RRosternomics
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Mets NYM

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GM: Frank Cashen

Overview

CONTEND ↘ cooling
expensive & winning · year 5 in this regime · payroll 1.53× league · TAB +6.2
+6.2TAB — talent above budget6th/26
-0.5WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)13th/26
9.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars5th/26
-1.3dead WAR — sub-replacement drag2nd/26
31%dead money %17th/26
0.537win %8th/26
45.7roster fWAR2nd/26
-5surplus $M (value vs cost)22nd/26
$21Mpayroll $M1st/26

Roster

CFJuan Samuel 134GKeith Miller 10GLee Mazzilli 1G
LFKevin McReynolds 145GMark Carreon 18GLee Mazzilli 4G
RFDarryl Strawberry 131GMark Carreon 21GKeith Miller 4G
SSKevin Elster 150GHoward Johnson 31GKeith Miller 8G
2BGregg Jefferies 123GTim Teufel 40GKeith Miller 23G
3BHoward Johnson 143GDave Magadan 28GGregg Jefferies 20G
1BDave Magadan 87GKeith Hernandez 58GTim Teufel 33G
STARTERSDavid Cone 3.9WARSid Fernandez 3.7WARRon Darling 2.8WARDwight Gooden 2.0WARFrank Viola 1.8WAR
CBarry Lyons 76GMackey Sasser 62GGary Carter 47G
BULLPEN★ Randy Myers 24svDon Aase 0hJeff Innis 0hJeff Musselman 0hJulio Machado 0hWally Whitehurst 0hBlaine Beatty 0hJohn Mitchell 0h
CBarry Lyons 76 · Mackey Sasser 62 · Gary Carter 47
1BDave Magadan 87 · Keith Hernandez 58 · Tim Teufel 33
2BGregg Jefferies 123 · Tim Teufel 40 · Keith Miller 23
3BHoward Johnson 143 · Dave Magadan 28 · Gregg Jefferies 20
SSKevin Elster 150 · Howard Johnson 31 · Keith Miller 8
LFKevin McReynolds 145 · Mark Carreon 18 · Lee Mazzilli 4
CFJuan Samuel 134 · Keith Miller 10 · Lee Mazzilli 1
RFDarryl Strawberry 131 · Mark Carreon 21 · Keith Miller 4
SPDavid Cone 3.9 · Sid Fernandez 3.7 · Ron Darling 2.8 · Dwight Gooden 2.0 · Frank Viola 1.8
BP★ Randy Myers 24 · Don Aase 0 · Jeff Innis 0 · Jeff Musselman 0 · Julio Machado 0 · Wally Whitehurst 0 · Blaine Beatty 0 · John Mitchell 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.

1989 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Howard Johnson 28 FA-elig 1537.0 0.8 +1.8
Darryl Strawberry 27 FA-elig 1344.3 1.5 +0.0
David Cone 26 arb 343.9 0.3 +1.1
Sid Fernandez 26 FA-elig 353.7 0.8 +0.6
Kevin McReynolds 29 FA-elig 1483.4 2.0 -0.7
Ron Darling 28 FA-elig 352.8 2.0 -1.0
Dave Magadan 26 arb 1272.7 0.2 +0.8
Lenny Dykstra↔ PHI 26 arb 562.2 0.2 +0.6
Kevin Elster 24 arb 1512.2 0.1 +0.6
Dwight Gooden 24 arb 192.0 2.4 -1.7
Frank Viola↔ MIN 29 FA-elig 121.8 0.9 -0.3
Rick Aguilera↔ MIN 27 arb 361.7 0.2 +0.4
Randy Myers 26 arb 651.6 0.3 +0.3
Mark Carreon 25 pre-arb 681.2 0.1 +0.4
Gregg Jefferies 21 pre-arb 1411.1 0.1 +0.3
Mackey Sasser 26 pre-arb 721.0 0.1 +0.3
Tim Teufel 30 FA-elig 830.9 0.6 -0.3
Juan Samuel↔ PHI 28 FA-elig 860.8 0.9 -0.6
Bob Ojeda 31 FA-elig 320.8 0.9 -0.7
Julio Machado 23 – 100.4 – –
Mookie Wilson↔ TOR 33 FA-elig 800.3 0.6 -0.5
Lee Mazzilli↔ TOR 34 FA-elig 480.3 0.2 -0.1
Lou Thornton 26 – 130.3 – –
Tom O'Malley 28 FA-elig 90.3 0.1 -0.0
Keith Hernandez 35 FA-elig 750.2 2.0 -1.9
Jeff Innis 26 pre-arb 290.1 0.1 -0.0
Jeff McKnight 26 – 60.1 – –
Barry Lyons 29 arb 790.1 0.1 -0.1
Craig Shipley 26 – 40.0 – –
Manny Hernandez 28 – 10.0 – –
Blaine Beatty 25 – 20.0 – –
Roger McDowell↔ PHI 28 arb 25-0.0 0.3 -0.3
John Mitchell 23 – 2-0.0 – –
Keith Miller 26 pre-arb 57-0.0 0.1 -0.1
Wally Whitehurst 25 – 9-0.1 – –
Jeff Musselman↔ TOR 26 arb 20-0.1 0.2 -0.2
Terry Leach↔ KCR 35 FA-elig 10-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Kevin Tapani↔ MIN 25 – 3-0.1 – –
Gary Carter 35 FA-elig 50-0.1 2.2 -2.2
Phil Lombardi 26 – 18-0.1 – –
David West↔ MIN 24 pre-arb 11-0.3 0.0 -0.1
Don Aase 34 FA-elig 49-0.4 0.4 -0.5

Key additions (new vs 1988)

PlayerfWAR
Frank Viola1.8
Juan Samuel0.8
Julio Machado0.4
Lou Thornton0.3
Tom O'Malley0.3
Jeff McKnight0.1

Key subtractions (gone from 1988)

Player1988 fWAR
Wally Backman2.7
Gene Walter0.1
Ed Nunez0.0
Bob McClure0.0

Current & Historical Payroll

1989 payroll
$20.8M

What the front office was committed to as of 1989, 1989–1995. 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 (16)

PlayerAgeSvc1989199019911992199319941995
Gary Carter3515.000$2.2MFREE AGENT
Keith Hernandez3515.000$2.0MFREE AGENT
Ron Darling286.000$2.0M$1.6M$1.0MFREE AGENT
Kevin McReynolds296.000$2.0M$1.3M$2.3MFREE AGENT$2.9M
Darryl Strawberry276.000$1.5M$1.9MFREE AGENT
Bob Ojeda319.000$925k$1.3MFREE AGENT
Frank Viola297.000$922k$2.0M$3.2MFREE AGENT
Juan Samuel286.000$910kFREE AGENT
Sid Fernandez266.000$795k$1.7M$2.2M$2.2M$2.1MFREE AGENT
Howard Johnson287.000$772k$1.7M$2.2M$2.3M$2.1MFREE AGENT
Mookie Wilson339.000$597kFREE AGENT
Tim Teufel306.000$590k$612k$529kFREE AGENT
Don Aase3412.000$400kFREE AGENT
Lee Mazzilli3413.000$221kFREE AGENT
Tom O'Malley287.000$145k$155kFREE AGENT
Terry Leach358.000$106kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (12)

PlayerAgeSvc1989199019911992199319941995
Dwight Gooden245.000$2.4MFREE AGENT
David Cone263.000$332kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Randy Myers264.000$300kARB 3FREE AGENT
Roger McDowell284.000$276kARB 3FREE AGENT
Rick Aguilera274.000$237kARB 3FREE AGENT
Lenny Dykstra264.000$221kARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Magadan263.000$170kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Musselman263.000$160kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kevin Elster243.000$140kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Barry Lyons293.000$115kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Mitchell233.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Craig Shipley263.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (14)

PlayerAgeSvc1989199019911992199319941995
Gregg Jefferies212.000$100kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mackey Sasser262.000$95kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Keith Miller262.000$85kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Innis262.000$78kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Carreon252.000$70kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
David West241.000$36kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Blaine Beatty25–—
Manny Hernandez28–—
Phil Lombardi26–—
Julio Machado230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff McKnight260.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kevin Tapani250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Lou Thornton26–—
Wally Whitehurst250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Mets 1989; 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.