Rosternomics
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Tigers DET

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GM: Dave Dombrowski (since 2003)

2015 roster — every player, value & surplus

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-11.4
WAB — wins above budget
-9.1
TAB — roster Talent above budget
74–87 (0.460)
record
-73M
surplus $M (value/$)
28.8
roster fWAR
$165.0M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
J.D. Martinez 27 arb 158 5.2 3.0 +13.3
Miguel Cabrera 32 FA-elig 119 4.6 22.0 -7.6
David Price↔ TOR 29 FA-elig 21 4.0 13.0 -0.3
Ian Kinsler 33 FA-elig 154 3.9 16.0 -3.7
Yoenis Cespedes↔ NYM 29 arb 102 3.3 6.7 +3.6
Justin Verlander 32 FA-elig 20 3.1 28.0 -18.1
Jose Iglesias 25 arb 120 1.5 1.4 +3.4
Alfredo Simon 34 FA-elig 31 1.3 5.5 -1.4
Aníbal Sánchez 31 FA-elig 25 1.3 16.8 -12.8
Blaine Hardy 28 pre-arb 70 1.2 0.5 +3.4
Rajai Davis 34 FA-elig 112 1.0 5.0 -1.7
Alex Wilson 28 pre-arb 59 0.8 0.5 +2.0
Daniel Norris↔ TOR 22 pre-arb 8 0.6 0.3 +1.7
Anthony Gose 24 arb 140 0.6 0.5 +1.4
Kyle Lobstein 25 pre-arb 13 0.5 0.5 +1.2
Andrew Romine 29 arb 109 0.5 0.5 +1.0
Nick Castellanos 23 pre-arb 154 0.5 0.5 +1.0
Al Alburquerque 29 arb 67 0.4 1.7 -0.4
Tyler Collins 25 pre-arb 60 0.4 0.3 +0.9
Neftalí Feliz↔ TEX 27 FA-elig 30 0.2 2.6 -1.8
Shane Greene 26 pre-arb 18 0.2 0.5 +0.2
Randy Wolf 38 FA-elig 8 0.2 0.1 +0.6
Bruce Rondón 24 pre-arb 35 0.1 0.5 -0.1
Josh Wilson 34 arb 21 0.1 0.2 +0.2
Dixon Machado 23 – 24 0.1 0.1 +0.2
Bryan Holaday 27 pre-arb 24 0.1 0.2 -0.0
Joe Nathan 40 FA-elig 1 0.0 10.0 -9.9
Drew VerHagen 24 pre-arb 20 0.0 0.1 -0.1
Tom Gorzelanny 32 FA-elig 48 -0.0 1.0 -1.1
Angel Nesbitt 24 – 24 -0.1 0.2 -0.5
Steven Moya 23 pre-arb 9 -0.1 0.1 -0.4
Daniel Fields 24 – 1 -0.1 – –
Jeff Ferrell 24 – 9 -0.1 0.1 -0.6
Ian Krol 24 pre-arb 33 -0.2 0.5 -1.1
José A. Váldez 25 – 7 -0.2 – –
Matthew Boyd↔ TOR 24 – 11 -0.2 0.1 -0.7
Jefry Marte 24 pre-arb 33 -0.2 0.2 -0.8
Kyle Ryan 23 pre-arb 16 -0.2 0.2 -0.9
Guido Knudson 25 pre-arb 4 -0.3 0.1 -1.1
Joakim Soria↔ PIT 31 FA-elig 43 -0.3 4.2 -5.2
Joba Chamberlain↔ KCR 29 FA-elig 30 -0.3 0.8 -1.8
Marc Krauss↔ ANA 27 – 12 -0.5 0.0 -1.6
Alex Avila 28 FA-elig 67 -0.5 5.4 -7.0
Buck Farmer 24 pre-arb 14 -0.5 0.2 -1.9
James McCann 25 pre-arb 114 -0.6 0.5 -2.3
Hernán Pérez↔ MIL 24 arb 22 -0.7 0.1 -2.3
Victor Martinez 36 FA-elig 120 -2.0 14.0 -20.2

47 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 45 of them (96%). 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.