 -0.2 0.1 -0.6
Jeremy Bonderman↔ SEA 30 – 11 -0.2 – –
Danny Worth 27 pre-arb 3 -0.2 0.1 -0.7
Brayan Villarreal↔ BOS 26 pre-arb 7 -0.3 0.4 -1.2
Avisaíl García↔ CHW 22 pre-arb 30 -0.4 0.2 -1.2
Hernán Pérez 22 pre-arb 34 -0.4 0.2 -1.3
Jose Valverde 35 FA-elig 20 -0.6 2.0 -3.5

39 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 37 of them (95%). 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.