RRosternomics
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Mets NYM

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GM: Joe McIlvaine

Overview

WINDOW ↗ rising
cheap & winning · year 2 in this regime · payroll 0.73× league · TAB +6.1
+6.1TAB — talent above budget7th/28
-6.9WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)24th/28
5.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars21st/28
-1.6dead WAR — sub-replacement drag2nd/28
36%dead money %26th/28
0.438win %24th/28
36.5roster fWAR11th/28
+7surplus $M (value vs cost)3rd/28
$24Mpayroll $M21st/28

Roster

CFLance Johnson 157GCarl Everett 15GChris Jones 8G
LFBernard Gilkey 151GChris Jones 17GAndy Tomberlin 9G
RFAlex Ochoa 76GChris Jones 44GButch Huskey 40G
SSRey Ordonez 150GAlvaro Espinoza 23GTim Bogar 19G
2BCarlos Baerga 101GEdgardo Alfonzo 66GJason Hardtke 18G
3BAlvaro Espinoza 57GEdgardo Alfonzo 36GTim Bogar 25G
1BButch Huskey 75GRico Brogna 52GRoberto Petagine 40G
STARTERSMark Clark 3.0WARJason Isringhausen 2.7WARBobby Jones 1.8WARPaul Wilson 1.0WARPete Harnisch 0.4WAR
CTodd Hundley 150GBrent Mayne 21GAlberto Castillo 6G
BULLPEN★ John Franco 28svDoug Henry 0hJerry Dipoto 0hDave Mlicki 0hPaul Byrd 0hBob MacDonald 0hDerek Wallace 0hRicky Trlicek 0h
CTodd Hundley 150 · Brent Mayne 21 · Alberto Castillo 6
1BButch Huskey 75 · Rico Brogna 52 · Roberto Petagine 40
2BCarlos Baerga 101 · Edgardo Alfonzo 66 · Jason Hardtke 18
3BAlvaro Espinoza 57 · Edgardo Alfonzo 36 · Tim Bogar 25
SSRey Ordonez 150 · Alvaro Espinoza 23 · Tim Bogar 19
LFBernard Gilkey 151 · Chris Jones 17 · Andy Tomberlin 9
CFLance Johnson 157 · Carl Everett 15 · Chris Jones 8
RFAlex Ochoa 76 · Chris Jones 44 · Butch Huskey 40
SPMark Clark 3.0 · Jason Isringhausen 2.7 · Bobby Jones 1.8 · Paul Wilson 1.0 · Pete Harnisch 0.4
BP★ John Franco 28 · Doug Henry 0 · Jerry Dipoto 0 · Dave Mlicki 0 · Paul Byrd 0 · Bob MacDonald 0 · Derek Wallace 0 · Ricky Trlicek 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.

1996 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Bernard Gilkey 29 FA-elig 1537.6 2.8 +3.6
Lance Johnson 32 FA-elig 1606.4 2.7 +2.7
Todd Hundley 27 FA-elig 1534.7 1.8 +2.1
Mark Clark 28 arb 323.0 1.1 +1.4
Jason Isringhausen 23 pre-arb 272.7 0.2 +2.1
Alex Ochoa 24 pre-arb 822.0 0.1 +1.5
Bobby Jones 26 arb 311.8 0.4 +1.1
Jose Vizcaino↔ CLE 28 FA-elig 961.7 1.5 -0.1
Jeff Kent↔ CLE 28 arb 891.3 1.4 -0.2
John Franco 35 FA-elig 511.2 2.6 -1.6
Paul Wilson 23 pre-arb 261.0 0.1 +0.7
Dave Mlicki 28 arb 510.7 0.2 +0.4
Edgardo Alfonzo 22 pre-arb 1230.7 0.2 +0.4
Carl Everett 25 arb 1010.6 0.2 +0.4
Alvaro Espinoza↔ CLE 34 FA-elig 480.6 0.2 +0.3
Pete Harnisch 29 FA-elig 320.4 3.7 -3.4
Kevin Roberson 28 arb 270.3 0.1 +0.1
Andy Tomberlin 29 arb 630.3 0.1 +0.1
Rey Ordonez 25 pre-arb 1510.2 0.1 +0.1
Robert Person 26 pre-arb 290.2 0.1 +0.1
Tim Bogar 29 arb 910.2 0.2 -0.1
Rico Brogna 26 arb 550.2 0.3 -0.2
Roberto Petagine 25 pre-arb 500.1 0.1 -0.1
Chris Jones 30 arb 890.1 0.3 -0.3
Doug Henry 32 arb 580.1 0.8 -0.7
Alberto Castillo 26 – 60.1 – –
Ricky Trlicek 27 – 50.0 – –
Blas Minor↔ SEA 30 arb 170.0 0.1 -0.1
Charlie Greene 25 – 2-0.0 – –
Bob MacDonald 31 FA-elig 20-0.1 0.2 -0.2
Brent Mayne 28 FA-elig 70-0.1 0.7 -0.8
Mike Fyhrie 26 – 2-0.1 – –
Derek Wallace 24 pre-arb 19-0.1 0.1 -0.2
Jason Hardtke 24 – 19-0.1 – –
Butch Huskey 24 arb 118-0.1 0.1 -0.2
Jerry Dipoto 28 arb 57-0.1 0.2 -0.3
Pedro Martinez↔ CIN 27 – 5-0.1 – –
Matt Franco 26 – 14-0.1 – –
Paul Byrd 25 pre-arb 38-0.4 0.1 -0.4
Carlos Baerga↔ CLE 27 FA-elig 26-0.5 1.0 -1.4

Key additions (new vs 1995)

PlayerfWAR
Bernard Gilkey7.6
Lance Johnson6.4
Mark Clark3.0
Paul Wilson1.0
Alvaro Espinoza0.6
Kevin Roberson0.3

Key subtractions (gone from 1995)

Player1995 fWAR
Bobby Bonilla2.4
Bill Pulsipher1.7
Bret Saberhagen1.4
Mike Birkbeck0.8
Ryan Thompson0.8
Brett Butler0.7

Current & Historical Payroll

1996 payroll
$24.0M

What the front office was committed to as of 1996, 1996–2002. 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)

PlayerAgeSvc1996199719981999200020012002
Pete Harnisch298.000$3.7M$1.9MFREE AGENT
Bernard Gilkey296.000$2.8M$3.9M$3.7MFREE AGENT
Lance Johnson329.000$2.7M$2.0MFREE AGENT
John Franco3512.000$2.6M$3.0M$2.9M$3.0M$3.4M$3.6MFREE AGENT
Todd Hundley276.000$1.8M$4.2M$4.9MFREE AGENT
Jose Vizcaino287.000$1.5MFREE AGENT
Carlos Baerga276.000$980k$4.8M$4.7MFREE AGENT
Brent Mayne286.000$725kFREE AGENT
Bob MacDonald316.000$200kFREE AGENT
Alvaro Espinoza3412.000$179kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (16)

PlayerAgeSvc1996199719981999200020012002
Jeff Kent284.000$1.4MARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Clark285.000$1.1MFREE AGENT
Doug Henry325.000$750kFREE AGENT
Bobby Jones263.000$405kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris Jones305.000$338kFREE AGENT
Rico Brogna264.000$325kARB 3FREE AGENT
Jerry Dipoto283.000$225kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tim Bogar293.000$215kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Mlicki284.000$195kARB 3FREE AGENT
Carl Everett253.000$178kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Andy Tomberlin293.000$130kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kevin Roberson283.000$125kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Blas Minor304.000$120kARB 3FREE AGENT
Butch Huskey243.000$116kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Pedro Martinez273.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ricky Trlicek274.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (14)

PlayerAgeSvc1996199719981999200020012002
Edgardo Alfonzo221.000$180kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jason Isringhausen231.000$169kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Roberto Petagine252.000$135kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Paul Byrd251.000$123kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Alex Ochoa241.000$109kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rey Ordonez250.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Robert Person261.000$109kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Derek Wallace240.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Paul Wilson230.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Alberto Castillo261.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Matt Franco261.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Fyhrie260.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Charlie Greene25–—
Jason Hardtke24–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Mets 1996; 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.