RRosternomics
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Twins MIN

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GM: Andy MacPhail

Overview

REBUILD ↘ cooling
cheap & losing · year 1 in this regime · payroll 0.8× league · TAB -6.0
-6.0TAB — talent above budget19th/26
-8.0WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)19th/26
5.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars22nd/26
-4.7dead WAR — sub-replacement drag16th/26
29%dead money %7th/26
0.438win %23rd/26
25.5roster fWAR21st/26
-1surplus $M (value vs cost)15th/26
$9Mpayroll $M20th/26

Roster

CFKirby Puckett 160GBilly Beane 5GMark Davidson 5G
LFRandy Bush 90GBilly Beane 64GMickey Hatcher 45G
RFTom Brunansky 152GRandy Bush 13GMark Davidson 7G
SSGreg Gagne 155GRoy Smalley III 19GAlvaro Espinoza 18G
2BSteve Lombardozzi Sr. 155GAlvaro Espinoza 19GRon Washington 16G
3BGary Gaetti 156GRoy Smalley III 8GMickey Hatcher 3G
1BKent Hrbek 147GMickey Hatcher 22GRandy Bush 3G
STARTERSBert Blyleven 2.9WARFrank Viola 2.9WARMike Smithson 1.9WARMark Portugal 1.3WARNeal Heaton 0.7WAR
CMark Salas 69GTim Laudner 68GJeff Reed 64G
DHRoy Smalley III 104GMickey Hatcher 23GRon Washington 11G
BULLPEN★ Keith Atherton 10svRay Fontenot 0hGeorge Frazier 0hFrank Pastore 0hRoy Lee Jackson 0hJuan Agosto 0hBill Latham 0hRoy Smith 0h
CMark Salas 69 · Tim Laudner 68 · Jeff Reed 64
1BKent Hrbek 147 · Mickey Hatcher 22 · Randy Bush 3
2BSteve Lombardozzi Sr. 155 · Alvaro Espinoza 19 · Ron Washington 16
3BGary Gaetti 156 · Roy Smalley III 8 · Mickey Hatcher 3
SSGreg Gagne 155 · Roy Smalley III 19 · Alvaro Espinoza 18
LFRandy Bush 90 · Billy Beane 64 · Mickey Hatcher 45
CFKirby Puckett 160 · Billy Beane 5 · Mark Davidson 5
RFTom Brunansky 152 · Randy Bush 13 · Mark Davidson 7
DHRoy Smalley III 104 · Mickey Hatcher 23 · Ron Washington 11
SPBert Blyleven 2.9 · Frank Viola 2.9 · Mike Smithson 1.9 · Mark Portugal 1.3 · Neal Heaton 0.7
BP★ Keith Atherton 10 · Ray Fontenot 0 · George Frazier 0 · Frank Pastore 0 · Roy Lee Jackson 0 · Juan Agosto 0 · Bill Latham 0 · Roy Smith 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
Gary Gaetti 27 arb 1575.4 0.5 +1.1
Kirby Puckett 26 pre-arb 1615.3 0.3 +1.3
Frank Viola 26 arb 372.9 0.7 +0.2
Bert Blyleven 35 FA-elig 362.9 1.4 -0.6
Kent Hrbek 26 arb 1492.7 1.1 -0.3
Mike Smithson 31 arb 341.9 0.5 +0.1
Tom Brunansky 25 arb 1571.8 0.7 -0.2
Mark Portugal 23 pre-arb 271.3 0.1 +0.3
Tim Laudner 28 arb 761.0 0.2 +0.1
Roy Smalley III 33 FA-elig 1430.9 0.7 -0.5
Steve Lombardozzi Sr. 26 pre-arb 1560.7 0.1 +0.1
Neal Heaton↔ CLE 26 arb 210.7 0.2 -0.0
Allan Anderson 22 – 210.6 – –
Randy Bush 27 arb 1300.5 0.2 -0.1
Keith Atherton↔ OAK 27 arb 470.4 0.1 -0.0
George Frazier↔ CHC 31 FA-elig 150.4 0.2 -0.1
Mark Salas 25 pre-arb 910.2 0.1 -0.0
Al Woods 32 – 230.2 – –
Bill Latham 25 – 70.2 – –
Greg Gagne 24 arb 1560.1 0.1 -0.1
Roy Lee Jackson 32 FA-elig 280.1 0.1 -0.1
John Butcher↔ CLE 29 FA-elig 160.1 0.2 -0.2
Roy Smith 24 – 50.0 – –
Jeff Reed 23 pre-arb 680.0 0.1 -0.1
Andre David 28 – 5-0.0 – –
Pete Filson↔ CHW 27 – 4-0.0 – –
Frank Pastore 28 FA-elig 33-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Juan Agosto↔ CHW 28 – 17-0.1 – –
Ron Washington 34 – 48-0.1 – –
Ray Fontenot↔ CHC 28 arb 15-0.2 0.1 -0.1
Dennis Burtt 28 – 3-0.2 – –
Alejandro Sanchez 27 – 8-0.2 – –
Alvaro Espinoza 24 pre-arb 37-0.4 0.1 -0.2
Chris Pittaro 24 – 11-0.4 – –
Mickey Hatcher 31 FA-elig 115-0.6 0.7 -0.8
Billy Beane 24 pre-arb 80-0.7 0.1 -0.3
Ron Davis↔ CHC 30 FA-elig 36-0.8 0.5 -0.7
Mark Davidson 25 – 36-1.0 – –

Key additions (new vs 1985)

PlayerfWAR
Neal Heaton0.7
Allan Anderson0.6
Keith Atherton0.4
George Frazier0.4
Al Woods0.2
Bill Latham0.2

Key subtractions (gone from 1985)

Player1985 fWAR
Tim Teufel1.0
Rick Lysander0.6
Dave Engle0.5
Mark Funderburk0.3
Steve Howe0.2
Dave Meier0.2

Current & Historical Payroll

1986 payroll
$8.9M

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 (9)

PlayerAgeSvc1986198719881989199019911992
Bert Blyleven3516.000$1.4M$1.1M$1.0MFREE AGENT
Roy Smalley III3311.000$740k$740kFREE AGENT
Mickey Hatcher317.000$667kFREE AGENT
Ron Davis308.000$492kFREE AGENT
John Butcher296.000$212kFREE AGENT
George Frazier318.000$190kFREE AGENT
Roy Lee Jackson329.000$115kFREE AGENT
Frank Pastore287.000$60kFREE AGENT
Ron Washington349.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (13)

PlayerAgeSvc1986198719881989199019911992
Kent Hrbek265.000$1.1MFREE AGENT
Tom Brunansky255.000$740kFREE AGENT
Frank Viola264.000$674kARB 3FREE AGENT
Gary Gaetti275.000$515kFREE AGENT
Mike Smithson314.000$450kARB 3FREE AGENT
Randy Bush274.000$220kARB 3FREE AGENT
Neal Heaton264.000$197kARB 3FREE AGENT
Tim Laudner285.000$155kFREE AGENT
Keith Atherton273.000$144kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Greg Gagne243.000$100kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ray Fontenot283.000$63kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Juan Agosto285.000—FREE AGENT
Pete Filson274.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (16)

PlayerAgeSvc1986198719881989199019911992
Kirby Puckett262.000$255kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Salas252.000$115kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Lombardozzi Sr.261.000$75kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Billy Beane242.000$65kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Portugal231.000$62kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Alvaro Espinoza242.000$60kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Reed232.000$60kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Allan Anderson220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dennis Burtt28–—
Andre David28–—
Mark Davidson250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bill Latham25–—
Chris Pittaro24–—
Alejandro Sanchez27–—
Roy Smith242.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Al Woods32–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Twins 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.