RRosternomics
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Royals KCR

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GM: Allard Baird

Overview

REBUILD ↘ cooling
cheap & losing · year 5 in this regime · payroll 0.61× league · TAB -18.3
-18.3TAB — talent above budget29th/30
-17.6WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)28th/30
2.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars29th/30
-9.7dead WAR — sub-replacement drag28th/30
47%dead money %25th/30
0.358win %29th/30
9.9roster fWAR30th/30
-26surplus $M (value vs cost)23rd/30
$41Mpayroll $M25th/30

Roster

CFDavid DeJesus 85GRuben Mateo 10GAbraham M. Nunez 4G
LFDee Brown 53GAaron Guiel 38GDesi Relaford 22G
RFAbraham M. Nunez 74GMatt Stairs 57GJuan Gonzalez 29G
SSAngel Berroa 133GAndrés Blanco 19GDesi Relaford 12G
2BTony Graffanino 75GRuben Gotay 42GDesi Relaford 36G
3BJoe Randa 119GDesi Relaford 42GJosé Bautista 17G
1BKen Harvey 73GMike Sweeney 55GMatt Stairs 30G
STARTERSZack Greinke 1.8WARDennys Reyes 1.0WARJeremy Affeldt 1.0WARDarrell May 1.0WARJimmy Gobble 0.7WAR
CJohn Buck 68GBenito Santiago 49GAlberto Castillo 29G
DHMike Sweeney 47GKen Harvey 41GCalvin Pickering 27G
BULLPEN★ Nate Field 3svJaime Cerda 12hScott Sullivan 6hShawn Camp 5hD.J. Carrasco 4hJustin Huisman 1hRyan Bukvich 1hMike MacDougal 0h
CJohn Buck 68 · Benito Santiago 49 · Alberto Castillo 29
1BKen Harvey 73 · Mike Sweeney 55 · Matt Stairs 30
2BTony Graffanino 75 · Ruben Gotay 42 · Desi Relaford 36
3BJoe Randa 119 · Desi Relaford 42 · José Bautista 17
SSAngel Berroa 133 · Andrés Blanco 19 · Desi Relaford 12
LFDee Brown 53 · Aaron Guiel 38 · Desi Relaford 22
CFDavid DeJesus 85 · Ruben Mateo 10 · Abraham M. Nunez 4
RFAbraham M. Nunez 74 · Matt Stairs 57 · Juan Gonzalez 29
DHMike Sweeney 47 · Ken Harvey 41 · Calvin Pickering 27
SPZack Greinke 1.8 · Dennys Reyes 1.0 · Jeremy Affeldt 1.0 · Darrell May 1.0 · Jimmy Gobble 0.7
BP★ Nate Field 3 · Jaime Cerda 12 · Scott Sullivan 6 · Shawn Camp 5 · D.J. Carrasco 4 · Justin Huisman 1 · Ryan Bukvich 1 · Mike MacDougal 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.

2004 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Joe Randa 34 FA-elig 1283.3 3.2 +2.3
Carlos Beltrán↔ HOU 27 FA-elig 692.4 3.9 +0.2
Zack Greinke 20 – 241.8 0.2 +2.9
Darrell May 32 FA-elig 311.0 1.8 +0.0
Dennys Reyes 27 FA-elig 401.0 0.6 +1.2
Jeremy Affeldt 25 pre-arb 381.0 0.3 +1.3
Jimmy Gobble 22 pre-arb 250.7 0.3 +1.0
David DeJesus 24 – 960.7 – –
Mike Wood 24 – 170.7 – –
Mike Sweeney 30 FA-elig 1060.7 11.0 -9.8
Rudy Seanez↔ MIA 35 – 160.6 – –
Andrés Blanco 20 – 190.6 – –
Kelly Stinnett 34 FA-elig 200.6 0.5 +0.5
Chris George 24 – 100.5 – –
Denny Bautista↔ BAL 23 – 50.5 – –
Jaime Cerda 25 – 530.5 – –
Alberto Castillo 34 – 290.4 – –
Benito Santiago 39 FA-elig 490.4 2.1 -1.5
Tony Graffanino 32 FA-elig 750.4 1.1 -0.4
Jimmy Serrano 28 – 100.3 – –
John Buck 23 – 710.3 0.1 +0.4
Jason Grimsley↔ BAL 36 FA-elig 320.2 0.4 -0.0
Shawn Camp 28 pre-arb 420.2 0.3 +0.1
Brian Anderson 32 FA-elig 350.2 3.2 -3.0
Calvin Pickering 27 – 350.1 – –
Nate Field 28 pre-arb 430.1 0.3 -0.1
Scott Sullivan 33 FA-elig 490.1 2.1 -1.9
Ryan Bukvich 26 – 90.1 – –
Kevin Appier 36 FA-elig 20.1 0.3 -0.2
Justin Huisman 25 – 140.0 – –
Matt Kinney↔ MIL 27 arb 110.0 0.1 -0.1
Rich Thompson 25 pre-arb 60.0 0.3 -0.3
Paul Phillips 27 – 40.0 – –
Jorge Vasquez 25 – 2-0.0 – –
Ruben Gotay 21 – 44-0.0 – –
Mike MacDougal 27 arb 13-0.1 0.3 -0.5
Donnie Murphy 21 – 7-0.1 – –
Damian Jackson↔ CHC 30 – 14-0.1 – –
Mike Tonis 25 – 2-0.1 – –
Eduardo Villacis 24 – 1-0.1 – –
Alexis Gomez 25 – 13-0.1 – –
D.J. Carrasco 27 pre-arb 30-0.1 0.3 -0.6
Adrian Brown 30 – 5-0.2 – –
José Bautista↔ BAL 23 pre-arb 13-0.2 0.1 -0.3
Abraham M. Nunez↔ MIA 27 pre-arb 59-0.3 0.2 -0.6
Angel Berroa 26 arb 134-0.3 0.4 -0.9
Wilton Guerrero 29 – 24-0.4 – –
Brandon Berger 29 – 11-0.4 – –
Mendy López 30 FA-elig 18-0.4 0.3 -1.1
Juan Gonzalez 34 FA-elig 33-0.5 4.0 -4.8
Ruben Mateo↔ PIT 26 – 32-0.5 – –
Curt Leskanic↔ BOS 36 FA-elig 19-0.6 0.5 -1.4
Byron Gettis 24 – 21-0.6 – –
Aaron Guiel 31 pre-arb 42-0.7 0.3 -1.4
Matt Stairs 36 FA-elig 126-0.8 1.0 -2.4
Ken Harvey 26 arb 120-0.9 0.3 -1.9
Desi Relaford 30 FA-elig 114-1.0 0.9 -2.7
Dee Brown 26 – 59-1.1 – –

Key additions (new vs 2003)

PlayerfWAR
Zack Greinke1.8
Dennys Reyes1.0
Mike Wood0.7
Rudy Seanez0.6
Andrés Blanco0.6
Kelly Stinnett0.6

Key subtractions (gone from 2003)

Player2003 fWAR
Raul Ibanez2.0
Jose Lima1.1
Runelvys Hernandez1.0
Kyle Snyder1.0
Rondell White0.7
Miguel Asencio0.6

Current & Historical Payroll

2004 payroll
$40.9M

What the front office was committed to as of 2004, 2004–2010. 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 (24)

PlayerAgeSvc2004200520062007200820092010
Mike Sweeney309.000$11.0M$11.0M$11.0M$11.0MFREE AGENT
Juan Gonzalez3415.000$4.0MFREE AGENT
Carlos Beltrán276.000$3.9MFREE AGENT
Joe Randa349.000$3.2MFREE AGENT
Brian Anderson3211.000$3.2M$3.2MFREE AGENT
Benito Santiago3918.000$2.1MFREE AGENT
Scott Sullivan339.000$2.1MFREE AGENT
Darrell May329.000$1.8MFREE AGENT
Tony Graffanino328.000$1.1M$590k$1.1MFREE AGENT
Matt Stairs3612.000$1.0M$1.2M$888kFREE AGENT
Desi Relaford308.000$900kFREE AGENT
Dennys Reyes277.000$550kFREE AGENT
Kelly Stinnett3410.000$500kFREE AGENT
Curt Leskanic3611.000$466kFREE AGENT
Jason Grimsley3615.000$438kFREE AGENT
Mendy López306.000$330kFREE AGENT
Kevin Appier3615.000$300kFREE AGENT
Adrian Brown307.000—FREE AGENT
Alberto Castillo349.000—$437kFREE AGENT
Wilton Guerrero298.000—FREE AGENT
Damian Jackson308.000—FREE AGENT
Rudy Seanez3515.000—FREE AGENT
Calvin Pickering276.000—$324kFREE AGENT
Dee Brown266.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (7)

PlayerAgeSvc2004200520062007200820092010
Angel Berroa263.000$372kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike MacDougal273.000$346kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ken Harvey263.000$318kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Matt Kinney274.000$102kARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris George243.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ruben Mateo265.000—FREE AGENT
Brandon Berger293.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (27)

PlayerAgeSvc2004200520062007200820092010
Jeremy Affeldt252.000$350kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
D.J. Carrasco271.000$320kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Aaron Guiel312.000$320kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Nate Field282.000$306kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jimmy Gobble221.000$304kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Shawn Camp280.000$300kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rich Thompson250.000$300kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Zack Greinke200.000$220kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Abraham M. Nunez272.000$151kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Buck230.000$100kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
José Bautista230.000$61kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Paul Phillips270.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Alexis Gomez25–—
Jaime Cerda252.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Tonis25–—
Jimmy Serrano28–—
Ryan Bukvich262.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Denny Bautista230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Wood241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
David DeJesus241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Justin Huisman25–—
Jorge Vasquez25–—
Byron Gettis24–—
Ruben Gotay210.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Donnie Murphy210.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Andrés Blanco200.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Eduardo Villacis24–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Royals 2004; 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.