RRosternomics
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Mets NYM

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GM: Frank Cashen

Overview

CONTEND ↗ rising
expensive & winning · year 4 in this regime · payroll 1.33× league · TAB +18.4
+18.4TAB — talent above budget1st/26
+15.4WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)2nd/26
12.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars1st/26
-1.9dead WAR — sub-replacement drag3rd/26
9%dead money %1st/26
0.625win %2nd/26
55.4roster fWAR1st/26
+1surplus $M (value vs cost)7th/26
$16Mpayroll $M3rd/26

1988: made playoffs · 100–60. Ranks are vs the 26 teams that season.

Roster

CFLenny Dykstra 112GMookie Wilson 83GKevin McReynolds 1G
LFKevin McReynolds 147GMookie Wilson 16GLee Mazzilli 13G
RFDarryl Strawberry 150GMookie Wilson 18GLee Mazzilli 6G
SSKevin Elster 148GHoward Johnson 52GKeith Miller 8G
2BWally Backman 92GTim Teufel 84GKeith Miller 16G
3BHoward Johnson 131GDave Magadan 48GGregg Jefferies 20G
1BKeith Hernandez 93GDave Magadan 71GLee Mazzilli 16G
STARTERSDwight Gooden 6.3WARDavid Cone 5.5WARBob Ojeda 5.2WARSid Fernandez 4.0WARRon Darling 3.3WAR
CGary Carter 119GMackey Sasser 42GBarry Lyons 32G
BULLPEN★ Randy Myers 26svRoger McDowell 0hTerry Leach 0hBob McClure 0hEd Nunez 0hJeff Innis 0hRick Aguilera 0hDavid West 0h
CGary Carter 119 · Mackey Sasser 42 · Barry Lyons 32
1BKeith Hernandez 93 · Dave Magadan 71 · Lee Mazzilli 16
2BWally Backman 92 · Tim Teufel 84 · Keith Miller 16
3BHoward Johnson 131 · Dave Magadan 48 · Gregg Jefferies 20
SSKevin Elster 148 · Howard Johnson 52 · Keith Miller 8
LFKevin McReynolds 147 · Mookie Wilson 16 · Lee Mazzilli 13
CFLenny Dykstra 112 · Mookie Wilson 83 · Kevin McReynolds 1
RFDarryl Strawberry 150 · Mookie Wilson 18 · Lee Mazzilli 6
SPDwight Gooden 6.3 · David Cone 5.5 · Bob Ojeda 5.2 · Sid Fernandez 4.0 · Ron Darling 3.3
BP★ Randy Myers 26 · Roger McDowell 0 · Terry Leach 0 · Bob McClure 0 · Ed Nunez 0 · Jeff Innis 0 · Rick Aguilera 0 · David West 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.

1988 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Dwight Gooden 23 arb 346.3 1.4 +0.6
David Cone 25 pre-arb 355.5 0.1 +1.6
Darryl Strawberry 26 arb 1535.3 1.3 +0.3
Bob Ojeda 30 FA-elig 305.2 0.7 +0.9
Sid Fernandez 25 arb 314.0 0.6 +0.7
Kevin McReynolds 28 arb 1474.0 1.0 +0.3
Ron Darling 27 arb 343.3 1.0 +0.0
Howard Johnson 27 FA-elig 1482.9 0.7 +0.2
Wally Backman 28 FA-elig 992.7 0.7 +0.2
Lenny Dykstra 25 arb 1262.6 0.3 +0.5
Mookie Wilson 32 FA-elig 1122.3 0.9 -0.2
Dave Magadan 25 pre-arb 1122.1 0.1 +0.5
Keith Hernandez 34 FA-elig 951.8 1.9 -1.3
Tim Teufel 29 arb 901.8 0.5 +0.0
Randy Myers 25 arb 551.8 0.1 +0.4
Gregg Jefferies 20 pre-arb 291.4 0.1 +0.4
Gary Carter 34 FA-elig 1301.0 2.2 -1.8
Roger McDowell 27 arb 631.0 0.6 -0.3
Kevin Elster 23 pre-arb 1490.8 0.1 +0.2
Jeff Innis 25 – 120.4 – –
Terry Leach 34 FA-elig 520.4 0.2 -0.1
Mark Carreon 24 – 70.3 – –
Mackey Sasser 25 pre-arb 600.3 0.1 +0.0
David West 23 – 20.2 – –
Gene Walter↔ SEA 27 arb 190.1 0.1 -0.0
Rick Aguilera 26 arb 110.1 0.3 -0.3
Ed Nunez↔ SEA 25 FA-elig 100.0 0.1 -0.1
Bob McClure↔ WSN 36 FA-elig 140.0 0.2 -0.2
John Mitchell 22 – 1-0.0 – –
Barry Lyons 28 pre-arb 50-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Keith Miller 25 pre-arb 40-0.7 0.1 -0.3
Lee Mazzilli 33 FA-elig 68-1.1 0.3 -0.7

Key additions (new vs 1987)

PlayerfWAR
Mackey Sasser0.3
David West0.2
Ed Nunez0.0
Bob McClure0.0

Key subtractions (gone from 1987)

Player1987 fWAR
Jesse Orosco1.5
Rafael Santana0.7
Doug Sisk0.3
John Candelaria0.3
Bill Almon0.0
Bob Gibson0.0

Current & Historical Payroll

1988 payroll
$15.6M

What the front office was committed to as of 1988, 1988–1994. 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 (10)

PlayerAgeSvc1988198919901991199219931994
Gary Carter3414.000$2.2M$2.2MFREE AGENT
Keith Hernandez3414.000$1.9M$2.0MFREE AGENT
Mookie Wilson328.000$900k$597kFREE AGENT
Bob Ojeda308.000$725k$925k$1.3MFREE AGENT
Howard Johnson276.000$695k$772k$1.7M$2.2M$2.3M$2.1MFREE AGENT
Wally Backman288.000$650kFREE AGENT
Lee Mazzilli3312.000$350k$221kFREE AGENT
Bob McClure3613.000$212kFREE AGENT
Terry Leach347.000$190k$319kFREE AGENT
Ed Nunez256.000$133kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (11)

PlayerAgeSvc1988198919901991199219931994
Dwight Gooden234.000$1.4MARB 3FREE AGENT
Darryl Strawberry265.000$1.3MFREE AGENT
Ron Darling275.000$1.0MFREE AGENT
Kevin McReynolds285.000$975kFREE AGENT
Roger McDowell273.000$615kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Sid Fernandez255.000$580kFREE AGENT
Tim Teufel295.000$538kFREE AGENT
Lenny Dykstra253.000$305kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rick Aguilera263.000$295kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Randy Myers253.000$108kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Gene Walter273.000$61kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (11)

PlayerAgeSvc1988198919901991199219931994
Dave Magadan252.000$112kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
David Cone252.000$92kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Barry Lyons282.000$90kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Keith Miller251.000$70kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kevin Elster232.000$69kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Gregg Jefferies201.000$62kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mackey Sasser251.000$62kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Carreon241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Innis251.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Mitchell222.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
David West230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Mets 1988; 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.