RRosternomics
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Royals KCR

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GM: Dayton Moore

Overview

REBUILD ↗ rising
cheap & losing · year 8 in this regime · payroll 0.8× league · TAB -5.1
-5.1TAB — talent above budget23rd/30
-10.0WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)27th/30
8.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars6th/30
-4.4dead WAR — sub-replacement drag13th/30
52%dead money %27th/30
0.426win %27th/30
26.4roster fWAR23rd/30
-15surplus $M (value vs cost)17th/30
$66Mpayroll $M20th/30

Roster

CFDavid DeJesus 156GJoey Gathright 10GMark Teahen 5G
LFEmil Brown 78GJoey Gathright 64GShane Costa 15G
RFMark Teahen 137GEmil Brown 21GShane Costa 13G
SSTony Pena Jr. 150GJason Smith 24GEsteban German 4G
2BMark Grudzielanek 116GEsteban German 56GJason Smith 7G
3BAlex Gordon 137GEsteban German 46GJason Smith 19G
1BRoss Gload 89GRyan Shealy 52GAlex Gordon 32G
STARTERSGil Meche 3.7WARBrian Bannister 2.4WARZack Greinke 2.1WAROdalis Perez 1.1WARJuan Carlos Oviedo 0.4WAR
CJohn Buck 112GJason LaRue 65GPaul Phillips 7G
DHBilly Butler 70GMike Sweeney 65GEmil Brown 11G
BULLPEN★ Joakim Soria 17svJimmy Gobble 16hDavid Riske 16hJoel Peralta 7hJohn Bale 5hBrandon Duckworth 5hRyan Braun 1hNeal Musser 1h
CJohn Buck 112 · Jason LaRue 65 · Paul Phillips 7
1BRoss Gload 89 · Ryan Shealy 52 · Alex Gordon 32
2BMark Grudzielanek 116 · Esteban German 56 · Jason Smith 7
3BAlex Gordon 137 · Esteban German 46 · Jason Smith 19
SSTony Pena Jr. 150 · Jason Smith 24 · Esteban German 4
LFEmil Brown 78 · Joey Gathright 64 · Shane Costa 15
CFDavid DeJesus 156 · Joey Gathright 10 · Mark Teahen 5
RFMark Teahen 137 · Emil Brown 21 · Shane Costa 13
DHBilly Butler 70 · Mike Sweeney 65 · Emil Brown 11
SPGil Meche 3.7 · Brian Bannister 2.4 · Zack Greinke 2.1 · Odalis Perez 1.1 · Juan Carlos Oviedo 0.4
BP★ Joakim Soria 17 · Jimmy Gobble 16 · David Riske 16 · Joel Peralta 7 · John Bale 5 · Brandon Duckworth 5 · Ryan Braun 1 · Neal Musser 1

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.

2007 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Gil Meche 28 FA-elig 343.7 7.4 +0.5
Mark Grudzielanek 37 FA-elig 1162.6 4.0 +1.6
Mark Teahen 25 pre-arb 1442.5 0.4 +5.0
Brian Bannister 26 – 272.4 – –
David DeJesus 27 arb 1572.2 2.0 +2.8
Alex Gordon 23 pre-arb 1512.2 0.4 +4.4
Zack Greinke 23 arb 522.1 0.4 +4.2
Joakim Soria 23 pre-arb 622.1 0.4 +4.2
Joey Gathright 26 – 741.4 – –
Tony Pena Jr. 26 pre-arb 1521.3 0.4 +2.4
Odalis Perez 29 FA-elig 261.1 7.8 -5.3
Esteban German 29 arb 1211.1 0.4 +2.0
John Buck 26 arb 1131.1 0.4 +1.9
Joel Peralta 31 pre-arb 620.9 0.4 +1.6
John Bale 33 FA-elig 260.8 1.8 -0.1
Reggie Sanders 39 FA-elig 240.6 5.0 -3.7
Billy Butler 21 – 920.4 – –
Juan Carlos Oviedo 25 pre-arb 130.4 0.4 +0.4
Emil Brown 32 FA-elig 1130.3 3.5 -2.7
Jimmy Gobble 25 arb 740.3 0.7 -0.0
Ross Gload 31 FA-elig 1020.3 0.6 +0.0
Jorge De La Rosa 26 arb 260.3 0.4 +0.2
John Thomson 33 – 20.2 – –
David Riske 30 FA-elig 650.1 2.0 -1.7
Brandon Duckworth 31 FA-elig 260.1 0.6 -0.4
Octavio Dotel↔ ATL 33 FA-elig 240.1 3.6 -3.5
Craig Brazell 27 – 50.0 – –
Luke Hochevar 23 pre-arb 4-0.0 0.6 -0.6
Fernando Cortez 25 – 8-0.0 – –
Billy Buckner 23 – 7-0.0 – –
Paul Phillips 30 – 8-0.1 – –
Angel Berroa 29 – 9-0.1 – –
Jason Smith↔ ARI 29 FA-elig 40-0.1 0.3 -0.6
Ryan Braun 26 pre-arb 26-0.1 0.4 -0.7
Kyle Davies↔ ATL 23 – 11-0.2 0.1 -0.5
Jason Standridge 28 – 4-0.2 – –
Luke Hudson 30 arb 1-0.2 0.4 -0.8
Justin Huber 24 – 8-0.2 – –
Mike Sweeney 33 FA-elig 74-0.3 11.0 -11.6
Ryan Shealy 27 pre-arb 52-0.3 0.4 -1.1
Shane Costa 25 – 55-0.3 – –
Neal Musser 26 – 17-0.3 – –
Jason LaRue 33 FA-elig 66-0.4 5.2 -6.0
Todd Wellemeyer↔ STL 28 arb 12-0.4 0.2 -1.2
Scott Elarton 31 FA-elig 9-1.0 4.0 -6.1

Key additions (new vs 2006)

PlayerfWAR
Gil Meche3.7
Brian Bannister2.4
Alex Gordon2.2
Joakim Soria2.1
Tony Pena Jr.1.3
John Bale0.8

Key subtractions (gone from 2006)

Player2006 fWAR
Mark Redman1.2
Tony Graffanino1.0
Doug Mientkiewicz0.9
Elmer Dessens0.8
Adam Bernero0.7
Matt Stairs0.4

Current & Historical Payroll

2007 payroll
$65.6M

What the front office was committed to as of 2007, 2007–2013. 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 (17)

PlayerAgeSvc2007200820092010201120122013
Mike Sweeney3312.000$11.0MFREE AGENT
Odalis Perez299.000$7.8MFREE AGENT
Gil Meche288.000$7.4M$11.4M$11.4M$12.4MFREE AGENT
Jason LaRue338.000$5.2MFREE AGENT
Reggie Sanders3916.000$5.0MFREE AGENT
Scott Elarton319.000$4.0MFREE AGENT
Mark Grudzielanek3712.000$4.0M$4.5MFREE AGENT
Octavio Dotel338.000$3.6MFREE AGENT
Emil Brown3210.000$3.5MFREE AGENT
David Riske308.000$2.0MFREE AGENT
John Bale338.000$1.8M$2.2M$1.2MFREE AGENT
Ross Gload317.000$625k$1.3MFREE AGENT
Brandon Duckworth316.000$550kFREE AGENT
Jason Smith296.000$290kFREE AGENT
John Thomson3310.000—FREE AGENT
Jason Standridge286.000—FREE AGENT
Angel Berroa296.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (10)

PlayerAgeSvc2007200820092010201120122013
David DeJesus274.000$2.0MARB 3FREE AGENT
Jimmy Gobble254.000$712kARB 3FREE AGENT
John Buck263.000$440kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Esteban German295.000$423kFREE AGENT
Luke Hudson305.000$422kFREE AGENT
Jorge De La Rosa263.000$417kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Zack Greinke233.000$407kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Todd Wellemeyer284.000$238kARB 3FREE AGENT
Paul Phillips303.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Joey Gathright263.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (18)

PlayerAgeSvc2007200820092010201120122013
Luke Hochevar230.000$575kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Teahen252.000$416kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Joel Peralta312.000$400kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ryan Shealy272.000$392kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Juan Carlos Oviedo252.000$382kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Joakim Soria230.000$380kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ryan Braun261.000$380kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tony Pena Jr.261.000$380kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Alex Gordon230.000$380kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kyle Davies232.000$144kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Justin Huber242.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Craig Brazell27–—
Shane Costa252.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Billy Buckner230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brian Bannister261.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Fernando Cortez25–—
Billy Butler210.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Neal Musser26–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Royals 2007; 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.