RRosternomics
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Dodgers LAD

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GM: Al Campanis

Overview

FORCED-SPEND ↘ cooling
expensive & losing · year 1 in this regime · payroll 1.29× league · TAB -8.6
-8.6TAB — talent above budget23rd/26
-12.3WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)23rd/26
6.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars16th/26
-5.8dead WAR — sub-replacement drag22nd/26
49%dead money %25th/26
0.451win %19th/26
28.8roster fWAR17th/26
-6surplus $M (value vs cost)24th/26
$14Mpayroll $M5th/26

Roster

CFReggie Williams 79GKen Landreaux 68GJose Gonzalez 49G
LFFranklin Stubbs 108GLen Matuszek 35GCesar Cedeno 28G
RFMike Marshall 97GReggie Williams 35GRalph Bryant 26G
SSMariano Duncan 105GDave Anderson 34GBill Russell 32G
2BSteve Sax 154GBill Russell 8GDave Anderson 5G
3BBill Madlock 101GJeff Hamilton 67GDave Anderson 52G
1BGreg Brock 99GEnos Cabell 61GLen Matuszek 31G
STARTERSFernando Valenzuela 6.7WARBob Welch 5.4WAROrel Hershiser 4.1WARRick Honeycutt 3.2WARAlejandro Pena 0.4WAR
CMike Scioscia 118GAlex Trevino 63GJack Fimple 7G
BULLPEN★ Ken Howell 12svEd Vande Berg 0hTom Niedenfuer 0hCarlos Diaz 0hJoe Beckwith 0hBrian Holton 0hBalvino Galvez 0h
CMike Scioscia 118 · Alex Trevino 63 · Jack Fimple 7
1BGreg Brock 99 · Enos Cabell 61 · Len Matuszek 31
2BSteve Sax 154 · Bill Russell 8 · Dave Anderson 5
3BBill Madlock 101 · Jeff Hamilton 67 · Dave Anderson 52
SSMariano Duncan 105 · Dave Anderson 34 · Bill Russell 32
LFFranklin Stubbs 108 · Len Matuszek 35 · Cesar Cedeno 28
CFReggie Williams 79 · Ken Landreaux 68 · Jose Gonzalez 49
RFMike Marshall 97 · Reggie Williams 35 · Ralph Bryant 26
SPFernando Valenzuela 6.7 · Bob Welch 5.4 · Orel Hershiser 4.1 · Rick Honeycutt 3.2 · Alejandro Pena 0.4
BP★ Ken Howell 12 · Ed Vande Berg 0 · Tom Niedenfuer 0 · Carlos Diaz 0 · Joe Beckwith 0 · Brian Holton 0 · Balvino Galvez 0

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.

1986 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Fernando Valenzuela 25 FA-elig 396.7 1.6 +0.4
Bob Welch 29 FA-elig 355.4 0.7 +0.9
Steve Sax 26 arb 1574.5 0.6 +0.8
Orel Hershiser 27 arb 374.1 1.0 +0.2
Rick Honeycutt 32 FA-elig 323.2 0.8 +0.2
Mike Scioscia 27 FA-elig 1222.0 0.8 -0.2
Alex Trevino 28 FA-elig 891.8 0.4 +0.1
Greg Brock 29 arb 1151.0 0.3 -0.0
Bill Madlock 35 FA-elig 1110.8 0.8 -0.6
Len Matuszek 31 arb 910.8 0.2 +0.0
Ralph Bryant 25 – 270.7 – –
Brian Holton 26 pre-arb 120.7 0.1 +0.1
Franklin Stubbs 25 pre-arb 1320.6 0.1 +0.1
Ken Landreaux 31 FA-elig 1030.5 0.6 -0.5
Alejandro Pena 27 arb 240.4 0.3 -0.2
Pedro Guerrero 30 FA-elig 310.4 1.4 -1.3
Ken Howell 25 pre-arb 620.3 0.2 -0.1
Dennis Powell 22 pre-arb 270.2 0.1 +0.0
Bill Russell 37 FA-elig 1050.2 0.5 -0.4
Carlos Diaz 28 – 190.1 – –
Reggie Williams 25 pre-arb 1280.1 0.1 -0.0
Mike Marshall 26 arb 1030.1 0.7 -0.6
Larry See 26 – 130.0 – –
Dave Anderson 25 arb 92-0.0 0.2 -0.2
Jack Fimple 27 – 13-0.0 – –
Ed Amelung 27 – 8-0.1 – –
Jeff Hamilton 22 pre-arb 71-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Terry Whitfield 33 – 19-0.2 – –
Jerry Reuss 37 FA-elig 19-0.2 1.0 -1.1
Jose Gonzalez 21 pre-arb 57-0.3 0.1 -0.2
Cesar Cedeno 35 FA-elig 37-0.4 0.2 -0.3
Joe Beckwith 31 FA-elig 15-0.4 0.2 -0.3
Balvino Galvez 22 – 10-0.5 – –
Tom Niedenfuer 26 arb 60-0.6 0.5 -0.7
Ed Vande Berg 27 arb 60-0.6 0.5 -0.6
Craig Shipley 23 – 12-0.7 – –
Mariano Duncan 23 pre-arb 109-0.7 0.1 -0.4
Enos Cabell 36 FA-elig 107-1.0 0.5 -0.8

Key additions (new vs 1985)

PlayerfWAR
Alex Trevino1.8
Larry See0.0
Jack Fimple-0.0
Ed Amelung-0.1
Jeff Hamilton-0.1
Cesar Cedeno-0.4

Key subtractions (gone from 1985)

Player1985 fWAR
Bob Bailor0.5
R.J. Reynolds0.5
Candy Maldonado0.4
Tom Brennan0.3
Steve Yeager0.2
Gilberto Reyes0.1

Current & Historical Payroll

1986 payroll
$14.5M

What the front office was committed to as of 1986, 1986–1992. 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)

PlayerAgeSvc1986198719881989199019911992
Fernando Valenzuela256.000$1.6M$1.9M$2.0M$1.9M$2.0MFREE AGENT
Pedro Guerrero308.000$1.4M$1.5M$985kFREE AGENT
Jerry Reuss3717.000$1.0M$748kFREE AGENT
Bill Madlock3513.000$842k$685kFREE AGENT
Mike Scioscia276.000$800k$875k$1.0M$1.1M$1.2M$2.2M$2.2M
Rick Honeycutt329.000$755k$639kFREE AGENT
Bob Welch298.000$744k$838kFREE AGENT
Ken Landreaux319.000$638k$738kFREE AGENT
Enos Cabell3614.000$450kFREE AGENT
Bill Russell3717.000$450kFREE AGENT
Alex Trevino288.000$409k$370kFREE AGENT
Joe Beckwith317.000$200kFREE AGENT
Cesar Cedeno3516.000$200kFREE AGENT
Terry Whitfield3312.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (11)

PlayerAgeSvc1986198719881989199019911992
Orel Hershiser273.000$1.0MARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Marshall265.000$650kFREE AGENT
Steve Sax265.000$585kFREE AGENT
Tom Niedenfuer265.000$531kFREE AGENT
Ed Vande Berg274.000$455kARB 3FREE AGENT
Alejandro Pena275.000$350kFREE AGENT
Greg Brock294.000$325kARB 3FREE AGENT
Len Matuszek315.000$220kFREE AGENT
Dave Anderson253.000$200kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Carlos Diaz284.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jack Fimple273.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (13)

PlayerAgeSvc1986198719881989199019911992
Ken Howell252.000$175kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mariano Duncan231.000$150kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jose Gonzalez211.000$65kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Franklin Stubbs252.000$65kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dennis Powell221.000$62kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Hamilton220.000$60kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brian Holton261.000$60kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Reggie Williams251.000$60kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ed Amelung27–—
Ralph Bryant25–—
Balvino Galvez22–—
Larry See26–—
Craig Shipley230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Dodgers 1986; 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.