Rosternomics
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Tigers DET

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GM: Al Avila (since 2016)

2016 roster — every player, value & surplus

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-1.3
WAB — wins above budget
-1.1
TAB — roster Talent above budget
86–75 (0.534)
record
-72M
surplus $M (value/$)
38.4
roster fWAR
$196.8M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Ian Kinsler 34 FA-elig 153 5.4 14.0 +3.5
Justin Verlander 33 FA-elig 34 5.4 28.0 -10.6
Miguel Cabrera 33 FA-elig 158 5.3 28.0 -10.7
Michael Fulmer 23 – 26 3.1 0.4 +9.6
J.D. Martinez 28 arb 120 2.5 6.8 +1.4
Nick Castellanos 24 arb 110 2.3 0.5 +7.0
Cameron Maybin 29 FA-elig 94 2.0 8.0 -1.6
Jose Iglesias 26 arb 137 1.7 2.1 +3.4
Justin Upton 28 FA-elig 153 1.7 22.1 -16.7
Jordan Zimmermann 30 FA-elig 19 1.4 18.0 -13.3
Shane Greene 27 pre-arb 50 1.3 0.5 +3.7
Daniel Norris 23 pre-arb 14 1.2 0.5 +3.3
Justin Wilson 28 arb 66 1.1 1.5 +2.1
Matthew Boyd 25 pre-arb 20 1.1 0.3 +3.2
Alex Wilson 29 arb 62 1.0 0.5 +2.7
Victor Martinez 37 FA-elig 154 0.9 18.0 -15.0
Aníbal Sánchez 32 FA-elig 35 0.9 16.8 -14.0
Francisco Rodríguez 34 FA-elig 61 0.7 7.5 -5.2
Kyle Ryan 24 pre-arb 56 0.6 0.5 +1.5
James McCann 26 pre-arb 105 0.6 0.5 +1.5
Mike Pelfrey 32 FA-elig 24 0.6 8.0 -6.2
Andrew Romine 30 FA-elig 109 0.4 0.9 +0.5
Bruce Rondón 25 pre-arb 37 0.4 0.3 +1.0
Tyler Collins 26 pre-arb 56 0.3 0.5 +0.4
Erick Aybar↔ ATL 32 FA-elig 29 0.2 2.0 -1.4
Warwick Saupold 26 pre-arb 6 0.2 0.0 +0.5
Dixon Machado 24 pre-arb 8 0.1 0.1 +0.4
Blaine Hardy 29 pre-arb 21 0.1 0.5 -0.1
Dustin Molleken 31 pre-arb 4 0.1 0.1 +0.3
John Hicks 26 pre-arb 1 0.1 0.1 +0.1
Logan Kensing 33 arb 3 0.0 0.0 +0.0
Alex Presley↔ MIL 30 arb 3 -0.0 0.0 -0.1
Joe Mantiply 25 – 5 -0.1 0.1 -0.3
Buck Farmer 25 pre-arb 14 -0.1 0.5 -0.8
JaCoby Jones 24 – 13 -0.1 0.1 -0.5
Bobby Parnell 31 – 6 -0.1 0.0 -0.4
Bobby Wilson↔ TBR 33 – 5 -0.1 0.0 -0.4
Drew VerHagen 25 pre-arb 19 -0.2 0.5 -1.0
Casey McGehee 33 FA-elig 30 -0.2 0.1 -0.8
Anthony Gose 25 arb 30 -0.3 0.5 -1.5
Mark Lowe 33 FA-elig 54 -0.4 5.5 -6.7
Steven Moya 24 pre-arb 31 -0.4 0.2 -1.5
Jarrod Saltalamacchia 31 FA-elig 92 -1.1 0.5 -4.2
Mike Aviles 35 – 68 -1.3 1.5 -5.7

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.