Rosternomics
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Tigers DET

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GM: Al Avila (since 2016)

2017 roster — every player, value & surplus

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-21.2
WAB — wins above budget
-13.4
TAB — roster Talent above budget
64–98 (0.395)
record
-88M
surplus $M (value/$)
23.9
roster fWAR
$168.0M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Justin Upton↔ ANA 29 FA-elig 125 3.8 18.2 -5.4
Michael Fulmer 24 pre-arb 25 3.6 0.6 +11.5
Justin Verlander↔ HOU 34 FA-elig 28 3.1 23.8 -13.3
Ian Kinsler 35 FA-elig 139 2.5 11.0 -2.5
Matthew Boyd 26 pre-arb 26 2.1 0.5 +6.5
Nick Castellanos 25 arb 157 2.1 3.0 +4.0
J.D. Martinez↔ ARI 29 FA-elig 57 1.7 5.6 +0.2
Daniel Norris 24 arb 22 1.4 0.5 +4.0
Alex Avila↔ CHC 30 FA-elig 77 1.3 1.4 +3.0
Mikie Mahtook 27 pre-arb 109 1.3 0.5 +3.7
Jordan Zimmermann 31 FA-elig 29 1.2 18.0 -14.0
Jose Iglesias 27 FA-elig 130 1.0 4.1 -0.6
Justin Wilson↔ CHC 29 arb 42 0.9 1.7 +1.4
Shane Greene 28 arb 71 0.7 0.6 +1.9
Jeimer Candelario↔ CHC 23 pre-arb 27 0.7 0.1 +2.2
James McCann 27 arb 106 0.7 0.6 +1.7
John Hicks 27 pre-arb 60 0.6 0.3 +1.8
Aníbal Sánchez 33 FA-elig 28 0.5 16.8 -15.1
Alex Wilson 30 arb 66 0.5 1.2 +0.4
Alex Presley 31 arb 71 0.4 0.4 +0.9
Buck Farmer 26 pre-arb 11 0.3 0.2 +1.0
Bruce Rondón 26 arb 21 0.3 0.8 +0.1
James Adduci 32 – 29 0.2 – –
Daniel Stumpf 26 arb 55 0.1 0.4 +0.1
Efren Navarro 31 pre-arb 23 0.1 0.1 +0.2
Artie Lewicki 25 – 4 0.1 0.1 +0.1
Matthew den Dekker 29 – 4 0.0 – –
William Cuevas 26 – 1 -0.0 0.0 -0.0
Jairo Labourt 23 – 6 -0.0 0.1 -0.1
Arcenio Leon 30 – 6 -0.0 0.0 -0.1
Victor Alcántara 24 – 6 -0.1 0.1 -0.3
Jeff Ferrell 26 pre-arb 11 -0.1 0.1 -0.4
Kyle Ryan 25 arb 8 -0.1 0.5 -1.0
Zac Reininger 24 – 10 -0.2 0.1 -0.6
Joe Jiménez 22 – 24 -0.2 0.2 -0.8
Dixon Machado 25 pre-arb 73 -0.2 0.5 -1.2
Bryan Holaday 29 arb 13 -0.2 0.1 -0.7
Blaine Hardy 30 pre-arb 35 -0.2 0.3 -1.0
Myles Jaye 25 – 5 -0.3 0.1 -1.1
Edward Mujica 33 FA-elig 5 -0.3 0.0 -1.0
Chad Bell 28 pre-arb 28 -0.3 0.4 -1.4
Warwick Saupold 27 pre-arb 45 -0.3 0.4 -1.5
Miguel Cabrera 34 FA-elig 130 -0.4 28.0 -29.3
Drew VerHagen 26 pre-arb 24 -0.5 0.2 -1.8
Andrew Romine 31 FA-elig 124 -0.6 1.3 -3.3
Francisco Rodríguez 35 FA-elig 28 -0.7 6.0 -8.4
JaCoby Jones 25 pre-arb 56 -0.8 0.5 -3.2
Tyler Collins 27 arb 49 -0.8 0.5 -3.4
Victor Martinez 38 FA-elig 107 -0.9 18.0 -21.0

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