RRosternomics
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Royals KCR

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GM: Allard Baird

Overview

REBUILD ↘ cooling
cheap & losing · year 6 in this regime · payroll 0.45× league · TAB -15.5
-15.5TAB — talent above budget30th/30
-15.5WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)30th/30
2.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars29th/30
-10.1dead WAR — sub-replacement drag29th/30
55%dead money %29th/30
0.346win %30th/30
8.8roster fWAR30th/30
-11surplus $M (value vs cost)18th/30
$32Mpayroll $M29th/30

Roster

CFDavid DeJesus 119GChip Ambres 24GAaron Guiel 24G
LFTerrence Long 103GChip Ambres 23GShane Costa 20G
RFEmil Brown 129GTerrence Long 17GMatt Stairs 13G
SSAngel Berroa 159GAndrés Blanco 7GJoe McEwing 6G
2BRuben Gotay 81GDonnie Murphy 29GAndrés Blanco 24G
3BMark Teahen 128GJoe McEwing 29GTony Graffanino 17G
1BMatt Stairs 64GMike Sweeney 49GTony Graffanino 22G
STARTERSZack Greinke 2.2WARRunelvys Hernandez 1.1WARDenny Bautista 0.5WARD.J. Carrasco 0.4WARJ.P. Howell 0.2WAR
CJohn Buck 117GPaul Phillips 20G
DHMike Sweeney 73GMatt Stairs 40GEmil Brown 9G
BULLPEN★ Mike MacDougal 21svAndrew Sisco 14hJeremy Affeldt 12hAmbiorix Burgos 11hJimmy Gobble 4hJaime Cerda 3hJuan Carlos Oviedo 2hShawn Camp 0h
CJohn Buck 117 · Paul Phillips 20
1BMatt Stairs 64 · Mike Sweeney 49 · Tony Graffanino 22
2BRuben Gotay 81 · Donnie Murphy 29 · Andrés Blanco 24
3BMark Teahen 128 · Joe McEwing 29 · Tony Graffanino 17
SSAngel Berroa 159 · Andrés Blanco 7 · Joe McEwing 6
LFTerrence Long 103 · Chip Ambres 23 · Shane Costa 20
CFDavid DeJesus 119 · Chip Ambres 24 · Aaron Guiel 24
RFEmil Brown 129 · Terrence Long 17 · Matt Stairs 13
DHMike Sweeney 73 · Matt Stairs 40 · Emil Brown 9
SPZack Greinke 2.2 · Runelvys Hernandez 1.1 · Denny Bautista 0.5 · D.J. Carrasco 0.4 · J.P. Howell 0.2
BP★ Mike MacDougal 21 · Andrew Sisco 14 · Jeremy Affeldt 12 · Ambiorix Burgos 11 · Jimmy Gobble 4 · Jaime Cerda 3 · Juan Carlos Oviedo 2 · Shawn Camp 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.

2005 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
David DeJesus 25 pre-arb 1224.0 0.3 +7.2
Zack Greinke 21 pre-arb 332.2 0.3 +3.8
Mike Sweeney 31 FA-elig 1221.7 11.0 -7.9
Aaron Guiel 32 – 331.4 – –
Emil Brown 30 FA-elig 1501.2 0.4 +1.9
Mike MacDougal 28 arb 681.2 0.4 +1.9
Runelvys Hernandez 27 arb 291.1 0.3 +1.7
Matt Stairs 37 FA-elig 1271.0 1.2 +0.7
John Buck 24 pre-arb 1180.9 0.3 +1.3
Andrew Sisco 22 pre-arb 670.7 0.3 +1.0
Ambiorix Burgos 21 – 590.6 – –
Denny Bautista 24 pre-arb 70.5 0.3 +0.5
D.J. Carrasco 28 – 210.4 – –
Angel Berroa 27 arb 1590.4 0.5 +0.2
Terrence Long 29 FA-elig 1370.4 4.9 -4.2
Kyle Snyder 27 – 130.3 – –
Jeremy Affeldt 26 arb 490.3 0.9 -0.4
Shawn Camp 29 pre-arb 290.2 0.3 +0.1
J.P. Howell 22 – 150.2 – –
Steve Stemle 28 – 60.2 – –
Tony Graffanino↔ BOS 33 FA-elig 590.1 0.6 -0.3
Ryan Jensen 29 – 90.1 – –
Brian Anderson 33 FA-elig 60.1 3.2 -3.1
Alberto Castillo↔ OAK 35 FA-elig 340.0 0.4 -0.4
Paul Phillips 28 – 230.0 – –
Jaime Cerda 26 arb 20-0.0 0.3 -0.4
Jonah Bayliss 24 – 11-0.0 – –
Nate Field 29 arb 7-0.1 0.3 -0.4
Denny Hocking 35 – 23-0.1 – –
Chris Demaria 24 – 8-0.1 – –
Calvin Pickering 28 FA-elig 7-0.3 0.3 -0.8
Jose Lima 32 FA-elig 32-0.3 2.5 -3.0
Juan Carlos Oviedo 23 – 41-0.3 – –
Jimmy Gobble 23 – 28-0.3 – –
Ken Harvey 27 – 12-0.3 – –
Matt Diaz 27 – 34-0.4 0.3 -1.1
Shane Costa 23 – 27-0.4 – –
Chip Ambres 25 – 53-0.6 – –
Ruben Gotay 22 pre-arb 86-0.6 0.3 -1.5
Mike Wood 25 pre-arb 47-0.7 0.3 -1.7
Justin Huber 22 – 25-0.8 – –
Andrés Blanco 21 – 26-0.8 – –
Donnie Murphy 22 – 32-0.9 – –
Joe McEwing 32 – 83-0.9 – –
Eli Marrero↔ BAL 31 FA-elig 32-1.1 1.9 -3.9
Mark Teahen 23 pre-arb 130-1.1 0.3 -2.4

Key additions (new vs 2004)

PlayerfWAR
Emil Brown1.2
Runelvys Hernandez1.1
Andrew Sisco0.7
Ambiorix Burgos0.6
Terrence Long0.4
Kyle Snyder0.3

Key subtractions (gone from 2004)

Player2004 fWAR
Joe Randa3.3
Carlos Beltrán2.4
Darrell May1.0
Dennys Reyes1.0
Rudy Seanez0.6
Kelly Stinnett0.6

Current & Historical Payroll

2005 payroll
$32.4M

What the front office was committed to as of 2005, 2005–2011. 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 (12)

PlayerAgeSvc2005200620072008200920102011
Mike Sweeney3110.000$11.0M$11.0M$11.0MFREE AGENT
Terrence Long296.000$4.9MFREE AGENT
Brian Anderson3312.000$3.2MFREE AGENT
Jose Lima3211.000$2.5MFREE AGENT
Eli Marrero318.000$1.9MFREE AGENT
Matt Stairs3713.000$1.2M$888kFREE AGENT
Tony Graffanino339.000$590k$1.1MFREE AGENT
Alberto Castillo3510.000$437kFREE AGENT
Emil Brown308.000$355k$1.8M$3.5MFREE AGENT
Calvin Pickering287.000$324kFREE AGENT
Denny Hocking3512.000—FREE AGENT
Joe McEwing327.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (9)

PlayerAgeSvc2005200620072008200920102011
Jeremy Affeldt263.000$950kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Angel Berroa274.000$500kARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike MacDougal284.000$352kARB 3FREE AGENT
Jaime Cerda263.000$342kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Nate Field293.000$328kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Runelvys Hernandez273.000$325kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ryan Jensen294.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ken Harvey274.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Aaron Guiel323.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (25)

PlayerAgeSvc2005200620072008200920102011
Zack Greinke211.000$330kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
David DeJesus252.000$320kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Shawn Camp291.000$320kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Wood252.000$319kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Buck241.000$318kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Denny Bautista241.000$316kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Matt Diaz272.000$316kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ruben Gotay221.000$316kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Teahen230.000$316kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Andrew Sisco220.000$316kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Paul Phillips281.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kyle Snyder272.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chip Ambres25–—
Justin Huber220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jimmy Gobble232.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
D.J. Carrasco282.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Shane Costa230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Donnie Murphy221.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Andrés Blanco211.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
J.P. Howell220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ambiorix Burgos210.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Juan Carlos Oviedo230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jonah Bayliss240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Stemle280.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris Demaria24–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Royals 2005; 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.