Rosternomics
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Royals KCR

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GM: J.J. Picollo (since 2021)

2024 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+9.0
WAB — wins above budget
+11.4
TAB — roster Talent above budget
86–76 (0.531)
record · made playoffs
+61M
surplus $M (value/$)
41.0
roster fWAR
$110.4M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Bobby Witt Jr. 24 pre-arb 161 10.5 3.1 +40.6
Cole Ragans 26 pre-arb 32 4.9 0.8 +19.5
Seth Lugo 34 FA-elig 33 4.7 15.0 +4.5
Michael Wacha 32 FA-elig 29 3.3 16.0 -2.2
Salvador Perez 34 FA-elig 158 3.2 20.0 -6.6
Brady Singer 27 arb 32 2.5 4.8 +5.4
Freddy Fermin 29 pre-arb 111 1.9 0.7 +7.3
Michael Massey 26 pre-arb 100 1.6 0.8 +5.7
Vinnie Pasquantino 26 pre-arb 131 1.5 0.8 +5.5
Kyle Isbel 27 arb 136 1.5 0.8 +5.5
Lucas Erceg↔ OAK 29 pre-arb 23 1.4 0.3 +5.5
Alec Marsh 26 pre-arb 26 1.4 0.7 +4.9
Maikel Garcia 24 pre-arb 157 1.3 0.8 +4.5
John Schreiber 30 arb 59 1.1 1.2 +3.4
Kris Bubic 26 arb 27 0.9 2.4 +1.5
Paul DeJong↔ CHW 30 FA-elig 37 0.7 0.5 +2.5
Dairon Blanco 31 pre-arb 88 0.5 0.7 +1.3
Garrett Hampson 29 FA-elig 113 0.5 2.0 +0.1
Michael Lorenzen↔ TEX 32 FA-elig 7 0.5 1.2 +0.7
Carlos Hernández 27 arb 27 0.2 1.0 -0.1
Angel Zerpa 24 arb 60 0.2 0.7 +0.1
Sam Long 28 arb 43 0.2 0.7 -0.0
Will Klein↔ OAK 24 pre-arb 5 0.1 0.5 -0.0
Hunter Renfroe 32 FA-elig 120 0.1 5.5 -5.1
Steven Cruz 25 pre-arb 5 0.1 0.7 -0.3
James McArthur 27 pre-arb 57 0.1 0.7 -0.4
Jordan Lyles 33 FA-elig 5 0.0 8.5 -8.3
Tyler Duffey 33 – 9 0.0 0.2 -0.1
Nick Pratto 25 pre-arb 1 0.0 0.7 -0.6
Daniel Lynch IV 27 arb 16 0.0 0.7 -0.6
Walter Pennington↔ TEX 26 – 1 0.0 0.0 +0.1
Anthony Veneziano↔ MIA 26 pre-arb 2 0.0 0.1 -0.0
Drew Waters 25 pre-arb 7 -0.0 0.7 -0.8
Colin Selby↔ BAL 26 pre-arb 2 -0.0 0.3 -0.4
Tommy Pham↔ CHW 36 FA-elig 23 -0.0 0.4 -0.6
Yuli Gurriel 40 – 18 -0.0 – –
Dan Altavilla 31 arb 5 -0.1 0.4 -0.8
Tyler Gentry 25 – 3 -0.1 0.0 -0.5
Matt Sauer 25 – 14 -0.2 0.2 -1.0
Nick Loftin 25 pre-arb 57 -0.2 0.7 -1.5
Hunter Harvey↔ WSN 29 arb 6 -0.2 0.3 -1.1
Chris Stratton 33 FA-elig 57 -0.2 3.5 -4.3
Nick Anderson 33 arb 37 -0.2 1.6 -2.5
MJ Melendez 25 pre-arb 135 -0.2 0.8 -1.8
Jonathan Bowlan 27 pre-arb 1 -0.3 0.7 -2.0
CJ Alexander 27 – 4 -0.3 0.0 -1.3
Robbie Grossman↔ CHW 34 FA-elig 16 -0.3 0.2 -1.5
Will Smith 34 FA-elig 45 -0.4 5.0 -6.6
Nelson Velázquez 25 pre-arb 64 -0.5 0.7 -2.7
Adam Frazier 32 FA-elig 104 -0.5 2.0 -4.2

50 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 49 of them (98%). 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.