RRosternomics
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Dodgers LAD

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GM: Fred Claire

Overview

CONTEND ↗ rising
expensive & winning · year 2 in this regime · payroll 1.49× league · TAB +0.1
+0.1TAB — talent above budget13th/26
+5.8WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)7th/26
9.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars5th/26
-3.0dead WAR — sub-replacement drag2nd/26
14%dead money %2nd/26
0.574win %4th/26
39.3roster fWAR6th/26
-11surplus $M (value vs cost)21st/26
$34Mpayroll $M2nd/26

Roster

CFBrett Butler 161GMitch Webster 14GStan Javier 7G
LFKal Daniels 132GStan Javier 52GMitch Webster 37G
RFDarryl Strawberry 136GMitch Webster 33GStan Javier 18G
SSAlfredo Griffin 109GJose Offerman 50GLenny Harris 20G
2BJuan Samuel 152GLenny Harris 27GMike Sharperson 5G
3BLenny Harris 113GMike Sharperson 68GJeff Hamilton 33G
1BEddie Murray 149GGary Carter 10GEric Karros 10G
STARTERSMike Morgan 4.0WARTim Belcher 3.9WAROrel Hershiser 3.0WARRamon Martinez 2.8WARBob Ojeda 2.3WAR
CMike Scioscia 115GGary Carter 68GCarlos Hernandez 13G
BULLPEN★ Jay Howell 16svRoger McDowell 0hTim Crews 0hJohn Candelaria 0hJim Gott 0hDennis Cook 0hSteve Wilson 0hJohn Wetteland 0h
CMike Scioscia 115 · Gary Carter 68 · Carlos Hernandez 13
1BEddie Murray 149 · Gary Carter 10 · Eric Karros 10
2BJuan Samuel 152 · Lenny Harris 27 · Mike Sharperson 5
3BLenny Harris 113 · Mike Sharperson 68 · Jeff Hamilton 33
SSAlfredo Griffin 109 · Jose Offerman 50 · Lenny Harris 20
LFKal Daniels 132 · Stan Javier 52 · Mitch Webster 37
CFBrett Butler 161 · Mitch Webster 14 · Stan Javier 7
RFDarryl Strawberry 136 · Mitch Webster 33 · Stan Javier 18
SPMike Morgan 4.0 · Tim Belcher 3.9 · Orel Hershiser 3.0 · Ramon Martinez 2.8 · Bob Ojeda 2.3
BP★ Jay Howell 16 · Roger McDowell 0 · Tim Crews 0 · John Candelaria 0 · Jim Gott 0 · Dennis Cook 0 · Steve Wilson 0 · John Wetteland 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.

1991 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Brett Butler 34 FA-elig 1614.7 2.8 -0.0
Darryl Strawberry 29 FA-elig 1394.2 3.8 -1.3
Mike Morgan 31 FA-elig 344.0 0.7 +1.8
Tim Belcher 29 arb 333.9 0.9 +1.4
Orel Hershiser 32 FA-elig 213.0 3.2 -1.4
Ramon Martinez 23 arb 332.8 0.5 +1.2
Mike Scioscia 32 FA-elig 1192.5 2.2 -0.7
Bob Ojeda 33 FA-elig 312.3 1.6 -0.3
Juan Samuel 30 FA-elig 1532.2 1.6 -0.3
Eddie Murray 35 FA-elig 1531.8 2.6 -1.6
Gary Carter 37 FA-elig 1011.4 0.5 +0.3
Lenny Harris 26 arb 1451.4 0.3 +0.5
Mike Sharperson 29 arb 1051.3 0.3 +0.5
Kevin Gross 30 FA-elig 481.2 2.2 -1.5
Kal Daniels 27 arb 1371.1 2.0 -1.3
Jay Howell 35 FA-elig 441.1 1.1 -0.4
Jim Gott 31 FA-elig 550.8 1.7 -1.2
John Candelaria 37 FA-elig 590.7 0.8 -0.4
Tim Crews 30 arb 600.5 0.7 -0.4
Mitch Webster↔ CLE 32 FA-elig 580.3 0.4 -0.2
Dennis Cook 28 arb 200.2 0.2 -0.1
Dave Hansen 22 – 530.2 – –
Steve Wilson↔ CHC 26 arb 110.1 0.1 -0.0
Chris Gwynn 26 arb 940.1 0.3 -0.2
John Wetteland 24 – 60.1 – –
Roger McDowell↔ PHI 30 FA-elig 330.0 0.9 -0.9
Carlos Hernandez 24 pre-arb 150.0 0.1 -0.1
Tom Goodwin 22 – 16-0.0 – –
Mike Christopher 27 – 3-0.0 – –
Butch Davis 33 – 1-0.0 – –
Greg Smith 24 pre-arb 5-0.1 0.1 -0.2
Alfredo Griffin 33 FA-elig 109-0.1 0.9 -1.0
Jose Offerman 22 pre-arb 52-0.2 0.1 -0.2
Barry Lyons↔ ANA 31 arb 9-0.2 0.2 -0.3
Eric Karros 23 – 14-0.2 – –
Jeff Hamilton 27 arb 41-0.2 0.4 -0.6
Stan Javier 27 FA-elig 121-0.6 0.7 -1.0
Jose Gonzalez↔ CLE 26 FA-elig 42-0.6 0.1 -0.5
Mike Hartley↔ PHI 29 pre-arb 40-0.8 0.1 -0.6

Key additions (new vs 1990)

PlayerfWAR
Brett Butler4.7
Darryl Strawberry4.2
Bob Ojeda2.3
Gary Carter1.4
Kevin Gross1.2
John Candelaria0.7

Key subtractions (gone from 1990)

Player1990 fWAR
Fernando Valenzuela2.8
Kirk Gibson2.6
Jim Neidlinger1.6
Hubie Brooks1.5
Willie Randolph0.5
Rick Dempsey0.4

Current & Historical Payroll

1991 payroll
$34.2M

What the front office was committed to as of 1991, 1991–1997. 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 (19)

PlayerAgeSvc1991199219931994199519961997
Darryl Strawberry298.000$3.8M$4.0M$3.8MFREE AGENT
Orel Hershiser328.000$3.2M$4.3M$4.3M$3.3MFREE AGENT
Brett Butler3410.000$2.8M$3.3M$3.3M$3.5M$1.4M$2.0M$1.7M
Eddie Murray3514.000$2.6MFREE AGENT$627k
Mike Scioscia3211.000$2.2M$2.2MFREE AGENT
Kevin Gross308.000$2.2M$2.2M$2.0M$2.7MFREE AGENT
Jim Gott319.000$1.7M$2.1M$1.8M$1.8MFREE AGENT
Bob Ojeda3311.000$1.6M$1.6MFREE AGENT
Juan Samuel308.000$1.6M$1.4MFREE AGENT
Jay Howell3511.000$1.1M$2.6MFREE AGENT
Roger McDowell306.000$930k$2.2M$1.4M$1.4MFREE AGENT
Alfredo Griffin3315.000$900kFREE AGENT
John Candelaria3716.000$830k$1.2MFREE AGENT
Stan Javier277.000$650k$407kFREE AGENT
Mike Morgan3113.000$650kFREE AGENT
Gary Carter3717.000$500kFREE AGENT
Mitch Webster328.000$407k$115k$600k$600k$250kFREE AGENT
Jose Gonzalez266.000$129kFREE AGENT
Butch Davis338.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (11)

PlayerAgeSvc1991199219931994199519961997
Kal Daniels275.000$2.0MFREE AGENT
Tim Belcher294.000$900kARB 3FREE AGENT
Tim Crews304.000$670kARB 3FREE AGENT
Ramon Martinez233.000$485kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Hamilton275.000$431kFREE AGENT
Lenny Harris263.000$315kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Sharperson294.000$308kARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris Gwynn264.000$260kARB 3FREE AGENT
Dennis Cook283.000$240kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Barry Lyons315.000$180kFREE AGENT
Steve Wilson263.000$113kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (9)

PlayerAgeSvc1991199219931994199519961997
Greg Smith242.000$126kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jose Offerman221.000$115kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Carlos Hernandez241.000$115kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Hartley292.000$114kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Christopher270.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tom Goodwin220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Hansen221.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Eric Karros230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Wetteland242.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Dodgers 1991; 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.