RRosternomics
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Royals KCR

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GM: John Schuerholz

Overview

FORCED-SPEND ↘ cooling
expensive & losing · year 1 in this regime · payroll 1.14× league · TAB -4.8
-4.8TAB — talent above budget18th/26
-7.7WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)18th/26
8.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars7th/26
-5.5dead WAR — sub-replacement drag21st/26
29%dead money %8th/26
0.469win %16th/26
31.1roster fWAR15th/26
-4surplus $M (value vs cost)22nd/26
$13Mpayroll $M8th/26

Roster

CFWillie Wilson 155GMike Kingery 13GLynn Jones 8G
LFLonnie Smith 118GRudy Law 54GLynn Jones 37G
RFMike Kingery 51GRudy Law 36GBo Jackson 23G
SSAngel Salazar 115GBuddy Biancalana 89GGreg Pryor 18G
2BFrank White 151GBuddy Biancalana 12GGreg Pryor 12G
3BGeorge Brett 115GGreg Pryor 35GJamie Quirk 24G
1BSteve Balboni 137GKevin Seitzer 22GJamie Quirk 6G
STARTERSCharlie Leibrandt 3.7WARBret Saberhagen 3.5WARMark Gubicza 3.0WARDanny Jackson 2.9WARDennis Leonard 2.6WAR
CJim Sundberg 134GJamie Quirk 41GTerry Bell 8G
DHJorge Orta 83GHal McRae 58GLonnie Smith 10G
BULLPEN★ Dan Quisenberry 12svSteve Farr 0hBud Black 0hDavid Cone 0hSteve Shields 0hAlan Hargesheimer 0h
CJim Sundberg 134 · Jamie Quirk 41 · Terry Bell 8
1BSteve Balboni 137 · Kevin Seitzer 22 · Jamie Quirk 6
2BFrank White 151 · Buddy Biancalana 12 · Greg Pryor 12
3BGeorge Brett 115 · Greg Pryor 35 · Jamie Quirk 24
SSAngel Salazar 115 · Buddy Biancalana 89 · Greg Pryor 18
LFLonnie Smith 118 · Rudy Law 54 · Lynn Jones 37
CFWillie Wilson 155 · Mike Kingery 13 · Lynn Jones 8
RFMike Kingery 51 · Rudy Law 36 · Bo Jackson 23
DHJorge Orta 83 · Hal McRae 58 · Lonnie Smith 10
SPCharlie Leibrandt 3.7 · Bret Saberhagen 3.5 · Mark Gubicza 3.0 · Danny Jackson 2.9 · Dennis Leonard 2.6
BP★ Dan Quisenberry 12 · Steve Farr 0 · Bud Black 0 · David Cone 0 · Steve Shields 0 · Alan Hargesheimer 0

Each position lists its starter then backups by games (so platoons & bench show). Starters (mound) & bullpen (left, foul territory) are ranked by WAR; ★ marks the closer (most save chances). MLB Stats API.

1986 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Frank White 35 FA-elig 1514.3 0.5 +0.8
George Brett 33 FA-elig 1243.8 1.5 -0.3
Charlie Leibrandt 29 FA-elig 353.7 0.8 +0.3
Bret Saberhagen 22 pre-arb 303.5 0.9 +0.1
Mark Gubicza 23 pre-arb 353.0 0.2 +0.6
Danny Jackson 24 arb 322.9 0.2 +0.7
Dennis Leonard 35 FA-elig 332.6 0.9 -0.1
Lonnie Smith 30 FA-elig 1342.3 1.0 -0.3
Willie Wilson 30 FA-elig 1561.9 1.2 -0.6
Scott Bankhead 22 pre-arb 241.8 0.1 +0.5
Jim Sundberg 35 FA-elig 1401.5 0.7 -0.2
Dan Quisenberry 33 FA-elig 621.3 0.9 -0.6
Steve Farr 29 pre-arb 560.9 0.1 +0.2
Kevin Seitzer 24 – 280.9 – –
Jamie Quirk 31 FA-elig 800.9 0.1 +0.1
Angel Salazar 24 arb 1170.8 0.1 +0.2
Mark Huismann↔ SEA 28 arb 100.3 0.0 +0.1
Bill Pecota 26 – 120.2 – –
Bud Black 29 arb 560.1 0.6 -0.6
David Cone 23 pre-arb 110.1 0.1 -0.0
Steve Balboni 29 arb 1380.0 0.5 -0.5
Rudy Law 29 FA-elig 870.0 0.4 -0.4
Terry Bell 23 – 80.0 – –
Jorge Orta 35 FA-elig 106-0.0 0.5 -0.5
Rondin Johnson 27 – 11-0.1 – –
Dwight Taylor 26 – 4-0.1 – –
Alan Hargesheimer 31 FA-elig 5-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Steve Shields↔ ATL 27 – 3-0.1 – –
Mike Brewer 26 – 12-0.2 – –
Buddy Biancalana 26 arb 100-0.3 0.2 -0.2
Mike Kingery 25 pre-arb 62-0.4 0.1 -0.2
Hal McRae 40 FA-elig 112-0.6 0.7 -0.8
Bo Jackson 23 – 25-0.7 – –
Lynn Jones 33 FA-elig 67-0.8 0.2 -0.4
Greg Pryor 36 FA-elig 63-1.0 0.3 -0.6
Darryl Motley↔ ATL 26 arb 72-1.2 0.2 -0.6

Key additions (new vs 1985)

PlayerfWAR
Scott Bankhead1.8
Kevin Seitzer0.9
Angel Salazar0.8
Bill Pecota0.2
David Cone0.1
Rudy Law0.0

Key subtractions (gone from 1985)

Player1985 fWAR
Joe Beckwith0.9
John Wathan0.9
Pat Sheridan0.1
Tony Ferreira0.1
Michael LaCoss0.0
Jim Scranton0.0

Current & Historical Payroll

1986 payroll
$12.8M

What the front office was committed to as of 1986, 1986–1992. Pre-2015 has no contract-terms data — forward italic $ are realized actuals (hindsight, not commitments known then). Control labels (ARB/FA) are point-in-time.

current $ guaranteed $ actual $ (hindsight) arbitration (proj) pre-arb (proj) free agent

Guaranteed / signed (15)

PlayerAgeSvc1986198719881989199019911992
George Brett3313.000$1.5M$2.1M$2.3M$2.0M$2.3M$3.1M$3.1M
Willie Wilson3010.000$1.2M$1.4M$1.4M$2.1M$800kFREE AGENT
Lonnie Smith308.000$1.0M$500kFREE AGENT
Dan Quisenberry337.000$925k$1.3M$973kFREE AGENT
Dennis Leonard3512.000$883kFREE AGENT
Charlie Leibrandt297.000$770k$850k$1.2M$1.2MFREE AGENT
Jim Sundberg3512.000$653kFREE AGENT
Hal McRae4018.000$650k$110kFREE AGENT
Frank White3513.000$485k$875k$825k$1.0M$1.1MFREE AGENT
Jorge Orta3514.000$450k$125kFREE AGENT
Rudy Law298.000$360kFREE AGENT
Greg Pryor3610.000$294kFREE AGENT
Lynn Jones337.000$185kFREE AGENT
Jamie Quirk3111.000$150k$200k$335kFREE AGENT
Alan Hargesheimer316.000$67kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (7)

PlayerAgeSvc1986198719881989199019911992
Bud Black295.000$645kFREE AGENT
Steve Balboni295.000$525kFREE AGENT
Darryl Motley265.000$241kFREE AGENT
Danny Jackson243.000$175kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Buddy Biancalana264.000$165kARB 3FREE AGENT
Angel Salazar243.000$75kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Huismann283.000$22kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (14)

PlayerAgeSvc1986198719881989199019911992
Bret Saberhagen222.000$925kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Gubicza232.000$250kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Farr292.000$85kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Scott Bankhead220.000$60kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
David Cone230.000$60kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Kingery250.000$60kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Terry Bell23–—
Mike Brewer26–—
Bo Jackson230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rondin Johnson27–—
Bill Pecota260.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kevin Seitzer240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Shields271.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dwight Taylor26–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Royals 1986; the black line = the league-average player at each slot that season. Staying above the line deep into the roster is the depth edge; dropping below it = holes & dead weight.

What each regime is worth — every settled team-season since 1985

RegimeSeasonsWin %Playoff %Pennant %WS %
WINDOW 28152.131.05.01.1
CONTEND 30056.964.719.710.3
FORCED-SPEND 25648.09.81.61.6
REBUILD 32143.31.20.30.3
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.