Rosternomics
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Royals KCR

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GM: Herk Robinson (since 1991)

1998 roster — every player, value & surplus

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-8.0
WAB — wins above budget
-14.1
TAB — roster Talent above budget
72–89 (0.447)
record
-17M
surplus $M (value/$)
18.6
roster fWAR
$37.2M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Jose Offerman 29 FA-elig 158 4.6 2.0 +3.0
José Rosado 23 pre-arb 38 2.3 0.2 +2.2
Dean Palmer 29 FA-elig 152 1.9 5.8 -3.8
Tim Belcher 36 FA-elig 34 1.9 2.3 -0.3
Glendon Rusch 23 pre-arb 29 1.5 0.2 +1.4
Jeff King 33 FA-elig 131 1.4 4.0 -2.5
Scott Service 31 FA-elig 73 1.4 0.2 +1.3
Hipolito Pichardo 28 FA-elig 27 1.2 2.1 -0.8
Pat Rapp 30 FA-elig 32 1.2 0.8 +0.5
Johnny Damon 24 arb 161 1.1 0.5 +0.7
Sal Fasano 26 pre-arb 74 0.6 0.2 +0.5
Matt Whisenant 27 pre-arb 70 0.6 0.2 +0.5
Brian Barber 25 arb 8 0.6 0.2 +0.4
Tim Spehr↔ NYM 31 FA-elig 11 0.5 0.1 +0.4
Mendy López 24 pre-arb 74 0.5 0.2 +0.3
Jeff Montgomery 36 FA-elig 56 0.4 2.8 -2.3
Ricky Bones 29 FA-elig 32 0.4 0.4 +0.0
Carlos Febles 22 pre-arb 11 0.4 0.2 +0.3
Brian Bevil 26 pre-arb 39 0.4 0.2 +0.2
Jeff Suppan↔ ARI 23 arb 4 0.4 0.1 +0.3
Jeff Conine 32 FA-elig 93 0.3 2.2 -1.9
Mike Sweeney 24 arb 92 0.3 0.2 +0.1
Shane Mack↔ OAK 34 FA-elig 66 0.2 0.4 -0.2
Hal Morris 33 FA-elig 127 0.2 1.4 -1.2
Carlos Beltrán 21 pre-arb 14 0.2 0.2 -0.0
Bart Evans 27 pre-arb 8 0.2 0.2 -0.0
Luis Rivera 34 FA-elig 42 0.1 0.2 -0.2
Jose Santiago 23 pre-arb 2 0.0 0.2 -0.1
Kevin Appier 30 FA-elig 3 0.0 4.8 -4.8
Jeremy Giambi 23 pre-arb 18 0.0 0.2 -0.1
Mike Macfarlane↔ OAK 34 FA-elig 3 0.0 0.0 -0.0
Ernie Young 28 arb 25 -0.0 0.2 -0.3
Tim Byrdak 24 – 3 -0.1 – –
Jed Hansen 25 pre-arb 4 -0.1 0.2 -0.3
Danny Rios 25 – 5 -0.1 – –
Joe Vitiello 28 arb 3 -0.1 0.2 -0.3
Shane Halter 28 pre-arb 86 -0.1 0.2 -0.3
Jermaine Allensworth↔ NYM 26 pre-arb 30 -0.1 0.1 -0.2
Jamie Walker 26 pre-arb 6 -0.2 0.2 -0.4
Chris Turner 29 arb 4 -0.2 0.2 -0.4
Chris Hatcher 29 – 8 -0.2 – –
Héctor Ortiz 28 pre-arb 4 -0.2 0.2 -0.4
Dee Brown 20 – 5 -0.2 – –
Chris Haney↔ CHC 29 FA-elig 33 -0.2 1.6 -1.8
Allen McDill 26 pre-arb 7 -0.3 0.2 -0.5
Jermaine Dye 24 pre-arb 60 -0.4 0.2 -0.7
Jim Pittsley 24 arb 39 -0.5 0.2 -0.7
Scott Leius 32 FA-elig 17 -0.7 0.2 -0.9
Terry Pendleton 37 FA-elig 79 -0.7 0.4 -1.2
Larry Sutton 28 pre-arb 111 -0.8 0.2 -1.1
Felix Martinez 24 pre-arb 34 -1.0 0.2 -1.2

51 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 47 of them (92%). 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 KCR
Charlie Leibrandt198316.8
Danny Tartabull198613.9
Joe Randa199812.8
Jeff Montgomery198812.0
Joakim Soria20069.8
José Offerman19958.1
Brad Keller20177.9
Chris Haney19926.9
Ones that got away
PlayerYear tradedWAR elsewhere
Mark Ellis200122.1
David Cone198721.2
Jorge De La Rosa200813.1
Sean Manaea201511.2
Rance Mulliniks198211.1
Bret Saberhagen199110.8
Charlie Leibrandt19899.9
Jon Lieber19939.8
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.