Rosternomics
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Royals KCR

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GM: Dayton Moore (since 2007)

2018 roster — every player, value & surplus

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-21.3
WAB — wins above budget
-16.8
TAB — roster Talent above budget
58–104 (0.358)
record
-56M
surplus $M (value/$)
14.9
roster fWAR
$106.4M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Whit Merrifield 29 pre-arb 158 5.0 0.6 +16.4
Adalberto Mondesi 22 pre-arb 75 2.8 0.3 +9.1
Brad Keller 22 pre-arb 41 2.7 0.5 +8.5
Jakob Junis 25 pre-arb 30 1.5 0.6 +4.4
Danny Duffy 29 FA-elig 28 1.2 14.0 -9.7
Mike Moustakas↔ MIL 29 FA-elig 98 1.2 3.5 +0.7
Alex Gordon 34 FA-elig 141 1.2 20.0 -15.9
Ian Kennedy 33 FA-elig 22 1.1 16.0 -12.1
Ryan O'Hearn 24 – 44 1.0 0.2 +3.2
Jason Hammel 35 FA-elig 39 0.9 9.0 -5.9
Kelvin Herrera↔ WSN 28 FA-elig 27 0.7 4.5 -2.0
Heath Fillmyer 24 – 17 0.6 0.3 +1.8
Jorge Soler 26 arb 61 0.6 4.7 -2.6
Tim Hill 28 pre-arb 70 0.5 0.5 +1.3
Jon Jay↔ ARI 33 FA-elig 59 0.5 1.2 +0.4
Brett Phillips↔ MIL 24 pre-arb 36 0.4 0.1 +1.2
Brian Goodwin↔ WSN 27 pre-arb 27 0.4 0.2 +1.1
Kevin McCarthy 26 pre-arb 65 0.3 0.5 +0.4
Glenn Sparkman 26 pre-arb 15 0.3 0.2 +0.7
Jorge López↔ MIL 25 pre-arb 7 0.3 0.1 +0.8
Cam Gallagher 25 pre-arb 22 0.2 0.2 +0.7
Scott Barlow 25 pre-arb 6 0.2 0.7 +0.1
Trevor Oaks 25 – 4 0.2 0.1 +0.5
Eric Skoglund 25 pre-arb 14 0.2 0.5 +0.0
Salvador Perez 28 FA-elig 129 0.2 8.7 -8.2
Brian Flynn 28 arb 48 0.1 0.6 -0.3
Ben Lively↔ PHI 26 pre-arb 5 0.1 0.2 -0.1
Jerry Vasto↔ COL 26 – 5 -0.1 0.1 -0.3
Ryan Goins 30 arb 41 -0.1 0.5 -0.7
Meibrys Viloria 21 – 10 -0.1 0.1 -0.4
Wily Peralta 29 FA-elig 37 -0.1 1.5 -1.9
Rosell Herrera↔ CIN 25 – 75 -0.1 0.3 -0.8
Ramón Torres 25 pre-arb 9 -0.2 0.1 -0.8
Eric Stout 25 – 3 -0.2 0.0 -0.7
Cheslor Cuthbert 25 arb 30 -0.2 0.6 -1.3
Jorge Bonifacio 25 pre-arb 69 -0.2 0.6 -1.3
Lucas Duda↔ ATL 32 FA-elig 87 -0.2 2.8 -3.6
Jason Adam 26 – 31 -0.3 0.3 -1.4
Jake Newberry 23 – 14 -0.3 0.1 -1.3
Enny Romero↔ PIT 27 arb 4 -0.3 0.3 -1.5
Justin Grimm↔ SEA 29 FA-elig 16 -0.5 1.0 -2.7
Burch Smith 28 arb 38 -0.5 0.6 -2.3
Drew Butera↔ COL 34 FA-elig 52 -0.7 1.9 -4.3
Brandon Maurer 27 arb 37 -0.8 3.0 -5.5
Abraham Almonte 29 – 50 -0.8 0.3 -3.0
Blaine Boyer 36 FA-elig 21 -0.8 1.0 -3.8
Paulo Orlando 32 arb 25 -0.8 0.6 -3.4
Alcides Escobar 31 FA-elig 140 -0.9 2.5 -5.5
Hunter Dozier 26 pre-arb 102 -0.9 0.4 -3.6

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.