RRosternomics
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Mets NYM

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GM: Frank Cashen

Overview

FORCED-SPEND ↘ cooling
expensive & losing · year 1 in this regime · payroll 1.35× league · TAB -3.1
-3.1TAB — talent above budget17th/26
-8.4WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)20th/26
5.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars21st/26
-3.6dead WAR — sub-replacement drag5th/26
14%dead money %4th/26
0.478win %19th/26
34.7roster fWAR12th/26
-10surplus $M (value vs cost)19th/26
$31Mpayroll $M5th/26

Roster

CFDaryl Boston 74GVince Coleman 70GKevin McReynolds 33G
LFKevin McReynolds 125GMark Carreon 43GKeith Miller 14G
RFHubie Brooks 100GDaryl Boston 37GHoward Johnson 30G
SSKevin Elster 107GGarry Templeton Sr. 41GHoward Johnson 28G
2BGregg Jefferies 77GKeith Miller 60GJeff Gardner 3G
3BHoward Johnson 104GGregg Jefferies 51GGarry Templeton Sr. 17G
1BDave Magadan 122GGarry Templeton Sr. 25GChris Donnels 15G
STARTERSDavid Cone 6.5WARDwight Gooden 4.5WARFrank Viola 2.4WARWally Whitehurst 2.1WARSid Fernandez 0.8WAR
CRick Cerone 81GCharlie O'Brien 67GMackey Sasser 43G
BULLPEN★ John Franco 30svTim Burke 0hJeff Innis 0hDoug Simons 0hTony Castillo 0hTerry Bross 0hRich Sauveur 0hBlaine Beatty 0h
CRick Cerone 81 · Charlie O'Brien 67 · Mackey Sasser 43
1BDave Magadan 122 · Garry Templeton Sr. 25 · Chris Donnels 15
2BGregg Jefferies 77 · Keith Miller 60 · Jeff Gardner 3
3BHoward Johnson 104 · Gregg Jefferies 51 · Garry Templeton Sr. 17
SSKevin Elster 107 · Garry Templeton Sr. 41 · Howard Johnson 28
LFKevin McReynolds 125 · Mark Carreon 43 · Keith Miller 14
CFDaryl Boston 74 · Vince Coleman 70 · Kevin McReynolds 33
RFHubie Brooks 100 · Daryl Boston 37 · Howard Johnson 30
SPDavid Cone 6.5 · Dwight Gooden 4.5 · Frank Viola 2.4 · Wally Whitehurst 2.1 · Sid Fernandez 0.8
BP★ John Franco 30 · Tim Burke 0 · Jeff Innis 0 · Doug Simons 0 · Tony Castillo 0 · Terry Bross 0 · Rich Sauveur 0 · Blaine Beatty 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.

1991 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
David Cone 28 arb 346.5 2.4 +1.5
Dwight Gooden 26 FA-elig 274.5 2.5 +0.2
Howard Johnson 30 FA-elig 1563.9 2.2 +0.2
Frank Viola 31 FA-elig 352.4 3.2 -1.7
Wally Whitehurst 27 pre-arb 362.1 0.2 +1.1
Rick Cerone 37 FA-elig 901.9 0.1 +1.1
Gregg Jefferies 23 arb 1361.7 0.4 +0.6
Dave Magadan 28 arb 1241.6 1.2 -0.3
Kevin Elster 26 arb 1151.5 0.6 +0.3
Kevin McReynolds 31 FA-elig 1431.3 2.3 -1.5
John Franco 30 FA-elig 521.3 2.6 -1.9
Keith Miller 28 arb 981.2 0.3 +0.4
Ron Darling↔ OAK 30 FA-elig 171.0 1.0 -0.4
Daryl Boston 28 FA-elig 1371.0 0.8 -0.1
Jeff Innis 28 arb 691.0 0.2 +0.4
Vince Coleman 29 FA-elig 720.8 3.1 -2.6
Sid Fernandez 28 FA-elig 80.8 2.2 -1.7
Mackey Sasser 28 arb 960.6 0.5 -0.2
Alejandro Pena↔ ATL 32 FA-elig 440.5 0.7 -0.4
Pete Schourek 22 pre-arb 350.5 0.1 +0.2
Anthony Young 25 – 100.4 – –
Hubie Brooks 34 FA-elig 1030.4 2.3 -2.1
Tony Castillo↔ ATL 28 arb 100.3 0.1 +0.1
Tim Burke↔ WSN 32 – 350.2 – –
Blaine Beatty 27 – 50.2 – –
Doug Simons 24 pre-arb 420.1 0.1 -0.0
Tom Herr↔ SFG 35 FA-elig 700.1 1.0 -0.9
Chris Donnels 25 – 370.1 – –
Charlie O'Brien 31 FA-elig 690.1 0.3 -0.3
Terry Bross 25 – 8-0.0 – –
Julio Valera 22 – 2-0.0 – –
Rich Sauveur 27 – 6-0.1 – –
Kelvin Torve 31 – 10-0.2 – –
Todd Hundley 22 – 21-0.3 – –
Chuck Carr 23 – 12-0.3 – –
Terry McDaniel 24 – 23-0.3 – –
Tim Teufel↔ SDP 32 FA-elig 20-0.3 0.1 -0.3
Jeff Gardner 27 – 13-0.4 – –
Mark Carreon 27 arb 106-0.8 0.2 -0.7
Garry Templeton Sr.↔ SDP 35 FA-elig 80-0.8 0.4 -0.9

Key additions (new vs 1990)

PlayerfWAR
Rick Cerone1.9
Vince Coleman0.8
Pete Schourek0.5
Anthony Young0.4
Hubie Brooks0.4
Tony Castillo0.3

Key subtractions (gone from 1990)

Player1990 fWAR
Darryl Strawberry6.5
Bob Ojeda0.6
Darren Reed0.4
Pat Tabler0.4
Tom O'Malley0.2
Dan Schatzeder0.1

Current & Historical Payroll

1991 payroll
$30.9M

What the front office was committed to as of 1991, 1991–1997. 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 (17)

PlayerAgeSvc1991199219931994199519961997
Frank Viola319.000$3.2MFREE AGENT
Vince Coleman296.000$3.1M$3.2M$2.3MFREE AGENT
John Franco307.000$2.6M$3.3M$4.0M$4.0M$2.5M$2.6M$3.0M
Dwight Gooden267.000$2.5M$5.2M$5.9M$4.6MFREE AGENT
Hubie Brooks3411.000$2.3MFREE AGENT
Kevin McReynolds318.000$2.3MFREE AGENT$2.9M
Sid Fernandez288.000$2.2M$2.2M$2.1MFREE AGENT
Howard Johnson309.000$2.2M$2.3M$2.1MFREE AGENT
Ron Darling308.000$1.0MFREE AGENT
Tom Herr3512.000$961kFREE AGENT
Daryl Boston287.000$750k$935kFREE AGENT
Alejandro Pena3210.000$746kFREE AGENT
Garry Templeton Sr.3515.000$379kFREE AGENT
Charlie O'Brien316.000$300k$370k$500kFREE AGENT
Tim Teufel328.000$109kFREE AGENT
Rick Cerone3716.000$100kFREE AGENT
Tim Burke326.000—$1.4MFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (9)

PlayerAgeSvc1991199219931994199519961997
David Cone285.000$2.4MFREE AGENT
Dave Magadan285.000$1.2MFREE AGENT
Kevin Elster265.000$625kFREE AGENT
Mackey Sasser284.000$505kARB 3FREE AGENT
Gregg Jefferies234.000$425kARB 3FREE AGENT
Keith Miller284.000$260kARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Carreon274.000$215kARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Innis284.000$155kARB 3FREE AGENT
Tony Castillo283.000$97kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (14)

PlayerAgeSvc1991199219931994199519961997
Wally Whitehurst272.000$155kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Doug Simons240.000$100kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Pete Schourek220.000$100kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Blaine Beatty27–—
Terry Bross25–—
Chuck Carr231.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris Donnels250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Gardner270.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Todd Hundley221.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Terry McDaniel24–—
Rich Sauveur27–—
Kelvin Torve31–—
Julio Valera221.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Anthony Young250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Mets 1991; 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.