RRosternomics
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Royals KCR

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GM: John Schuerholz

Overview

CONTEND ↗ rising
expensive & winning · year 1 in this regime · payroll 1.17× league · TAB +0.3
+0.3TAB — talent above budget16th/26
+0.5WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)14th/26
7.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars11th/26
-4.5dead WAR — sub-replacement drag16th/26
30%dead money %11th/26
0.522win %12th/26
36.2roster fWAR12th/26
-2surplus $M (value vs cost)17th/26
$14Mpayroll $M6th/26

Roster

CFWillie Wilson 142GJim Eisenreich 15GGary Thurman 11G
LFBo Jackson 103GJim Eisenreich 30GPat Tabler 28G
RFDanny Tartabull 130GJim Eisenreich 21GBo Jackson 15G
SSKurt Stillwell 124GBill Pecota 41GBrad Wellman 15G
2BFrank White 148GBrad Wellman 46GBill Pecota 3G
3BKevin Seitzer 147GBill Pecota 21GBrad Wellman 4G
1BGeorge Brett 124GBill Buckner 22GPat Tabler 17G
STARTERSMark Gubicza 6.2WARBret Saberhagen 5.5WARCharlie Leibrandt 3.4WARFloyd Bannister 1.2WARLuis Aquino 0.1WAR
CJamie Quirk 79GMike Macfarlane 68GLarry Owen 37G
DHPat Tabler 69GBill Buckner 51GGeorge Brett 33G
BULLPEN★ Steve Farr 20svJeff Montgomery 0hJerry Don Gleaton 0hGene Garber 0hIsrael Sanchez 0hRick Anderson 0hTom Gordon 0hMark Lee 0h
CJamie Quirk 79 · Mike Macfarlane 68 · Larry Owen 37
1BGeorge Brett 124 · Bill Buckner 22 · Pat Tabler 17
2BFrank White 148 · Brad Wellman 46 · Bill Pecota 3
3BKevin Seitzer 147 · Bill Pecota 21 · Brad Wellman 4
SSKurt Stillwell 124 · Bill Pecota 41 · Brad Wellman 15
LFBo Jackson 103 · Jim Eisenreich 30 · Pat Tabler 28
CFWillie Wilson 142 · Jim Eisenreich 15 · Gary Thurman 11
RFDanny Tartabull 130 · Jim Eisenreich 21 · Bo Jackson 15
DHPat Tabler 69 · Bill Buckner 51 · George Brett 33
SPMark Gubicza 6.2 · Bret Saberhagen 5.5 · Charlie Leibrandt 3.4 · Floyd Bannister 1.2 · Luis Aquino 0.1
BP★ Steve Farr 20 · Jeff Montgomery 0 · Jerry Don Gleaton 0 · Gene Garber 0 · Israel Sanchez 0 · Rick Anderson 0 · Tom Gordon 0 · Mark Lee 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.

1988 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Mark Gubicza 25 arb 356.2 0.6 +1.3
Bret Saberhagen 24 arb 355.5 1.1 +0.6
George Brett 35 FA-elig 1575.3 2.3 -0.6
Kevin Seitzer 26 pre-arb 1494.2 0.2 +1.1
Charlie Leibrandt 31 FA-elig 353.4 1.2 -0.2
Danny Tartabull 25 arb 1463.4 0.3 +0.7
Kurt Stillwell 23 pre-arb 1282.8 0.1 +0.7
Bo Jackson 25 pre-arb 1241.8 0.4 +0.2
Steve Farr 31 arb 621.5 0.2 +0.2
Floyd Bannister 33 FA-elig 311.2 0.9 -0.5
Jamie Quirk 33 FA-elig 841.0 0.3 -0.0
Mike Macfarlane 24 pre-arb 700.8 0.1 +0.2
Ted Power↔ DET 33 FA-elig 220.5 0.5 -0.3
Pat Tabler↔ CLE 30 FA-elig 890.5 0.5 -0.4
Frank White 37 FA-elig 1500.5 0.8 -0.7
Dan Quisenberry↔ STL 35 FA-elig 200.4 0.6 -0.5
Tom Gordon 20 – 50.4 – –
Brad Wellman 28 FA-elig 710.3 0.1 -0.0
Jerry Don Gleaton 30 FA-elig 420.3 0.1 -0.0
Israel Sanchez 24 – 190.2 – –
Larry Owen 33 FA-elig 370.2 0.1 -0.0
Bill Pecota 28 pre-arb 900.1 0.1 -0.0
Luis Aquino 24 – 70.1 – –
Bud Black↔ CLE 31 FA-elig 170.1 0.3 -0.3
Rick Anderson 31 – 70.0 – –
Mark Lee 23 – 40.0 – –
Willie Wilson 32 FA-elig 147-0.0 1.4 -1.4
Jose De Jesus 23 – 2-0.1 – –
Scotti Madison 28 arb 16-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Jeff Montgomery 26 pre-arb 45-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Thad Bosley↔ ANA 31 FA-elig 15-0.1 0.1 -0.2
Ed Hearn 27 pre-arb 7-0.2 0.1 -0.1
Rey Palacios 25 – 5-0.2 – –
Luis de los Santos 21 – 11-0.2 – –
Dave Owen 30 – 7-0.2 – –
Nick Capra 30 – 14-0.3 – –
Gene Garber 40 FA-elig 26-0.3 0.5 -0.6
Bill Buckner↔ ANA 38 FA-elig 89-0.7 0.3 -0.5
Steve Balboni↔ SEA 31 FA-elig 21-0.7 0.1 -0.3
Gary Thurman 23 pre-arb 35-0.7 0.1 -0.3
Jim Eisenreich 29 FA-elig 82-0.8 0.1 -0.3

Key additions (new vs 1987)

PlayerfWAR
Kurt Stillwell2.8
Floyd Bannister1.2
Ted Power0.5
Pat Tabler0.5
Tom Gordon0.4
Brad Wellman0.3

Key subtractions (gone from 1987)

Player1987 fWAR
Danny Jackson4.3
John Davis0.6
Hal McRae0.2
Ross Jones0.1
Bob Stoddard0.1
Dave Gumpert0.0

Current & Historical Payroll

1988 payroll
$13.8M

What the front office was committed to as of 1988, 1988–1994. 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 (18)

PlayerAgeSvc1988198919901991199219931994
George Brett3515.000$2.3M$2.0M$2.3M$3.1M$3.1M$2.8MFREE AGENT
Willie Wilson3212.000$1.4M$2.1M$800kFREE AGENT
Charlie Leibrandt319.000$1.2M$1.2MFREE AGENT
Floyd Bannister3311.000$900k$900kFREE AGENT
Frank White3715.000$825k$1.0M$1.1MFREE AGENT
Dan Quisenberry359.000$590kFREE AGENT
Pat Tabler307.000$548k$825k$591kFREE AGENT
Gene Garber4019.000$500kFREE AGENT
Ted Power337.000$487kFREE AGENT
Jamie Quirk3313.000$335kFREE AGENT
Bill Buckner3819.000$330k$400kFREE AGENT
Bud Black317.000$327kFREE AGENT
Brad Wellman286.000$125k$155kFREE AGENT
Thad Bosley3111.000$120kFREE AGENT
Jerry Don Gleaton309.000$120kFREE AGENT
Larry Owen337.000$110kFREE AGENT
Jim Eisenreich296.000$90k$120k$475k$950k$1.6MFREE AGENT
Steve Balboni317.000$62kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (5)

PlayerAgeSvc1988198919901991199219931994
Bret Saberhagen244.000$1.1MARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Gubicza254.000$635kARB 3FREE AGENT
Danny Tartabull254.000$330kARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Farr314.000$225kARB 3FREE AGENT
Scotti Madison283.000$65kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (18)

PlayerAgeSvc1988198919901991199219931994
Bo Jackson252.000$383kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kevin Seitzer262.000$175kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kurt Stillwell232.000$138kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ed Hearn272.000$80kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bill Pecota282.000$65kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Montgomery261.000$64kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Macfarlane241.000$62kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Gary Thurman231.000$62kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rick Anderson31–—
Luis Aquino242.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Nick Capra30–—
Jose De Jesus230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Luis de los Santos21–—
Tom Gordon200.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Lee230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Owen30–—
Rey Palacios250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Israel Sanchez240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Royals 1988; 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.