RRosternomics
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Twins MIN

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GM: Andy MacPhail

Overview

REBUILD ↘ cooling
cheap & losing · year 2 in this regime · payroll 0.91× league · TAB -6.2
-6.2TAB — talent above budget20th/26
+4.2WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)10th/26
8.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars7th/26
-4.6dead WAR — sub-replacement drag19th/26
21%dead money %5th/26
0.525win %9th/26
26.9roster fWAR20th/26
-2surplus $M (value vs cost)15th/26
$10Mpayroll $M18th/26

1987: World Series champions · 85–77. Ranks are vs the 26 teams that season.

Roster

CFKirby Puckett 147GMark Davidson 20GDan Gladden 8G
LFDan Gladden 105GTom Brunansky 58GMark Davidson 36G
RFTom Brunansky 107GRandy Bush 73GMark Davidson 33G
SSGreg Gagne 136GAl Newman 55GRoy Smalley III 4G
2BSteve Lombardozzi Sr. 133GAl Newman 47GChris Pittaro 8G
3BGary Gaetti 150GRoy Smalley III 14GAl Newman 12G
1BKent Hrbek 137GGene Larkin 26GRandy Bush 9G
STARTERSFrank Viola 5.4WARJuan Berenguer 2.3WARBert Blyleven 2.2WARLes Straker 0.9WARJoe Niekro 0.8WAR
CTim Laudner 101GSal Butera 56GTom Nieto 40G
DHDon Baylor 104GRoy Smalley III 67GGene Larkin 39G
BULLPEN★ Jeff Reardon 31svKeith Atherton 0hDan Schatzeder 0hGeorge Frazier 0hJoe Klink 0hRoy Smith 0hRandy Niemann 0hAllan Anderson 0h
CTim Laudner 101 · Sal Butera 56 · Tom Nieto 40
1BKent Hrbek 137 · Gene Larkin 26 · Randy Bush 9
2BSteve Lombardozzi Sr. 133 · Al Newman 47 · Chris Pittaro 8
3BGary Gaetti 150 · Roy Smalley III 14 · Al Newman 12
SSGreg Gagne 136 · Al Newman 55 · Roy Smalley III 4
LFDan Gladden 105 · Tom Brunansky 58 · Mark Davidson 36
CFKirby Puckett 147 · Mark Davidson 20 · Dan Gladden 8
RFTom Brunansky 107 · Randy Bush 73 · Mark Davidson 33
DHDon Baylor 104 · Roy Smalley III 67 · Gene Larkin 39
SPFrank Viola 5.4 · Juan Berenguer 2.3 · Bert Blyleven 2.2 · Les Straker 0.9 · Joe Niekro 0.8
BP★ Jeff Reardon 31 · Keith Atherton 0 · Dan Schatzeder 0 · George Frazier 0 · Joe Klink 0 · Roy Smith 0 · Randy Niemann 0 · Allan Anderson 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.

1987 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Frank Viola 27 arb 365.4 0.8 +0.7
Kent Hrbek 27 FA-elig 1433.9 1.3 -0.2
Kirby Puckett 27 arb 1573.8 0.5 +0.6
Greg Gagne 25 arb 1373.5 0.2 +0.9
Gary Gaetti 28 FA-elig 1542.4 0.9 -0.3
Juan Berenguer 32 FA-elig 472.3 0.2 +0.5
Tom Brunansky 26 FA-elig 1552.3 0.9 -0.3
Bert Blyleven 36 FA-elig 372.2 1.1 -0.5
Steve Lombardozzi Sr. 27 pre-arb 1361.2 0.1 +0.2
Les Straker 27 pre-arb 310.9 0.1 +0.2
Dan Gladden 29 arb 1210.9 0.2 +0.0
Joe Niekro↔ NYY 42 FA-elig 190.8 0.5 -0.3
Jeff Reardon 31 FA-elig 630.7 0.9 -0.7
Mike Smithson 32 – 210.5 – –
Mark Salas↔ NYY 26 arb 220.2 0.0 +0.0
Keith Atherton 28 arb 590.2 0.3 -0.2
Roy Smalley III 34 FA-elig 1100.2 0.7 -0.7
Jeff Bittiger 25 – 30.1 – –
Don Baylor↔ BOS 38 – 20-0.0 – –
Chris Pittaro 25 – 14-0.1 – –
Roy Smith 25 – 7-0.1 – –
Steve Carlton↔ CLE 42 – 9-0.1 – –
Randy Bush 28 arb 122-0.1 0.3 -0.3
Joe Klink 25 – 12-0.1 – –
George Frazier 32 – 54-0.1 – –
Billy Beane 25 – 12-0.1 – –
Randy Niemann 31 – 6-0.1 – –
Mark Davidson 26 pre-arb 102-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Dan Schatzeder↔ PHI 32 FA-elig 30-0.2 0.2 -0.3
Tom Nieto 26 – 41-0.2 – –
Allan Anderson 23 – 4-0.3 – –
Gene Larkin 24 pre-arb 85-0.3 0.1 -0.2
Al Newman 27 pre-arb 110-0.3 0.1 -0.2
Tim Laudner 29 FA-elig 113-0.5 0.2 -0.4
Mark Portugal 24 – 13-0.7 – –
Sal Butera↔ CIN 34 FA-elig 51-1.2 0.1 -0.4

Key additions (new vs 1986)

PlayerfWAR
Juan Berenguer2.3
Les Straker0.9
Dan Gladden0.9
Joe Niekro0.8
Jeff Reardon0.7
Jeff Bittiger0.1

Key subtractions (gone from 1986)

Player1986 fWAR
Neal Heaton0.7
Al Woods0.2
Bill Latham0.2
Roy Lee Jackson0.1
John Butcher0.1
Jeff Reed0.0

Current & Historical Payroll

1987 payroll
$9.9M

What the front office was committed to as of 1987, 1987–1993. 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 (15)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Kent Hrbek276.000$1.3M$1.4M$1.6M$2.1M$2.6M$3.1M$3.1M
Bert Blyleven3617.000$1.1M$1.0MFREE AGENT
Gary Gaetti286.000$950k$1.7M$2.4M$500kFREE AGENT
Tom Brunansky266.000$940k$1.0MFREE AGENT
Jeff Reardon318.000$875k$850k$1.3MFREE AGENT
Roy Smalley III3412.000$740kFREE AGENT
Joe Niekro4220.000$545k$800kFREE AGENT
Tim Laudner296.000$245k$295k$700kFREE AGENT
Dan Schatzeder3210.000$228k$195kFREE AGENT
Juan Berenguer329.000$152k$500k$625k$750kFREE AGENT
Sal Butera347.000$57kFREE AGENT
Don Baylor3817.000—FREE AGENT
Steve Carlton4222.000—$115kFREE AGENT
George Frazier329.000—FREE AGENT
Randy Niemann318.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (11)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Frank Viola275.000$830kFREE AGENT
Kirby Puckett273.000$465kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Keith Atherton284.000$300kARB 3FREE AGENT
Randy Bush285.000$300kFREE AGENT
Dan Gladden294.000$210kARB 3FREE AGENT
Greg Gagne254.000$155kARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Salas263.000$42kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Billy Beane253.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tom Nieto263.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Roy Smith253.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Smithson325.000—FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (10)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Steve Lombardozzi Sr.272.000$105kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Al Newman272.000$70kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Davidson261.000$62kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Les Straker270.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Gene Larkin240.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Allan Anderson231.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Bittiger251.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Joe Klink250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris Pittaro25–—
Mark Portugal242.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Twins 1987; 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.