Rosternomics
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Mets NYM

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GM: Joe McIlvaine (since 1994)

1997 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+6.3
WAB — wins above budget
+0.6
TAB — roster Talent above budget
88–74 (0.543)
record
-2M
surplus $M (value/$)
34.7
roster fWAR
$38.7M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Edgardo Alfonzo 23 pre-arb 151 5.6 0.2 +5.5
John Olerud 28 FA-elig 154 4.4 6.5 -2.0
Todd Hundley 28 FA-elig 132 4.4 4.2 +0.3
Rick Reed 32 FA-elig 33 4.0 0.2 +3.9
Dave Mlicki 29 arb 33 2.6 0.6 +2.1
Bernard Gilkey 30 FA-elig 145 2.4 3.9 -1.4
Bobby Jones 27 arb 30 1.7 1.9 -0.2
Lance Johnson↔ CHC 33 FA-elig 72 1.6 2.0 -0.3
Greg McMichael 30 arb 73 1.5 1.1 +0.4
Armando Reynoso 31 FA-elig 16 1.3 1.0 +0.4
John Franco 36 FA-elig 59 1.3 3.0 -1.7
Butch Huskey 25 arb 142 1.2 0.2 +1.0
Todd Pratt 30 arb 39 1.1 0.2 +0.9
Brian Bohanon 28 FA-elig 21 1.1 0.2 +0.9
Carlos Baerga 28 FA-elig 133 1.0 4.8 -3.8
Manny Alexander↔ CHC 26 arb 54 0.8 0.1 +0.7
Cory Lidle 25 pre-arb 54 0.6 0.1 +0.5
Rey Ordonez 26 pre-arb 120 0.6 0.2 +0.4
Mark Clark↔ CHC 29 FA-elig 23 0.5 1.6 -1.1
Mel Rojas↔ CHC 30 FA-elig 23 0.3 1.4 -1.1
Matt Franco 27 pre-arb 112 0.2 0.2 +0.1
Luis Lopez 26 – 78 0.2 – –
Carlos Mendoza 22 – 15 0.1 – –
Carl Everett 26 arb 142 0.1 0.2 -0.1
Ricardo Jordan 27 pre-arb 22 0.1 0.2 -0.1
Jason Isringhausen 24 pre-arb 6 0.0 0.2 -0.2
Jason Hardtke 25 – 30 0.0 – –
Kevin Morgan 28 – 1 -0.0 – –
Brian McRae↔ CHC 29 FA-elig 45 -0.1 1.1 -1.2
Steve Bieser 29 pre-arb 47 -0.1 0.1 -0.2
Andy Tomberlin 30 arb 6 -0.1 0.2 -0.3
Roberto Petagine 26 – 12 -0.1 – –
Gary Thurman 32 – 11 -0.1 – –
Alberto Castillo 27 pre-arb 35 -0.1 0.2 -0.3
Yorkis Perez 29 FA-elig 9 -0.2 0.4 -0.5
Ricky Trlicek↔ BOS 28 arb 9 -0.2 0.1 -0.2
Alex Ochoa 25 pre-arb 113 -0.2 0.2 -0.4
Joe Crawford 27 – 19 -0.2 – –
Juan Acevedo 27 – 25 -0.3 – –
Pete Harnisch↔ MIL 30 FA-elig 6 -0.3 1.9 -2.3
Shawn Gilbert 32 – 29 -0.3 – –
Toby Borland↔ BOS 28 arb 13 -0.4 0.2 -0.6
Takashi Kashiwada 26 – 35 -0.4 – –
Turk Wendell↔ CHC 30 arb 13 -0.5 0.1 -0.5
Barry Manuel 31 FA-elig 19 -0.5 0.2 -0.7

45 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 35 of them (78%). 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 NYM
Sid Fernandez198327.5
Howard Johnson198422.8
David Cone198721.2
Noah Syndergaard201220.1
John Olerud199618.3
Keith Hernandez198316.5
Kevin McReynolds198615.1
Johan Santana200814.3
Ones that got away
PlayerYear tradedWAR elsewhere
Melvin Mora200026.9
Mike Scott198221.9
Nolan Ryan198516.2
A. J. Burnett199816.1
José Oquendo198515.3
Scott Kazmir200415.0
Walt Terrell198413.5
Andrés Giménez202113.3
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.