Rosternomics
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Astros HOU

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GM: Jeff Luhnow (since 2012)

2012 roster — every player, value & surplus

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-16.2
WAB — wins above budget
-8.0
TAB — roster Talent above budget
55–107 (0.340)
record
-4M
surplus $M (value/$)
16.0
roster fWAR
$43.4M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Lucas Harrell 27 pre-arb 35 2.7 0.5 +6.4
Jed Lowrie 28 arb 97 2.4 1.1 +5.1
Jose Altuve 22 pre-arb 147 2.0 0.5 +4.5
Justin Maxwell 28 – 124 1.9 – –
Wandy Rodriguez↔ PIT 33 FA-elig 21 1.6 6.2 -2.0
Bud Norris 27 arb 30 1.5 0.5 +3.3
Wilton Lopez 28 arb 64 1.3 0.5 +2.8
Jordan Lyles 21 pre-arb 26 1.0 0.5 +2.0
Carlos Corporán 28 pre-arb 27 0.9 0.5 +1.9
Carlos Lee↔ MIA 36 FA-elig 66 0.8 8.4 -6.4
Chris Johnson↔ ARI 27 arb 92 0.7 0.3 +1.4
J.A. Happ↔ TOR 29 arb 22 0.7 1.6 +0.1
Scott Moore 28 pre-arb 72 0.7 0.5 +1.2
Mickey Storey 26 – 26 0.5 0.5 +0.8
Wesley Wright 27 arb 78 0.5 0.5 +0.7
Brandon Lyon↔ TOR 32 FA-elig 37 0.4 3.0 -2.0
Tyler Greene↔ STL 28 arb 39 0.4 0.2 +0.8
Jason Castro 25 pre-arb 87 0.4 0.5 +0.4
Xavier Cedeño 25 pre-arb 44 0.3 0.5 +0.4
Hector Ambriz 28 pre-arb 18 0.3 0.5 +0.3
Matt Dominguez 22 pre-arb 31 0.3 0.5 +0.3
Chris Snyder 31 FA-elig 76 0.3 0.8 -0.0
Fernando Rodriguez Jr. 28 arb 71 0.3 0.5 +0.2
Edgar Gonzalez 29 arb 6 0.3 0.5 +0.2
Fernando Abad 26 pre-arb 37 0.2 0.5 -0.1
Fernando Martinez 23 pre-arb 41 0.2 0.5 -0.1
Brandon Laird 24 pre-arb 17 0.1 0.5 -0.3
Travis Buck 28 arb 33 0.0 0.6 -0.5
Enerio Del Rosario 26 – 19 0.0 – –
Jose G. Valdez 29 – 12 0.0 – –
Brandon Barnes 26 – 43 0.0 0.5 -0.5
Brett Myers↔ CHW 31 FA-elig 35 -0.0 5.5 -5.5
Aneury Rodriguez 24 – 1 -0.0 – –
David Carpenter↔ TOR 26 pre-arb 31 -0.0 0.4 -0.5
Brian Bixler 29 – 36 -0.0 – –
Brett Wallace 25 pre-arb 66 -0.1 0.5 -0.8
Ben Francisco↔ TBR 30 arb 31 -0.1 0.6 -1.0
Steve Pearce↔ BAL 29 – 21 -0.2 – –
J.D. Martinez 24 pre-arb 113 -0.3 0.5 -1.2
Kyle Weiland 25 pre-arb 4 -0.3 0.5 -1.3
Matt Downs 28 arb 91 -0.4 0.5 -1.4
Francisco Cordero↔ TOR 37 FA-elig 6 -0.4 0.6 -1.5
Rhiner Cruz 25 pre-arb 52 -0.4 0.5 -1.5
Jordan Schafer 25 arb 106 -0.4 0.5 -1.6
Brian Bogusevic 28 pre-arb 146 -0.5 0.5 -1.7
C.J. Fick↔ STL 26 – 18 -0.5 – –
Marwin Gonzalez 23 pre-arb 80 -0.6 0.5 -2.0
Dallas Keuchel 24 – 17 -0.6 0.5 -2.1
Armando Galarraga 30 – 5 -0.7 – –
Jimmy Paredes 23 pre-arb 24 -0.8 0.5 -2.6

50 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 42 of them (84%). 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 HOU
Jeff Bagwell199080.2
Yordan Álvarez201626.7
Mike Scott198221.9
Justin Verlander201719.7
Mike Hampton199319.2
Kevin Bass198217.5
Nolan Ryan198516.2
Moisés Alou199713.5
Ones that got away
PlayerYear tradedWAR elsewhere
Kenny Lofton199142.5
Curt Schilling199236.3
Ben Zobrist200633.1
Ken Caminiti199417.4
Freddy García199815.6
Jed Lowrie201313.0
Ramón Laureano20179.2
Patrick Sandoval20188.9
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.