RRosternomics
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Dodgers LAD

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GM: Fred Claire

Overview

FORCED-SPEND ↘ cooling
expensive & losing · year 1 in this regime · payroll 1.4× league · TAB -16.5
-16.5TAB — talent above budget26th/26
-23.3WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)26th/26
4.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars22nd/26
-4.5dead WAR — sub-replacement drag11th/26
55%dead money %24th/26
0.389win %26th/26
21.9roster fWAR25th/26
-26surplus $M (value vs cost)26th/26
$42Mpayroll $M5th/26

Roster

CFBrett Butler 155GTom Goodwin 9GMitch Webster 8G
LFEric Davis 69GMitch Webster 36GTom Goodwin 35G
RFMitch Webster 56GDarryl Strawberry 40GTodd Benzinger 33G
SSJose Offerman 149GLenny Harris 10GRafael Bournigal 9G
2BLenny Harris 81GMike Sharperson 63GEric Young Sr. 43G
3BDave Hansen 108GMike Sharperson 60GLenny Harris 33G
1BEric Karros 143GTodd Benzinger 42GKal Daniels 8G
STARTERSTom Candiotti 3.3WARKevin Gross 3.3WAROrel Hershiser 2.8WARPedro Astacio 1.8WARBob Ojeda 1.3WAR
CMike Scioscia 108GCarlos Hernandez 63GMike Piazza 16G
BULLPEN★ Roger McDowell 14svJim Gott 0hSteve Wilson 0hJohn Candelaria 0hTim Crews 0hJay Howell 0hKip Gross 0hPedro Martínez 0h
CMike Scioscia 108 · Carlos Hernandez 63 · Mike Piazza 16
1BEric Karros 143 · Todd Benzinger 42 · Kal Daniels 8
2BLenny Harris 81 · Mike Sharperson 63 · Eric Young Sr. 43
3BDave Hansen 108 · Mike Sharperson 60 · Lenny Harris 33
SSJose Offerman 149 · Lenny Harris 10 · Rafael Bournigal 9
LFEric Davis 69 · Mitch Webster 36 · Tom Goodwin 35
CFBrett Butler 155 · Tom Goodwin 9 · Mitch Webster 8
RFMitch Webster 56 · Darryl Strawberry 40 · Todd Benzinger 33
SPTom Candiotti 3.3 · Kevin Gross 3.3 · Orel Hershiser 2.8 · Pedro Astacio 1.8 · Bob Ojeda 1.3
BP★ Roger McDowell 14 · Jim Gott 0 · Steve Wilson 0 · John Candelaria 0 · Tim Crews 0 · Jay Howell 0 · Kip Gross 0 · Pedro Martínez 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.

1992 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Brett Butler 35 FA-elig 1574.6 3.3 +0.3
Tom Candiotti 35 FA-elig 323.3 3.8 -1.2
Kevin Gross 31 FA-elig 343.3 2.2 +0.3
Orel Hershiser 33 FA-elig 352.8 4.3 -2.1
Mike Sharperson 30 arb 1281.8 0.6 +0.8
Pedro Astacio 22 – 111.8 – –
Mitch Webster 33 FA-elig 1351.5 0.1 +1.1
Bob Ojeda 34 FA-elig 291.3 1.6 -0.6
Eric Karros 24 pre-arb 1491.0 0.1 +0.6
Ramon Martinez 24 arb 260.9 0.7 -0.0
Jim Gott 32 FA-elig 680.8 2.1 -1.5
Jose Offerman 23 pre-arb 1490.6 0.1 +0.3
Jay Howell 36 FA-elig 410.5 2.6 -2.2
John Candelaria 38 FA-elig 500.4 1.2 -0.9
Pedro Martínez 20 – 20.3 – –
Kip Gross 27 pre-arb 160.3 0.1 +0.1
Tim Crews 31 arb 490.3 1.2 -1.0
Roger McDowell 31 FA-elig 650.2 2.2 -2.0
Tom Goodwin 23 – 570.2 – –
Darryl Strawberry 30 FA-elig 430.2 4.0 -3.9
Eric Davis 30 FA-elig 760.2 3.6 -3.5
Dave Anderson 31 FA-elig 510.1 0.3 -0.2
Mike Scioscia 33 FA-elig 1170.1 2.2 -2.1
Mike Piazza 23 – 210.0 – –
Steve Wilson 27 arb 60-0.0 0.3 -0.3
Carlos Hernandez 25 pre-arb 69-0.0 0.1 -0.1
Rafael Bournigal 26 – 10-0.1 – –
Henry Rodriguez 24 – 53-0.2 – –
Stan Javier↔ PHI 28 FA-elig 56-0.3 0.3 -0.5
Kal Daniels↔ CHC 28 FA-elig 35-0.3 1.1 -1.3
Eric Young Sr. 25 – 49-0.4 – –
Dave Hansen 23 pre-arb 132-0.4 0.1 -0.4
Todd Benzinger 29 arb 121-0.4 1.1 -1.5
Juan Samuel↔ KCR 31 FA-elig 47-0.5 1.4 -1.9
Billy Ashley 21 – 29-0.9 – –
Lenny Harris 27 arb 135-0.9 0.8 -1.6

Key additions (new vs 1991)

PlayerfWAR
Tom Candiotti3.3
Pedro Astacio1.8
Pedro Martínez0.3
Kip Gross0.3
Eric Davis0.2
Dave Anderson0.1

Key subtractions (gone from 1991)

Player1991 fWAR
Mike Morgan4.0
Tim Belcher3.9
Eddie Murray1.8
Gary Carter1.4
Dennis Cook0.2
Chris Gwynn0.1

Current & Historical Payroll

1992 payroll
$41.9M

What the front office was committed to as of 1992, 1992–1998. 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 (17)

PlayerAgeSvc1992199319941995199619971998
Orel Hershiser339.000$4.3M$4.3M$3.3MFREE AGENT
Darryl Strawberry309.000$4.0M$3.8MFREE AGENT
Tom Candiotti359.000$3.8M$3.6M$3.6M$4.5M$3.0M$3.0MFREE AGENT
Eric Davis308.000$3.6M$1.6MFREE AGENT
Brett Butler3511.000$3.3M$3.3M$3.5M$1.4M$2.0M$1.7MFREE AGENT
Jay Howell3612.000$2.6MFREE AGENT
Kevin Gross319.000$2.2M$2.0M$2.7MFREE AGENT
Roger McDowell317.000$2.2M$1.4M$1.4MFREE AGENT
Mike Scioscia3312.000$2.2MFREE AGENT
Jim Gott3210.000$2.1M$1.8M$1.8MFREE AGENT
Bob Ojeda3412.000$1.6MFREE AGENT
Juan Samuel319.000$1.4MFREE AGENT
John Candelaria3817.000$1.2MFREE AGENT
Kal Daniels286.000$1.1MFREE AGENT
Dave Anderson319.000$350kFREE AGENT
Stan Javier288.000$308kFREE AGENT
Mitch Webster339.000$115k$600k$600k$250kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (6)

PlayerAgeSvc1992199319941995199619971998
Tim Crews315.000$1.2MFREE AGENT
Todd Benzinger295.000$1.1MFREE AGENT
Lenny Harris274.000$840kARB 3FREE AGENT
Ramon Martinez244.000$725kARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Sharperson305.000$588kFREE AGENT
Steve Wilson274.000$275kARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (13)

PlayerAgeSvc1992199319941995199619971998
Kip Gross272.000$150kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Hansen232.000$135kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jose Offerman232.000$135kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Carlos Hernandez252.000$135kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Eric Karros241.000$124kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Billy Ashley210.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Pedro Astacio220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rafael Bournigal260.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tom Goodwin231.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Pedro Martínez200.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Piazza230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Henry Rodriguez240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Eric Young Sr.250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Dodgers 1992; 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.