RRosternomics
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Royals KCR

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GM: Herk Robinson

Overview

FORCED-SPEND ↘ cooling
expensive & losing · year 3 in this regime · payroll 1.09× league · TAB -12.7
-12.7TAB — talent above budget23rd/26
-11.1WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)22nd/26
5.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars21st/26
-5.2dead WAR — sub-replacement drag16th/26
46%dead money %20th/26
0.444win %20th/26
22.7roster fWAR24th/26
-19surplus $M (value vs cost)23rd/26
$33Mpayroll $M10th/26

Roster

CFBrian McRae 148GKevin Koslofski 18GGary Thurman 2G
LFKevin McReynolds 94GJim Eisenreich 24GJeff Conine 22G
RFJim Eisenreich 66GGary Thurman 58GKevin Koslofski 23G
SSDavid Howard 74GCurtis Wilkerson 69GRico Rossy 51G
2BKeith Miller 93GJuan Samuel 48GCurtis Wilkerson 39G
3BGregg Jefferies 146GRico Rossy 9GBrent Mayne 8G
1BWally Joyner 145GGeorge Brett 15GJeff Conine 4G
STARTERSKevin Appier 4.8WARMark Gubicza 2.1WARHipolito Pichardo 1.5WARDennis Rasmussen 1.1WARRick Reed 1.1WAR
CMike Macfarlane 104GBrent Mayne 62GBob Melvin 21G
DHGeorge Brett 131GMike Macfarlane 13GJim Eisenreich 8G
BULLPEN★ Jeff Montgomery 39svRusty Meacham 0hBill Sampen 0hJuan Berenguer 0hSteve Shifflett 0hRich Sauveur 0hDennis Moeller 0hJoel Johnston 0h
CMike Macfarlane 104 · Brent Mayne 62 · Bob Melvin 21
1BWally Joyner 145 · George Brett 15 · Jeff Conine 4
2BKeith Miller 93 · Juan Samuel 48 · Curtis Wilkerson 39
3BGregg Jefferies 146 · Rico Rossy 9 · Brent Mayne 8
SSDavid Howard 74 · Curtis Wilkerson 69 · Rico Rossy 51
LFKevin McReynolds 94 · Jim Eisenreich 24 · Jeff Conine 22
CFBrian McRae 148 · Kevin Koslofski 18 · Gary Thurman 2
RFJim Eisenreich 66 · Gary Thurman 58 · Kevin Koslofski 23
DHGeorge Brett 131 · Mike Macfarlane 13 · Jim Eisenreich 8
SPKevin Appier 4.8 · Mark Gubicza 2.1 · Hipolito Pichardo 1.5 · Dennis Rasmussen 1.1 · Rick Reed 1.1
BP★ Jeff Montgomery 39 · Rusty Meacham 0 · Bill Sampen 0 · Juan Berenguer 0 · Steve Shifflett 0 · Rich Sauveur 0 · Dennis Moeller 0 · Joel Johnston 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.

1992 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Kevin Appier 24 arb 304.8 0.4 +3.4
Mike Macfarlane 28 arb 1292.2 0.7 +1.0
Mark Gubicza 29 FA-elig 182.1 3.0 -1.3
Keith Miller 29 arb 1062.1 0.6 +1.1
Gregg Jefferies 24 arb 1522.1 1.1 +0.5
Rusty Meacham 24 – 641.8 – –
Hipolito Pichardo 22 – 311.5 – –
Jeff Montgomery 30 arb 651.4 2.5 -1.4
Wally Joyner 30 FA-elig 1491.4 4.2 -3.1
Rick Reed 26 – 191.1 – –
Dennis Rasmussen↔ CHC 33 – 51.1 – –
Tom Gordon 24 arb 401.0 0.8 -0.0
Kevin McReynolds 32 FA-elig 1090.6 3.4 -3.0
Mike Magnante 27 pre-arb 440.5 0.1 +0.3
Juan Samuel↔ LAD 31 FA-elig 290.5 0.9 -0.5
Bill Sampen↔ WSN 29 pre-arb 80.5 0.0 +0.3
Jim Eisenreich 33 FA-elig 1130.4 1.6 -1.3
Bob Melvin 30 FA-elig 320.4 0.9 -0.6
Mike Boddicker 34 FA-elig 290.4 3.1 -2.8
Rico Rossy 28 – 590.3 – –
Luis Aquino 28 FA-elig 150.3 0.7 -0.4
Chris Haney↔ WSN 23 pre-arb 70.3 0.0 +0.2
Curtis Wilkerson 31 FA-elig 1110.3 0.4 -0.2
George Brett 39 FA-elig 1520.3 3.1 -2.9
Juan Berenguer↔ ATL 37 FA-elig 190.2 0.5 -0.3
Curt Young↔ NYY 32 FA-elig 100.2 0.2 -0.0
David Howard 25 pre-arb 740.0 0.2 -0.1
Kevin Koslofski 25 – 550.0 – –
Harvey Pulliam 24 – 4-0.0 – –
Ed Pierce 23 – 2-0.1 – –
Jeff Conine 26 – 28-0.1 – –
Rich Sauveur 28 – 8-0.1 – –
Brent Mayne 24 pre-arb 82-0.2 0.2 -0.3
Steve Shifflett 26 – 34-0.2 – –
Joel Johnston 25 pre-arb 5-0.3 0.1 -0.4
Neal Heaton↔ MIL 32 FA-elig 31-0.3 1.1 -1.3
Chris Gwynn 27 arb 34-0.4 0.4 -0.7
Dennis Moeller 24 – 5-0.5 – –
Gary Thurman 27 arb 88-0.6 0.3 -0.8
Mark Davis↔ ATL 31 FA-elig 13-0.6 1.7 -2.2
Brian McRae 24 pre-arb 149-0.7 0.3 -0.9
Terry Shumpert 25 pre-arb 36-0.9 0.2 -0.9

Key additions (new vs 1991)

PlayerfWAR
Keith Miller2.1
Gregg Jefferies2.1
Rusty Meacham1.8
Hipolito Pichardo1.5
Wally Joyner1.4
Rick Reed1.1

Key subtractions (gone from 1991)

Player1991 fWAR
Danny Tartabull4.5
Bret Saberhagen4.4
Bill Pecota2.5
Kirk Gibson0.8
Kevin Seitzer0.7
Tim Spehr0.7

Current & Historical Payroll

1992 payroll
$32.7M

What the front office was committed to as of 1992, 1992–1998. 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)

PlayerAgeSvc1992199319941995199619971998
Wally Joyner306.000$4.2M$4.4M$4.6M$4.8MFREE AGENT
Kevin McReynolds329.000$3.4M$3.7MFREE AGENT
Mike Boddicker3412.000$3.1MFREE AGENT
George Brett3919.000$3.1M$2.8MFREE AGENT
Mark Gubicza298.000$3.0M$1.2M$610k$750k$1.6MFREE AGENT
Mark Davis3112.000$1.7MFREE AGENT
Jim Eisenreich3310.000$1.6MFREE AGENT
Neal Heaton3210.000$1.1MFREE AGENT
Bob Melvin307.000$900kFREE AGENT
Juan Samuel319.000$887kFREE AGENT$313k
Luis Aquino286.000$650kFREE AGENT
Juan Berenguer3714.000$485kFREE AGENT
Curtis Wilkerson319.000$400k$400kFREE AGENT
Curt Young329.000$174kFREE AGENT
Dennis Rasmussen339.000—$325kFREE AGENT$185k

Arbitration-eligible (9)

PlayerAgeSvc1992199319941995199619971998
Jeff Montgomery305.000$2.5MFREE AGENT
Gregg Jefferies245.000$1.1MFREE AGENT
Tom Gordon244.000$815kARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Macfarlane285.000$740kFREE AGENT
Keith Miller295.000$575kFREE AGENT
Chris Gwynn275.000$425kFREE AGENT
Kevin Appier243.000$390kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Gary Thurman275.000$288kFREE AGENT
Rick Reed264.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (18)

PlayerAgeSvc1992199319941995199619971998
Brian McRae242.000$275kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Terry Shumpert252.000$183kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brent Mayne242.000$170kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
David Howard251.000$152kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Magnante271.000$140kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Joel Johnston251.000$114kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris Haney231.000$49kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bill Sampen292.000$27kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Conine262.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kevin Koslofski250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rusty Meacham241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dennis Moeller240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Hipolito Pichardo220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ed Pierce23–—
Harvey Pulliam241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rico Rossy281.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rich Sauveur28–—
Steve Shifflett26–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Royals 1992; 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.