Rosternomics
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Tigers DET

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GM: Al Avila (since 2016)

2020 roster — every player, value & surplus

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-14.4 pace
WAB — wins above budget (162-game pace)
-12.7 pace
TAB — roster Talent above budget (162-game pace)
23–35 (0.397)
record
-43M
surplus $M (value/$)
6.6
roster fWAR
$91.6M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Jeimer Candelario 26 pre-arb 52 1.8 0.2 +13.1
Jonathan Schoop 28 FA-elig 44 1.5 6.1 +5.0
Spencer Turnbull 27 pre-arb 11 1.3 0.2 +9.4
Willi Castro 23 pre-arb 36 1.2 0.1 +8.7
JaCoby Jones 28 arb 30 0.9 1.6 +5.0
José Cisnero 31 pre-arb 29 0.8 0.2 +5.7
Victor Reyes 25 pre-arb 57 0.8 0.2 +5.5
Niko Goodrum 28 pre-arb 43 0.7 0.3 +4.7
Daniel Norris 27 FA-elig 14 0.6 3.0 +1.2
C.J. Cron 30 FA-elig 13 0.4 6.1 -2.8
Bryan Garcia 25 pre-arb 26 0.4 0.2 +2.7
Harold Castro 26 pre-arb 22 0.4 0.2 +2.4
Miguel Cabrera 37 FA-elig 57 0.3 30.0 -28.0
Gregory Soto 25 pre-arb 27 0.2 0.2 +1.3
Jordan Zimmermann 34 FA-elig 3 0.2 25.0 -23.7
John Schreiber 26 pre-arb 15 0.1 0.2 +0.7
Buck Farmer 29 FA-elig 23 0.1 1.1 -0.4
Cameron Maybin↔ CHC 33 FA-elig 14 0.1 0.7 -0.3
Carson Fulmer↔ BAL 26 – 7 0.0 0.1 -0.1
Jordy Mercer↔ NYY 33 FA-elig 3 -0.0 0.0 -0.3
Jorge Bonifacio 27 pre-arb 30 -0.0 0.1 -0.4
Matthew Boyd 29 arb 12 -0.1 5.3 -5.7
Dawel Lugo 25 pre-arb 9 -0.1 0.1 -0.5
Anthony Castro 25 – 1 -0.1 0.0 -0.5
David McKay 25 pre-arb 1 -0.1 0.0 -0.6
Nick Ramirez 30 pre-arb 5 -0.1 0.1 -0.9
Eric Haase 27 pre-arb 7 -0.1 0.0 -0.9
Sergio Alcántara 23 – 10 -0.1 0.1 -0.9
Tarik Skubal 23 – 8 -0.1 0.1 -1.0
Derek Hill 24 – 15 -0.1 0.1 -1.1
Iván Nova 33 FA-elig 4 -0.2 1.5 -2.7
Tyler Alexander 25 pre-arb 14 -0.2 0.2 -1.4
Kyle Funkhouser 26 – 13 -0.2 0.2 -1.4
Brandon Dixon 28 pre-arb 5 -0.2 0.0 -1.4
Beau Burrows 23 – 5 -0.2 0.1 -1.5
Casey Mize 23 – 7 -0.2 0.1 -1.6
Travis Demeritte 25 pre-arb 18 -0.2 0.1 -1.8
Daz Cameron 23 – 17 -0.2 0.1 -1.8
Grayson Greiner 27 pre-arb 18 -0.3 0.2 -2.3
Isaac Paredes 21 – 34 -0.3 0.1 -2.3
Michael Fulmer 27 arb 10 -0.3 2.8 -5.1
Christin Stewart 26 pre-arb 36 -0.3 0.2 -2.6
Austin Romine 31 FA-elig 37 -0.4 4.1 -6.9
Rony García 22 – 15 -0.4 0.2 -3.5
Joe Jiménez 25 pre-arb 25 -0.6 0.2 -4.4

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.