Rosternomics
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Tigers DET

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GM: Dave Dombrowski (since 2003)

2014 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+2.9
WAB — wins above budget
+4.9
TAB — roster Talent above budget
90–72 (0.556)
record · made playoffs
-39M
surplus $M (value/$)
44.0
roster fWAR
$167.8M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Max Scherzer 29 FA-elig 33 5.5 15.5 +0.6
Miguel Cabrera 31 FA-elig 159 5.2 22.0 -6.9
Victor Martinez 35 FA-elig 151 4.6 12.0 +1.4
Ian Kinsler 32 FA-elig 161 4.5 16.0 -2.9
J.D. Martinez 26 pre-arb 123 3.8 0.5 +10.6
Aníbal Sánchez 30 FA-elig 22 3.4 15.8 -5.9
Justin Verlander 31 FA-elig 32 3.3 20.0 -10.5
Rick Porcello 25 arb 32 3.0 8.5 +0.2
David Price↔ TBR 28 FA-elig 11 2.3 4.5 +2.3
Rajai Davis 33 FA-elig 134 2.2 5.0 +1.5
Austin Jackson↔ SEA 27 arb 100 1.7 3.9 +1.1
Alex Avila 27 arb 124 1.3 4.2 -0.5
Torii Hunter 38 FA-elig 142 1.1 14.0 -10.8
Drew Smyly↔ TBR 25 pre-arb 21 1.1 0.4 +2.8
Eugenio Suárez 22 – 85 0.9 0.3 +2.2
Joba Chamberlain 28 FA-elig 69 0.7 2.5 -0.4
Ezequiel Carrera 27 pre-arb 45 0.5 0.2 +1.4
Kyle Lobstein 24 – 7 0.5 0.1 +1.2
Nick Castellanos 22 pre-arb 148 0.4 0.5 +0.6
Blaine Hardy 27 – 38 0.3 0.3 +0.7
Kyle Ryan 22 – 6 0.2 0.1 +0.5
Joe Nathan 39 FA-elig 62 0.2 9.0 -8.5
Corey Knebel 22 – 8 0.2 0.1 +0.4
Al Alburquerque 28 arb 72 0.2 0.8 -0.4
Drew VerHagen 23 – 1 0.1 0.1 +0.2
Evan Reed 28 pre-arb 32 0.1 0.5 -0.3
Chad Smith 24 pre-arb 10 0.1 0.0 +0.2
Melvin Mercedes 23 – 1 0.0 – –
Tyler Collins 24 pre-arb 18 0.0 0.1 -0.0
Robbie Ray 22 – 9 0.0 0.2 -0.1
Andrew Romine 28 arb 94 0.0 0.5 -0.4
Hernán Pérez 23 pre-arb 8 0.0 0.1 -0.1
Phil Coke 31 FA-elig 62 -0.0 1.9 -1.9
Steven Moya 22 – 11 -0.0 – –
Patrick McCoy 25 – 14 -0.0 – –
Danny Worth 28 pre-arb 20 -0.0 0.0 -0.2
Jim Johnson↔ OAK 31 FA-elig 16 -0.1 3.0 -3.1
Justin Miller 27 – 8 -0.1 – –
Buck Farmer 23 – 4 -0.1 0.1 -0.4
Jose Ortega 25 – 1 -0.1 – –
James McCann 24 – 9 -0.1 0.1 -0.4
Joakim Soria↔ TEX 30 FA-elig 13 -0.1 1.5 -1.9
Kevin Whelan 30 – 1 -0.1 – –
Don Kelly 34 FA-elig 95 -0.2 1.0 -1.5
Luke Putkonen 28 pre-arb 2 -0.2 0.5 -1.1
Álex González 37 FA-elig 9 -0.4 1.1 -2.1
Ian Krol 23 pre-arb 45 -0.5 0.5 -2.1
Bryan Holaday 26 pre-arb 62 -1.3 0.5 -4.3

48 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 42 of them (88%). 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.