RRosternomics
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Mets NYM

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GM: Steve Phillips

Overview

FORCED-SPEND ↘ cooling
expensive & losing · year 1 in this regime · payroll 1.37× league · TAB -5.9
-5.9TAB — talent above budget21st/30
+2.0WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)12th/30
7.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars11th/30
-6.7dead WAR — sub-replacement drag24th/30
45%dead money %26th/30
0.543win %9th/30
32.2roster fWAR14th/30
-21surplus $M (value vs cost)28th/30
$57Mpayroll $M6th/30

Roster

CFBrian McRae 154GJermaine Allensworth 94GWayne Kirby 4G
LFTony Phillips 54GLenny Harris 34GTodd Hundley 34G
RFButch Huskey 103GLenny Harris 73GJermaine Allensworth 27G
SSRey Ordonez 151GLuis Lopez 39GEdgardo Alfonzo 1G
2BCarlos Baerga 144GLuis Lopez 50GRalph Milliard 5G
3BEdgardo Alfonzo 144GMatt Franco 13GLuis Lopez 11G
1BJohn Olerud 157GMatt Franco 11GJim Tatum 9G
STARTERSAl Leiter 4.8WARRick Reed 2.9WARBobby Jones 2.0WARMasato Yoshii 1.2WARHideo Nomo 0.9WAR
CMike Piazza 140GJorge Fabregas 53GAlberto Castillo 35G
DHMike Piazza 4GMatt Franco 2GButch Huskey 1G
BULLPEN★ John Franco 38svDennis Cook 0hTurk Wendell 0hGreg McMichael 0hMel Rojas 0hBrad Clontz 0hJeff Tam 0hRigo Beltran 0h
CMike Piazza 140 · Jorge Fabregas 53 · Alberto Castillo 35
1BJohn Olerud 157 · Matt Franco 11 · Jim Tatum 9
2BCarlos Baerga 144 · Luis Lopez 50 · Ralph Milliard 5
3BEdgardo Alfonzo 144 · Matt Franco 13 · Luis Lopez 11
SSRey Ordonez 151 · Luis Lopez 39 · Edgardo Alfonzo 1
LFTony Phillips 54 · Lenny Harris 34 · Todd Hundley 34
CFBrian McRae 154 · Jermaine Allensworth 94 · Wayne Kirby 4
RFButch Huskey 103 · Lenny Harris 73 · Jermaine Allensworth 27
DHMike Piazza 4 · Matt Franco 2 · Butch Huskey 1
SPAl Leiter 4.8 · Rick Reed 2.9 · Bobby Jones 2.0 · Masato Yoshii 1.2 · Hideo Nomo 0.9
BP★ John Franco 38 · Dennis Cook 0 · Turk Wendell 0 · Greg McMichael 0 · Mel Rojas 0 · Brad Clontz 0 · Jeff Tam 0 · Rigo Beltran 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.

1998 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
John Olerud 29 FA-elig 1608.1 3.8 +5.0
Mike Piazza↔ LAD 29 FA-elig 1095.7 5.8 +0.4
Al Leiter 32 FA-elig 284.8 3.0 +2.2
Edgardo Alfonzo 24 arb 1443.0 1.8 +1.5
Brian McRae 30 FA-elig 1592.9 3.9 -0.7
Rick Reed 33 FA-elig 312.9 1.4 +1.8
Bobby Jones 28 arb 302.0 3.1 -0.9
Dennis Cook 35 FA-elig 731.4 0.8 +0.6
Masato Yoshii 33 pre-arb 291.2 1.1 +0.3
Hideo Nomo↔ LAD 29 arb 170.9 1.6 -0.7
John Franco 37 FA-elig 610.8 2.9 -2.0
Armando Reynoso 32 FA-elig 110.7 1.2 -0.5
Turk Wendell 31 arb 660.7 0.7 +0.0
Brian Bohanon↔ LAD 29 FA-elig 250.6 0.2 +0.5
Alberto Castillo 28 arb 380.6 0.2 +0.4
Todd Pratt 31 FA-elig 410.5 0.3 +0.2
Butch Huskey 26 arb 1130.5 0.3 +0.2
Rich Becker↔ BAL 26 arb 490.4 0.6 -0.1
Matt Franco 28 arb 1030.4 0.2 +0.2
Willie Blair↔ ARI 32 FA-elig 110.2 1.1 -0.8
Dave Mlicki↔ LAD 30 FA-elig 100.2 0.4 -0.2
Jim Tatum 30 FA-elig 350.1 0.2 -0.1
Bill Pulsipher↔ MIL 24 – 160.1 – –
Bernard Gilkey↔ ARI 31 FA-elig 820.0 3.7 -3.7
Jay Payton 25 – 150.0 – –
Carlos Baerga 29 FA-elig 1470.0 4.7 -4.7
John Hudek↔ CIN 31 arb 28-0.0 0.2 -0.2
Ralph Milliard 24 – 10-0.0 – –
Preston Wilson↔ MIA 23 – 8-0.0 – –
Mike Kinkade 25 – 3-0.0 – –
Tony Phillips↔ TOR 39 FA-elig 52-0.1 0.4 -0.5
Brad Clontz↔ LAD 27 – 2-0.1 – –
Rigo Beltran 28 – 7-0.1 – –
Shawn Gilbert↔ STL 33 – 3-0.1 – –
Luis Lopez 27 arb 117-0.1 0.4 -0.5
Craig Paquette 29 arb 7-0.1 0.3 -0.4
Rick Wilkins↔ SEA 31 FA-elig 5-0.1 0.1 -0.2
Jeff Tam 27 pre-arb 15-0.1 0.2 -0.3
Todd Haney 32 – 3-0.1 – –
Benny Agbayani 26 – 11-0.2 – –
Tim Spehr↔ KCR 31 FA-elig 21-0.2 0.2 -0.4
Wayne Kirby 34 – 26-0.4 – –
Jorge Fabregas↔ ARI 28 arb 20-0.4 0.3 -0.7
Jermaine Allensworth↔ KCR 26 pre-arb 34-0.4 0.1 -0.5
Lenny Harris↔ CIN 33 FA-elig 75-0.4 0.4 -0.8
Greg McMichael↔ LAD 31 arb 52-0.6 1.5 -2.1
Mel Rojas 31 FA-elig 50-0.7 4.6 -5.4
Todd Hundley 29 FA-elig 53-1.1 4.9 -6.2
Rey Ordonez 27 pre-arb 153-1.5 0.3 -1.9

Key additions (new vs 1997)

PlayerfWAR
Mike Piazza5.7
Al Leiter4.8
Dennis Cook1.4
Masato Yoshii1.2
Hideo Nomo0.9
Rich Becker0.4

Key subtractions (gone from 1997)

Player1997 fWAR
Lance Johnson1.6
Manny Alexander0.8
Cory Lidle0.6
Mark Clark0.5
Carlos Mendoza0.1
Carl Everett0.1

Current & Historical Payroll

1998 payroll
$57.0M

What the front office was committed to as of 1998, 1998–2004. 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 (23)

PlayerAgeSvc1998199920002001200220032004
Mike Piazza296.000$5.8M$7.2M$12.1M$13.6M$10.6M$15.6M$16.1M
Todd Hundley298.000$4.9MFREE AGENT
Carlos Baerga298.000$4.7MFREE AGENT
Mel Rojas318.000$4.6MFREE AGENT
Brian McRae308.000$3.9M$2.7MFREE AGENT
John Olerud299.000$3.8M$4.2MFREE AGENT
Bernard Gilkey318.000$3.7MFREE AGENT
Al Leiter3211.000$3.0M$5.2M$7.8M$9.8M$9.2M$8.0M$10.3M
John Franco3714.000$2.9M$3.0M$3.4M$3.6MFREE AGENT$3.8M$1.0M
Rick Reed3310.000$1.4M$1.7M$4.4M$4.2MFREE AGENT
Armando Reynoso327.000$1.2MFREE AGENT
Willie Blair328.000$1.1MFREE AGENT
Dennis Cook3510.000$850k$2.0M$2.2M$1.7MFREE AGENT
Tony Phillips3916.000$448kFREE AGENT
Lenny Harris3310.000$440kFREE AGENT$746k$1.1M
Dave Mlicki306.000$417kFREE AGENT
Todd Pratt316.000$300k$350k$500k$338kFREE AGENT
Jim Tatum306.000$225kFREE AGENT
Brian Bohanon298.000$224kFREE AGENT
Tim Spehr317.000$187kFREE AGENT
Rick Wilkins317.000$89kFREE AGENT
Todd Haney326.000—FREE AGENT
Wayne Kirby347.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (15)

PlayerAgeSvc1998199920002001200220032004
Bobby Jones285.000$3.1MFREE AGENT
Edgardo Alfonzo243.000$1.8MARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Hideo Nomo293.000$1.6MARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Greg McMichael315.000$1.5MFREE AGENT
Turk Wendell315.000$662kFREE AGENT
Rich Becker265.000$593kFREE AGENT
Luis Lopez275.000$375kFREE AGENT
Jorge Fabregas284.000$300kARB 3FREE AGENT
Craig Paquette295.000$300kFREE AGENT
Butch Huskey265.000$300kFREE AGENT
John Hudek314.000$241kARB 3FREE AGENT
Matt Franco283.000$202kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Alberto Castillo283.000$192kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brad Clontz273.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bill Pulsipher243.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (11)

PlayerAgeSvc1998199920002001200220032004
Masato Yoshii330.000$1.1MPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rey Ordonez272.000$320kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Tam270.000$170kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jermaine Allensworth262.000$66kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rigo Beltran281.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Shawn Gilbert33–—
Ralph Milliard24–—
Preston Wilson230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Benny Agbayani260.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jay Payton250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Kinkade250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Mets 1998; 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.