RRosternomics
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Royals KCR

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GM: Dayton Moore

Overview

REBUILD ↘ cooling
cheap & losing · year 11 in this regime · payroll 0.71× league · TAB -11.3
-11.3TAB — talent above budget25th/30
-10.5WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)26th/30
3.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars28th/30
-6.9dead WAR — sub-replacement drag22nd/30
55%dead money %28th/30
0.414win %26th/30
18.7roster fWAR29th/30
-22surplus $M (value vs cost)17th/30
$65Mpayroll $M22nd/30

Roster

CFGrégor Blanco 66GMitch Maier 65GDavid DeJesus 19G
LFAlex Gordon 55GGrégor Blanco 8GMitch Maier 8G
RFDavid DeJesus 70GMitch Maier 43GJai Miller 16G
SSYuniesky Betancourt 151GMike Aviles 13GWillie Bloomquist 1G
2BMike Aviles 87GChris Getz 64GWilson Betemit 2G
3BWilson Betemit 53GJosh Fields 12GWillie Bloomquist 11G
1BBilly Butler 127GKila Ka'aihue 34GWilson Betemit 5G
STARTERSZack Greinke 4.8WARLuke Hochevar 1.7WARKyle Davies 1.6WARBruce Chen 1.3WARBryan Bullington -0.0WAR
CJason Kendall 118GBrayan Peña 47GLucas May 10G
DHJose Guillen 84GBilly Butler 31GKila Ka'aihue 15G
BULLPEN★ Joakim Soria 43svBlake Wood 15hRobinson Tejeda 12hDusty Hughes 7hJesse Chavez 6hKanekoa Texeira 2hVictor Marte 2hBrad Thompson 1h
CJason Kendall 118 · Brayan Peña 47 · Lucas May 10
1BBilly Butler 127 · Kila Ka'aihue 34 · Wilson Betemit 5
2BMike Aviles 87 · Chris Getz 64 · Wilson Betemit 2
3BWilson Betemit 53 · Josh Fields 12 · Willie Bloomquist 11
SSYuniesky Betancourt 151 · Mike Aviles 13 · Willie Bloomquist 1
LFAlex Gordon 55 · Grégor Blanco 8 · Mitch Maier 8
CFGrégor Blanco 66 · Mitch Maier 65 · David DeJesus 19
RFDavid DeJesus 70 · Mitch Maier 43 · Jai Miller 16
DHJose Guillen 84 · Billy Butler 31 · Kila Ka'aihue 15
SPZack Greinke 4.8 · Luke Hochevar 1.7 · Kyle Davies 1.6 · Bruce Chen 1.3 · Bryan Bullington -0.0
BP★ Joakim Soria 43 · Blake Wood 15 · Robinson Tejeda 12 · Dusty Hughes 7 · Jesse Chavez 6 · Kanekoa Texeira 2 · Victor Marte 2 · Brad Thompson 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.

2010 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Zack Greinke 26 FA-elig 334.8 7.2 +4.0
David DeJesus 30 FA-elig 912.5 4.7 +1.2
Billy Butler 24 arb 1582.1 0.5 +4.4
Joakim Soria 26 arb 661.9 3.0 +1.6
Luke Hochevar 26 arb 181.7 1.8 +2.2
Kyle Davies 26 arb 321.6 1.8 +2.0
Bruce Chen 33 – 331.3 0.6 +2.4
Mike Aviles 29 pre-arb 1101.3 0.4 +2.6
Wilson Betemit 28 – 841.1 – –
Robinson Tejeda 28 arb 540.9 0.9 +1.1
Alberto Callaspo↔ ANA 27 arb 880.8 0.3 +1.6
Scott Podsednik↔ LAD 34 FA-elig 950.7 1.2 +0.5
Brayan Peña 28 arb 600.7 0.4 +1.2
Jarrod Dyson 25 – 180.6 – –
Kyle Farnsworth↔ ATL 34 FA-elig 370.6 2.8 -1.3
Yuniesky Betancourt 28 arb 1510.5 3.3 -2.0
Grégor Blanco↔ ATL 26 – 490.4 – –
Mitch Maier 28 – 1170.4 – –
Philip Humber 27 – 80.3 – –
Jose Guillen↔ SFG 34 FA-elig 1060.3 8.6 -8.0
Rick Ankiel↔ ATL 30 FA-elig 270.2 1.0 -0.5
Jai Miller 25 – 200.1 – –
Kila Ka'aihue 26 – 520.1 – –
Josh Fields 27 arb 130.1 0.4 -0.1
Dusty Hughes 28 pre-arb 570.1 0.4 -0.1
Juan Cruz 31 FA-elig 50.1 3.2 -3.0
Kanekoa Texeira↔ SEA 24 pre-arb 270.1 0.3 -0.1
Greg Holland 24 – 150.0 – –
Roman Colon 30 FA-elig 5-0.0 0.7 -0.7
Bryan Bullington 29 – 13-0.0 – –
Josh Rupe 27 – 11-0.1 – –
Chris Getz 26 pre-arb 72-0.1 0.4 -0.7
Brian Bannister 29 arb 24-0.2 2.3 -2.7
Sean O'Sullivan↔ ANA 22 – 14-0.3 – –
Brad Thompson 28 – 16-0.3 – –
Gil Meche 31 FA-elig 20-0.3 12.4 -13.1
Blake Wood 24 – 51-0.4 – –
Jesse Chavez↔ ATL 26 pre-arb 23-0.4 0.2 -1.1
John Parrish 32 FA-elig 9-0.4 0.6 -1.6
Lucas May 25 – 12-0.4 – –
Willie Bloomquist↔ CIN 32 FA-elig 72-0.5 1.5 -2.8
Anthony Lerew 27 – 6-0.6 – –
Luis Mendoza 26 arb 4-0.6 0.4 -1.8
Alex Gordon 26 arb 74-0.6 1.1 -2.6
Victor Marte 29 – 22-0.7 – –
Jason Kendall 36 FA-elig 118-1.0 2.2 -4.7

Key additions (new vs 2009)

PlayerfWAR
Wilson Betemit1.1
Scott Podsednik0.7
Jarrod Dyson0.6
Grégor Blanco0.4
Philip Humber0.3
Rick Ankiel0.2

Key subtractions (gone from 2009)

Player2009 fWAR
Miguel Olivo1.7
Coco Crisp1.3
Sidney Ponson0.4
John Buck0.1
Carlos Rosa0.0
Lenny DiNardo-0.1

Current & Historical Payroll

2010 payroll
$64.7M

What the front office was committed to as of 2010, 2010–2016. 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 (14)

PlayerAgeSvc2010201120122013201420152016
Gil Meche3111.000$12.4MFREE AGENT
Jose Guillen3413.000$8.6MFREE AGENT
Zack Greinke266.000$7.2MFREE AGENT
David DeJesus307.000$4.7MFREE AGENT
Juan Cruz319.000$3.2MFREE AGENT
Kyle Farnsworth3411.000$2.8MFREE AGENT
Jason Kendall3614.000$2.2MFREE AGENT
Willie Bloomquist328.000$1.5MFREE AGENT
Scott Podsednik349.000$1.2MFREE AGENT
Rick Ankiel3011.000$1.0MFREE AGENT
Roman Colon306.000$665kFREE AGENT
Bruce Chen336.171$600k$2.0M$4.5M$4.5M$3.0MFREE AGENT
John Parrish3210.000$600kFREE AGENT
Wilson Betemit289.000—$588kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (17)

PlayerAgeSvc2010201120122013201420152016
Yuniesky Betancourt285.000$3.3MFREE AGENT
Joakim Soria263.000$3.0MARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brian Bannister294.000$2.3MARB 3FREE AGENT
Kyle Davies265.000$1.8MFREE AGENT
Luke Hochevar263.000$1.8MARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Alex Gordon263.000$1.1MARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Robinson Tejeda285.000$950kFREE AGENT
Billy Butler243.000$470kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brayan Peña285.000$428kFREE AGENT
Josh Fields274.000$422kARB 3FREE AGENT
Luis Mendoza263.000$406kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Alberto Callaspo274.000$277kARB 3FREE AGENT
Mitch Maier284.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brad Thompson285.000—FREE AGENT
Josh Rupe275.000—FREE AGENT
Anthony Lerew275.000—FREE AGENT
Philip Humber274.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (15)

PlayerAgeSvc2010201120122013201420152016
Mike Aviles292.000$429kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris Getz262.000$414kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dusty Hughes281.000$400kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kanekoa Texeira240.000$251kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jesse Chavez262.000$187kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bryan Bullington29–—
Kila Ka'aihue260.048—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Grégor Blanco262.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jai Miller25–—
Sean O'Sullivan221.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Lucas May25–—
Victor Marte291.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Blake Wood240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jarrod Dyson250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Greg Holland240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Royals 2010; 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.