Rosternomics
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Royals KCR

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GM: J.J. Picollo (since 2021)

2021 roster — every player, value & surplus

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-3.8
WAB — wins above budget
-5.3
TAB — roster Talent above budget
74–88 (0.457)
record
-12M
surplus $M (value/$)
25.1
roster fWAR
$92.0M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Nicky Lopez 26 pre-arb 151 5.5 0.6 +17.1
Salvador Perez 31 FA-elig 161 2.7 14.2 -5.4
Whit Merrifield 32 arb 162 2.7 6.8 +1.9
Mike Minor 33 FA-elig 28 2.3 7.0 +0.3
Scott Barlow 28 pre-arb 71 2.2 0.7 +6.4
Brady Singer 24 pre-arb 27 2.1 0.6 +6.2
Michael A. Taylor 30 FA-elig 142 2.0 1.8 +4.6
Danny Duffy 32 FA-elig 13 1.7 15.5 -10.1
Andrew Benintendi 26 arb 134 1.4 6.6 -2.0
Brad Keller 25 arb 26 1.1 3.4 +0.2
Josh Staumont 27 pre-arb 64 1.0 0.6 +2.7
Carlos Hernández 24 pre-arb 24 1.0 0.4 +2.7
Adalberto Mondesi 25 arb 35 1.0 2.5 +0.6
Cam Gallagher 28 pre-arb 48 0.7 0.6 +1.8
Daniel Lynch IV 24 – 15 0.6 – –
Domingo Tapia↔ SEA 29 pre-arb 32 0.5 0.2 +1.5
Kyle Isbel 24 – 28 0.5 0.1 +1.5
Jakob Junis 28 arb 16 0.5 1.7 -0.1
Hanser Alberto 28 FA-elig 103 0.4 1.6 -0.4
Jake Brentz 26 – 72 0.3 0.6 +0.5
Kris Bubic 23 pre-arb 29 0.3 0.5 +0.5
Joel Payamps↔ TOR 27 pre-arb 15 0.2 0.1 +0.6
Dylan Coleman 24 – 5 0.2 0.0 +0.6
Richard Lovelady 25 pre-arb 20 0.2 0.3 +0.3
Gabe Speier 26 pre-arb 7 0.2 0.1 +0.5
Angel Zerpa 21 – 1 0.2 0.0 +0.6
Ronald Bolaños 24 pre-arb 3 0.2 0.3 +0.2
Ervin Santana 38 FA-elig 38 0.1 1.5 -1.2
Ryan McBroom 29 pre-arb 7 -0.0 0.1 -0.1
Scott Blewett 25 pre-arb 3 -0.0 0.0 -0.0
Jonathan Heasley 24 – 3 -0.0 – –
Emmanuel Rivera 25 – 29 -0.0 0.2 -0.3
Edward Olivares 25 pre-arb 39 -0.1 0.2 -0.5
Jarrod Dyson↔ TOR 36 FA-elig 77 -0.1 1.1 -1.5
Anthony Swarzak↔ ARI 35 FA-elig 7 -0.1 0.1 -0.5
Kyle Zimmer 29 pre-arb 52 -0.1 0.6 -1.0
Greg Holland 35 FA-elig 57 -0.2 2.8 -3.2
Jake Newberry 26 pre-arb 4 -0.2 0.1 -0.6
Jackson Kowar 24 – 9 -0.2 0.1 -1.0
Wade Davis 35 FA-elig 40 -0.3 1.2 -2.1
Tyler Zuber 26 pre-arb 31 -0.3 0.3 -1.3
Sebastián Rivero 22 – 17 -0.3 0.2 -1.2
Jesse Hahn 31 FA-elig 5 -0.3 1.8 -2.9
Ryan O'Hearn 27 pre-arb 84 -0.6 0.4 -2.5
Kelvin Gutiérrez↔ BAL 26 – 38 -0.7 0.1 -2.3
Carlos Santana 35 FA-elig 158 -0.8 7.0 -9.5
Hunter Dozier 29 arb 144 -0.9 2.5 -5.4
Jorge Soler↔ ATL 29 FA-elig 94 -1.2 5.1 -8.8

48 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 46 of them (96%). Players without a salary show "–" — no single historical salary source is fully complete (especially 2020–2022).

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.