Rosternomics
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Twins MIN

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GM: Andy MacPhail (since 1986)

1988 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+7.5
WAB — wins above budget
+6.5
TAB — roster Talent above budget
91–71 (0.562)
record
+0M
surplus $M (value/$)
42.2
roster fWAR
$13.3M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Kirby Puckett 28 arb 158 7.1 1.1 +1.1
Frank Viola 28 FA-elig 35 6.3 1.4 +0.6
Gary Gaetti 29 FA-elig 133 4.3 1.7 -0.3
Kent Hrbek 28 FA-elig 143 4.3 1.4 -0.1
Allan Anderson 24 pre-arb 30 3.5 0.1 +1.0
Bert Blyleven 37 FA-elig 33 3.2 1.0 +0.0
Dan Gladden 30 arb 141 2.9 0.4 +0.5
Greg Gagne 26 arb 149 1.8 0.4 +0.1
Jeff Reardon 32 FA-elig 63 1.6 0.8 -0.4
Freddie Toliver 27 arb 21 1.5 0.1 +0.4
Tim Laudner 30 FA-elig 117 1.5 0.3 +0.2
John Moses 30 FA-elig 105 1.5 0.1 +0.4
Randy Bush 29 FA-elig 136 1.4 0.3 +0.1
Brian Harper 28 FA-elig 60 1.4 0.1 +0.3
Gene Larkin 25 pre-arb 149 1.3 0.1 +0.3
Tom Herr↔ STL 32 FA-elig 86 1.1 0.7 -0.4
Juan Berenguer 33 FA-elig 57 0.8 0.5 -0.2
Les Straker 28 pre-arb 16 0.5 0.1 +0.1
Jim Dwyer↔ BAL 38 FA-elig 20 0.4 0.1 +0.0
Roy Smith 26 arb 9 0.2 0.1 +0.0
Mark Davidson 27 pre-arb 100 0.2 0.1 -0.0
Charlie Lea 31 FA-elig 24 0.2 0.1 +0.0
Eric Bullock 28 – 16 0.2 – –
John Christensen 27 arb 23 0.1 0.1 -0.0
Karl Best 29 – 11 -0.0 – –
Dan Schatzeder↔ CLE 33 FA-elig 10 -0.0 0.1 -0.1
Kelvin Torve 28 – 12 -0.1 – –
Tippy Martinez 38 FA-elig 3 -0.1 0.1 -0.1
German Gonzalez 26 pre-arb 16 -0.1 0.1 -0.1
Steve Lombardozzi Sr. 28 arb 103 -0.1 0.2 -0.2
Doug Baker 27 – 11 -0.1 – –
Dwight Lowry 30 arb 7 -0.2 0.1 -0.1
Mike Mason 29 – 5 -0.2 – –
Joe Niekro 43 FA-elig 5 -0.2 0.8 -0.9
Keith Atherton 29 arb 49 -0.2 0.3 -0.4
Jim Winn 28 arb 9 -0.3 0.2 -0.3
Steve Carlton 43 FA-elig 4 -0.4 0.1 -0.2
Mark Portugal 25 arb 26 -0.7 0.1 -0.3
Tom Brunansky↔ STL 27 FA-elig 14 -0.7 0.1 -0.3
Al Newman 28 arb 105 -0.9 0.1 -0.4
Tom Nieto 27 arb 24 -0.9 0.1 -0.4

41 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 36 of them (88%). 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 MIN
Johan Santana199932.0
Greg Gagne198215.6
Joe Nathan200314.1
Eric Milton199813.4
Joe Ryan202113.4
Francisco Liriano200312.5
Pablo López20239.6
Bert Blyleven19858.3
Ones that got away
PlayerYear tradedWAR elsewhere
Scott Erickson199516.4
J. J. Hardy201014.3
Johan Santana200814.3
Wilson Ramos201011.5
Mark Portugal19889.2
Denard Span20129.0
Bert Blyleven19888.4
Jason Bartlett20078.4
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.