RRosternomics
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Royals KCR

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GM: John Schuerholz

Overview

CONTEND ↗ rising
expensive & winning · year 2 in this regime · payroll 1.21× league · TAB +2.4
+2.4TAB — talent above budget12th/26
+7.5WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)5th/26
10.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars2nd/26
-5.7dead WAR — sub-replacement drag20th/26
13%dead money %2nd/26
0.568win %3rd/26
39.1roster fWAR8th/26
-2surplus $M (value vs cost)17th/26
$16Mpayroll $M6th/26

Roster

CFWillie Wilson 108GJim Eisenreich 67GGary Thurman 29G
LFBo Jackson 110GJim Eisenreich 26GPat Tabler 26G
RFDanny Tartabull 73GJim Eisenreich 58GMatt Winters 31G
SSKurt Stillwell 130GBrad Wellman 35GBill Pecota 28G
2BFrank White 132GBrad Wellman 62GBill Pecota 13G
3BKevin Seitzer 159GRey Palacios 21GBill Pecota 7G
1BGeorge Brett 105GLuis de los Santos 27GBill Buckner 25G
STARTERSBret Saberhagen 7.5WARMark Gubicza 6.3WARTom Gordon 2.4WARLuis Aquino 2.0WARCharlie Leibrandt 1.2WAR
CBob Boone 129GMike Macfarlane 59GRey Palacios 13G
DHDanny Tartabull 53GPat Tabler 40GBo Jackson 24G
BULLPEN★ Jeff Montgomery 18svSteve Farr 0hTerry Leach 0hSteve Crawford 0hRick Luecken 0hJerry Don Gleaton 0hJose De Jesus 0hStan Clarke 0h
CBob Boone 129 · Mike Macfarlane 59 · Rey Palacios 13
1BGeorge Brett 105 · Luis de los Santos 27 · Bill Buckner 25
2BFrank White 132 · Brad Wellman 62 · Bill Pecota 13
3BKevin Seitzer 159 · Rey Palacios 21 · Bill Pecota 7
SSKurt Stillwell 130 · Brad Wellman 35 · Bill Pecota 28
LFBo Jackson 110 · Jim Eisenreich 26 · Pat Tabler 26
CFWillie Wilson 108 · Jim Eisenreich 67 · Gary Thurman 29
RFDanny Tartabull 73 · Jim Eisenreich 58 · Matt Winters 31
DHDanny Tartabull 53 · Pat Tabler 40 · Bo Jackson 24
SPBret Saberhagen 7.5 · Mark Gubicza 6.3 · Tom Gordon 2.4 · Luis Aquino 2.0 · Charlie Leibrandt 1.2
BP★ Jeff Montgomery 18 · Steve Farr 0 · Terry Leach 0 · Steve Crawford 0 · Rick Luecken 0 · Jerry Don Gleaton 0 · Jose De Jesus 0 · Stan Clarke 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.

1989 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Bret Saberhagen 25 arb 397.5 1.4 +1.3
Mark Gubicza 26 arb 366.3 1.4 +0.9
Jim Eisenreich 30 FA-elig 1343.1 0.1 +1.0
Bob Boone 41 FA-elig 1312.9 0.9 +0.2
Jeff Montgomery 27 pre-arb 632.7 0.1 +0.9
Bo Jackson 26 arb 1352.4 0.6 +0.3
Tom Gordon 21 pre-arb 492.4 0.1 +0.8
Kevin Seitzer 27 arb 1602.3 0.3 +0.5
Danny Tartabull 26 arb 1332.2 1.0 -0.3
Luis Aquino 25 arb 342.0 0.1 +0.7
Kurt Stillwell 24 arb 1301.8 0.5 +0.2
Frank White 38 FA-elig 1351.7 1.0 -0.4
George Brett 36 FA-elig 1241.6 2.0 -1.4
Willie Wilson 33 FA-elig 1121.2 2.1 -1.7
Charlie Leibrandt 32 FA-elig 331.2 1.2 -0.8
Steve Farr 32 arb 510.8 0.6 -0.3
Floyd Bannister 34 FA-elig 140.6 0.9 -0.7
Larry McWilliams↔ PHI 35 FA-elig 80.6 0.0 +0.2
Bill Pecota 29 arb 650.6 0.1 +0.1
Steve Crawford 31 FA-elig 250.4 0.1 -0.0
Brad Wellman 29 FA-elig 1030.2 0.2 -0.1
Jerry Don Gleaton 31 – 150.1 – –
Jeff Schulz 28 – 70.0 – –
Terry Leach↔ NYM 35 FA-elig 30-0.0 0.3 -0.3
Luis de los Santos 22 – 28-0.1 – –
Mike Macfarlane 25 pre-arb 69-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Bob Buchanan 28 – 2-0.1 – –
Kevin Appier 21 – 6-0.2 – –
Jose De Jesus 24 – 3-0.2 – –
Rick Luecken 28 pre-arb 19-0.2 0.1 -0.1
Stan Clarke 28 – 2-0.2 – –
Rey Palacios 26 – 55-0.3 – –
Matt Winters 29 pre-arb 42-0.4 0.1 -0.2
Gary Thurman 24 pre-arb 72-0.8 0.1 -0.3
Bill Buckner 39 FA-elig 79-1.3 0.4 -0.9
Pat Tabler 31 FA-elig 123-1.9 0.8 -1.5

Key additions (new vs 1988)

PlayerfWAR
Bob Boone2.9
Larry McWilliams0.6
Steve Crawford0.4
Jeff Schulz0.0
Terry Leach-0.0
Bob Buchanan-0.1

Key subtractions (gone from 1988)

Player1988 fWAR
Jamie Quirk1.0
Ted Power0.5
Dan Quisenberry0.4
Israel Sanchez0.2
Larry Owen0.2
Bud Black0.1

Current & Historical Payroll

1989 payroll
$16.5M

What the front office was committed to as of 1989, 1989–1995. 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 (14)

PlayerAgeSvc1989199019911992199319941995
Willie Wilson3313.000$2.1M$800kFREE AGENT
George Brett3616.000$2.0M$2.3M$3.1M$3.1M$2.8MFREE AGENT
Charlie Leibrandt3210.000$1.2MFREE AGENT
Frank White3816.000$1.0M$1.1MFREE AGENT
Floyd Bannister3412.000$900kFREE AGENT
Bob Boone4117.000$883k$1.9MFREE AGENT
Pat Tabler318.000$825k$591kFREE AGENT
Bill Buckner3920.000$400kFREE AGENT
Terry Leach358.000$319kFREE AGENT
Brad Wellman297.000$155kFREE AGENT
Steve Crawford319.000$150k$375kFREE AGENT
Jim Eisenreich307.000$120k$475k$950k$1.6MFREE AGENT
Larry McWilliams3511.000$11k$300kFREE AGENT
Jerry Don Gleaton3110.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (9)

PlayerAgeSvc1989199019911992199319941995
Mark Gubicza265.000$1.4MFREE AGENT
Bret Saberhagen255.000$1.4MFREE AGENT
Danny Tartabull265.000$1.0MFREE AGENT
Bo Jackson263.000$610kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Farr325.000$605kFREE AGENT
Kurt Stillwell243.000$460kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kevin Seitzer273.000$340kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bill Pecota293.000$85kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Luis Aquino253.000$68kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (13)

PlayerAgeSvc1989199019911992199319941995
Jeff Montgomery272.000$95kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Macfarlane252.000$70kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tom Gordon211.000$68kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Gary Thurman242.000$68kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rick Luecken280.000$68kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Matt Winters290.000$68kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kevin Appier210.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bob Buchanan28–—
Stan Clarke28–—
Jose De Jesus241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Luis de los Santos22–—
Rey Palacios261.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Schulz280.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Royals 1989; 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.