Rosternomics
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Brewers MIL

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GM: Sal Bando (since 1992)

1997 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+2.2
WAB — wins above budget
-1.3
TAB — roster Talent above budget
78–83 (0.484)
record
+4M
surplus $M (value/$)
27.4
roster fWAR
$25.4M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Jeff Cirillo 27 arb 154 5.0 0.3 +4.7
Jeromy Burnitz 28 arb 153 4.9 0.2 +4.7
Ben McDonald 29 FA-elig 21 3.0 5.0 -2.0
Doug Jones 40 FA-elig 75 2.8 0.6 +2.3
Scott Karl 25 pre-arb 32 2.4 0.2 +2.2
Jose Valentin 27 arb 136 1.5 1.4 +0.0
Dave Nilsson 27 arb 156 1.4 2.7 -1.3
Mike Fetters 32 FA-elig 51 1.2 1.7 -0.5
Bob Wickman 28 arb 74 1.1 1.2 -0.0
John Jaha 31 arb 46 0.9 3.4 -2.4
Bryce Florie 27 arb 32 0.9 0.2 +0.7
Jose Mercedes 26 arb 29 0.9 0.2 +0.7
Cal Eldred 29 FA-elig 34 0.8 0.8 +0.0
Steve Woodard 22 pre-arb 7 0.8 0.1 +0.6
Mike Matheny 26 arb 123 0.7 0.2 +0.6
Jesse Levis 29 arb 99 0.7 0.2 +0.5
Fernando Viña 28 arb 79 0.7 0.8 -0.1
Mark Loretta 25 pre-arb 132 0.7 0.2 +0.5
Darrin Jackson↔ MIN 34 FA-elig 26 0.6 0.1 +0.6
Jeff D'Amico 21 pre-arb 23 0.6 0.2 +0.5
Jack Voigt 31 arb 72 0.5 0.1 +0.3
Gerald Williams 30 arb 155 0.4 0.7 -0.3
Julio Franco↔ CLE 38 FA-elig 42 0.4 1.2 -0.8
Tim Unroe 26 – 32 0.3 – –
Joel Adamson 25 pre-arb 30 0.3 0.2 +0.1
Al Reyes 27 pre-arb 19 0.2 0.2 +0.0
Kelly Stinnett 27 – 30 0.2 – –
Pete Harnisch↔ NYM 30 FA-elig 4 0.1 1.3 -1.2
Ron Villone 27 pre-arb 50 0.0 0.2 -0.2
Greg Hansell 26 – 3 -0.0 – –
Sean Maloney 26 – 3 -0.0 – –
Todd Dunn 26 – 44 -0.1 – –
Angel Miranda 27 arb 10 -0.1 0.3 -0.5
Paul Wagner↔ PIT 29 arb 2 -0.1 0.0 -0.2
Mark Davis 36 – 19 -0.2 – –
Jamie McAndrew 29 pre-arb 5 -0.2 0.2 -0.4
Brian Banks 26 pre-arb 28 -0.4 0.1 -0.5
Mike Misuraca 28 – 5 -0.4 – –
Eddy Diaz 25 – 16 -0.4 – –
Chuck Carr↔ HOU 29 FA-elig 26 -0.5 0.1 -0.6
Matt Mieske 29 arb 84 -0.6 0.5 -1.2
Antone Williamson 23 – 24 -0.7 – –
Marc Newfield 24 arb 50 -1.2 0.2 -1.4
Jeff Huson 32 FA-elig 84 -1.4 0.2 -1.7

44 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 35 of them (80%). 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 MIL
Christian Yelich201828.6
Freddy Peralta201517.3
Jeromy Burnitz199617.1
William Contreras202216.4
José Valentín19929.9
Josh Hader20158.8
Chris Capuano20038.5
Rob Deer19857.9
Ones that got away
PlayerYear tradedWAR elsewhere
Michael Brantley200820.0
Kevin Bass198217.5
José Valentín200017.3
Drew Rasmussen20219.1
Danny Darwin19868.0
Brett Lawrie20107.7
Khris Davis20167.4
Fernando Viña19996.7
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.