Rosternomics
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Royals KCR

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GM: J.J. Picollo (since 2021)

2025 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+2.9
WAB — wins above budget
+0.9
TAB — roster Talent above budget
82–80 (0.506)
record
-25M
surplus $M (value/$)
32.4
roster fWAR
$119.7M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Bobby Witt Jr. 25 – 157 8.0 – –
Maikel Garcia 25 pre-arb 160 5.6 0.8 +20.8
Michael Wacha 33 FA-elig 31 3.6 18.0 -4.1
Kris Bubic 27 arb 20 3.3 3.0 +9.8
Cole Ragans 27 pre-arb 13 2.1 1.1 +6.9
Noah Cameron 25 – 24 1.8 0.6 +6.4
Vinnie Pasquantino 27 pre-arb 160 1.5 0.8 +4.9
Mike Yastrzemski↔ SFG 34 arb 50 1.3 2.8 +2.2
Michael Lorenzen 33 FA-elig 27 1.2 6.5 -1.8
Kyle Isbel 28 arb 135 1.1 1.8 +2.6
Carlos Estévez 32 FA-elig 67 1.1 10.1 -5.9
Stephen Kolek↔ SDP 28 pre-arb 5 0.9 0.1 +3.4
Lucas Erceg 30 pre-arb 61 0.9 0.8 +2.5
Carter Jensen 21 – 20 0.7 0.1 +2.5
Ryan Bergert↔ SDP 25 – 8 0.7 0.1 +2.5
Adam Frazier↔ PIT 33 FA-elig 56 0.6 0.4 +2.0
Salvador Perez 35 FA-elig 155 0.5 20.0 -18.0
Seth Lugo 35 FA-elig 26 0.5 15.0 -13.1
Hunter Harvey 30 arb 12 0.5 3.7 -1.8
Freddy Fermin↔ SDP 30 – 67 0.4 0.3 +1.2
Tyler Tolbert 27 – 64 0.3 0.6 +0.7
Taylor Clarke 32 arb 51 0.3 0.8 +0.4
Angel Zerpa 25 pre-arb 69 0.3 0.8 +0.4
John Schreiber 31 arb 74 0.3 2.3 -1.1
Luke Maile 34 FA-elig 25 0.3 1.2 -0.0
Luinder Avila 23 – 13 0.2 0.1 +0.7
Jonathan Bowlan 28 pre-arb 34 0.2 0.4 +0.4
Steven Cruz 26 pre-arb 47 0.2 0.7 -0.1
John Rave 27 – 72 0.1 0.4 +0.0
Evan Sisk↔ PIT 28 – 5 0.1 0.0 +0.4
Nick Loftin 26 pre-arb 67 0.1 0.5 -0.3
Chris Stratton↔ LAD 34 – 12 0.0 3.6 -3.4
Bailey Falter↔ PIT 28 pre-arb 4 0.0 0.2 -0.2
Trevor Richards↔ ARI 32 – 3 0.0 0.1 -0.0
Thomas Hatch↔ MIN 30 – 1 -0.1 0.0 -0.2
Dairon Blanco 32 pre-arb 9 -0.1 0.3 -0.5
Andrew Hoffmann↔ ARI 25 – 3 -0.1 – –
Daniel Lynch IV 28 – 57 -0.2 – –
Rich Hill 45 FA-elig 2 -0.2 0.1 -0.9
Cavan Biggio 30 – 37 -0.2 2.0 -2.9
Jonathan India 28 arb 136 -0.3 7.0 -8.0
Sam Long 29 pre-arb 39 -0.4 0.9 -2.3
Randal Grichuk↔ ARI 33 FA-elig 43 -0.4 0.6 -2.2
Michael Massey 27 pre-arb 77 -0.4 0.8 -2.4
MJ Melendez 26 pre-arb 23 -0.6 0.5 -2.7
Drew Waters 26 pre-arb 71 -0.6 0.4 -2.7
Mark Canha 36 – 46 -0.7 1.4 -3.9
Hunter Renfroe 33 – 35 -0.9 7.6 -11.2
Jac Caglianone 22 – 62 -1.6 0.5 -6.5

49 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 46 of them (94%). 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.