RRosternomics
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Brewers MIL

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GM: Harry Dalton

Overview

REBUILD ↘ cooling
cheap & losing · year 1 in this regime · payroll 0.83× league · TAB -5.6
-5.6TAB — talent above budget22nd/26
+1.4WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)12th/26
5.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars21st/26
-4.2dead WAR — sub-replacement drag14th/26
22%dead money %9th/26
0.500win %14th/26
26.4roster fWAR23rd/26
-2surplus $M (value vs cost)16th/26
$11Mpayroll $M18th/26

Roster

CFRobin Yount 144GMike Felder 34GRob Deer 1G
LFGlenn Braggs 127GMike Felder 30GGreg Vaughn 23G
RFRob Deer 123GMike Felder 38GTerry Francona 16G
SSBill Spiers 89GGary Sheffield 70GGus Polidor 21G
2BJim Gantner 114GEd Romero 37GGus Polidor 30G
3BPaul Molitor 112GGus Polidor 29GGary Sheffield 21G
1BGreg Brock 100GTerry Francona 46GJoey Meyer 18G
STARTERSChris Bosio 5.5WARTeddy Higuera 2.2WARJaime Navarro 1.8WARBill Krueger 0.8WARTom Filer 0.3WAR
CB.J. Surhoff 106GCharlie O'Brien 62GDave Engle 3G
DHJoey Meyer 30GPaul Molitor 28GTerry Francona 21G
BULLPEN★ Dan Plesac 33svChuck Crim 0hTony Fossas 0hPaul Mirabella 0hJeff Peterek 0hRandy Veres 0hTerry Francona 0hRay Krawczyk 0h
CB.J. Surhoff 106 · Charlie O'Brien 62 · Dave Engle 3
1BGreg Brock 100 · Terry Francona 46 · Joey Meyer 18
2BJim Gantner 114 · Ed Romero 37 · Gus Polidor 30
3BPaul Molitor 112 · Gus Polidor 29 · Gary Sheffield 21
SSBill Spiers 89 · Gary Sheffield 70 · Gus Polidor 21
LFGlenn Braggs 127 · Mike Felder 30 · Greg Vaughn 23
CFRobin Yount 144 · Mike Felder 34 · Rob Deer 1
RFRob Deer 123 · Mike Felder 38 · Terry Francona 16
DHJoey Meyer 30 · Paul Molitor 28 · Terry Francona 21
SPChris Bosio 5.5 · Teddy Higuera 2.2 · Jaime Navarro 1.8 · Bill Krueger 0.8 · Tom Filer 0.3
BP★ Dan Plesac 33 · Chuck Crim 0 · Tony Fossas 0 · Paul Mirabella 0 · Jeff Peterek 0 · Randy Veres 0 · Terry Francona 0 · Ray Krawczyk 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.

1989 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Chris Bosio 26 arb 335.5 0.2 +1.8
Robin Yount 33 FA-elig 1605.3 1.1 +0.7
Paul Molitor 32 FA-elig 1555.1 2.1 -0.3
Charlie O'Brien 29 arb 622.2 0.1 +0.7
Teddy Higuera 31 arb 222.2 1.5 -0.7
Jaime Navarro 22 pre-arb 191.8 0.1 +0.6
Greg Brock 32 FA-elig 1071.3 0.7 -0.2
Dan Plesac 27 arb 520.9 0.8 -0.4
Bill Krueger 31 FA-elig 340.8 0.1 +0.1
Chuck Crim 27 pre-arb 760.8 0.2 +0.0
Mike Felder 27 arb 1170.7 0.1 +0.2
Jim Gantner 36 FA-elig 1160.7 0.9 -0.6
Tony Fossas 31 pre-arb 510.6 0.1 +0.2
Rob Deer 28 arb 1300.5 0.8 -0.6
Bill Spiers 23 pre-arb 1140.3 0.1 +0.1
Tom Filer 32 FA-elig 140.3 0.1 -0.0
Mike Birkbeck 28 – 90.3 – –
Greg Vaughn 23 pre-arb 380.3 0.1 +0.0
Glenn Braggs 26 arb 1440.3 0.2 -0.1
Randy Veres 23 – 30.2 – –
Bill Wegman 26 arb 110.1 0.4 -0.4
Ray Krawczyk 29 – 10.1 – –
B.J. Surhoff 24 pre-arb 1260.1 0.2 -0.2
Jeff Peterek 26 pre-arb 70.1 0.1 -0.0
Billy Bates 25 pre-arb 70.1 0.1 -0.0
Bryan Clutterbuck 29 arb 140.0 0.1 -0.1
George Canale 23 – 13-0.0 – –
Dave Engle 32 FA-elig 27-0.0 0.2 -0.2
Paul Mirabella 35 FA-elig 13-0.1 0.2 -0.3
LaVel Freeman 26 – 2-0.1 – –
Juan Castillo 27 – 3-0.1 – –
Mark Knudson 28 arb 40-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Don August 25 – 31-0.2 – –
Jay Aldrich↔ ATL 28 – 16-0.2 – –
Ed Romero↔ ATL 31 FA-elig 15-0.3 0.0 -0.1
Joey Meyer 27 pre-arb 53-0.3 0.1 -0.2
Gary Sheffield 20 pre-arb 95-0.4 0.1 -0.2
Jerry Reuss↔ CHW 40 FA-elig 7-0.4 0.1 -0.3
Gus Polidor 27 arb 79-0.8 0.1 -0.4
Terry Francona 30 FA-elig 90-1.2 0.2 -0.7

Key additions (new vs 1988)

PlayerfWAR
Jaime Navarro1.8
Bill Krueger0.8
Tony Fossas0.6
Bill Spiers0.3
Greg Vaughn0.3
Randy Veres0.2

Key subtractions (gone from 1988)

Player1988 fWAR
Dale Sveum0.7
Juan Nieves0.5
Steve Kiefer0.2
Odell Jones0.2
Jim Adduci-0.0
Darryl Hamilton-0.1

Current & Historical Payroll

1989 payroll
$11.3M

What the front office was committed to as of 1989, 1989–1995. 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 (11)

PlayerAgeSvc1989199019911992199319941995
Paul Molitor3211.000$2.1M$2.6M$3.2M$3.5MFREE AGENT
Robin Yount3315.000$1.1M$3.2M$3.2M$3.2M$2.7MFREE AGENT
Jim Gantner3613.000$900k$700k$1.0M$1.1MFREE AGENT
Greg Brock327.000$700k$788k$938kFREE AGENT
Terry Francona308.000$245k$150kFREE AGENT
Paul Mirabella3511.000$230k$230kFREE AGENT
Dave Engle328.000$165kFREE AGENT
Bill Krueger316.000$150k$325kFREE AGENT
Jerry Reuss4020.000$138kFREE AGENT
Tom Filer327.000$125k$255kFREE AGENT
Ed Romero3112.000$15kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (14)

PlayerAgeSvc1989199019911992199319941995
Teddy Higuera314.000$1.5MARB 3FREE AGENT
Dan Plesac273.000$765kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rob Deer285.000$760kFREE AGENT
Bill Wegman264.000$425kARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris Bosio263.000$228kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Glenn Braggs263.000$205kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Gus Polidor274.000$130kARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Felder274.000$98kARB 3FREE AGENT
Charlie O'Brien294.000$90kARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Knudson284.000$85kARB 3FREE AGENT
Bryan Clutterbuck293.000$73kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Birkbeck283.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Juan Castillo273.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ray Krawczyk295.000—FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (15)

PlayerAgeSvc1989199019911992199319941995
Chuck Crim272.000$245kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
B.J. Surhoff242.000$185kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Joey Meyer271.000$95kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Gary Sheffield201.000$90kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Billy Bates250.000$68kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tony Fossas311.000$68kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jaime Navarro220.000$68kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Peterek260.000$68kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bill Spiers230.000$68kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Greg Vaughn230.000$68kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jay Aldrich282.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Don August251.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
George Canale230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
LaVel Freeman26–—
Randy Veres230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Brewers 1989; 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.