RRosternomics
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Mets NYM

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GM: Steve Phillips

Overview

CONTEND ↗ rising
expensive & winning · year 1 in this regime · payroll 1.4× league · TAB +7.0
+7.0TAB — talent above budget8th/30
+10.2WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)6th/30
8.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars10th/30
-4.3dead WAR — sub-replacement drag15th/30
24%dead money %9th/30
0.595win %6th/30
45.6roster fWAR7th/30
-11surplus $M (value vs cost)20th/30
$68Mpayroll $M8th/30

1999: made playoffs · 97–66. Ranks are vs the 30 teams that season.

Roster

CFDarryl Hamilton 134GShawon Dunston 27GRoger Cedeno 21G
LFRickey Henderson 116GBenny Agbayani 47GMelvin Mora 28G
RFRoger Cedeno 127GBenny Agbayani 45GBobby Bonilla 23G
SSRey Ordonez 154GLuis Lopez 33GMelvin Mora 1G
2BEdgardo Alfonzo 158GLuis Lopez 16GMelvin Mora 4G
3BRobin Ventura 160GMatt Franco 12GLuis Lopez 9G
1BJohn Olerud 160GMatt Franco 19GBobby Bonilla 4G
STARTERSAl Leiter 3.0WAROrel Hershiser 1.8WARBobby Jones 1.6WARRick Reed 1.3WARMasato Yoshii 1.2WAR
CMike Piazza 137GTodd Pratt 52GMike Kinkade 1G
DHMatt Franco 4GBobby Bonilla 3GRickey Henderson 1G
BULLPEN★ Billy Taylor 26svTurk Wendell 21hDennis Cook 19hArmando Benítez 17hChuck McElroy 5hJohn Franco 1hPat Mahomes 1hJosias Manzanillo 1h
CMike Piazza 137 · Todd Pratt 52 · Mike Kinkade 1
1BJohn Olerud 160 · Matt Franco 19 · Bobby Bonilla 4
2BEdgardo Alfonzo 158 · Luis Lopez 16 · Melvin Mora 4
3BRobin Ventura 160 · Matt Franco 12 · Luis Lopez 9
SSRey Ordonez 154 · Luis Lopez 33 · Melvin Mora 1
LFRickey Henderson 116 · Benny Agbayani 47 · Melvin Mora 28
CFDarryl Hamilton 134 · Shawon Dunston 27 · Roger Cedeno 21
RFRoger Cedeno 127 · Benny Agbayani 45 · Bobby Bonilla 23
DHMatt Franco 4 · Bobby Bonilla 3 · Rickey Henderson 1
SPAl Leiter 3.0 · Orel Hershiser 1.8 · Bobby Jones 1.6 · Rick Reed 1.3 · Masato Yoshii 1.2
BP★ Billy Taylor 26 · Turk Wendell 21 · Dennis Cook 19 · Armando Benítez 17 · Chuck McElroy 5 · John Franco 1 · Pat Mahomes 1 · Josias Manzanillo 1

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.

1999 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Robin Ventura 31 FA-elig 1617.3 7.0 +2.2
Edgardo Alfonzo 25 arb 1585.9 2.8 +4.7
John Olerud 30 FA-elig 1625.8 4.2 +3.1
Mike Piazza 30 FA-elig 1414.5 7.2 -1.5
Al Leiter 33 FA-elig 323.0 5.2 -1.4
Rey Ordonez 28 arb 1543.0 1.6 +2.1
Armando Benitez 26 arb 773.0 2.0 +1.7
Rickey Henderson 40 FA-elig 1212.1 1.9 +0.8
Orel Hershiser 40 FA-elig 321.8 2.5 -0.2
Bobby Jones 29 FA-elig 121.6 4.9 -2.9
Roger Cedeno 24 arb 1551.5 0.5 +1.4
Rick Reed 34 FA-elig 271.3 1.7 -0.1
Darryl Hamilton↔ COL 34 FA-elig 551.2 1.4 +0.2
Masato Yoshii 34 pre-arb 311.2 2.0 -0.5
Benny Agbayani 27 pre-arb 1011.1 0.2 +1.2
Kenny Rogers↔ OAK 34 FA-elig 121.1 1.9 -0.5
John Franco 38 FA-elig 460.9 3.0 -1.8
Todd Pratt 32 FA-elig 710.7 0.3 +0.6
Octavio Dotel 25 pre-arb 190.7 0.2 +0.7
Turk Wendell 32 FA-elig 800.7 1.2 -0.3
Shawon Dunston↔ STL 36 FA-elig 420.4 0.2 +0.2
Allen Watson↔ NYY 28 FA-elig 140.2 0.3 +0.0
Pat Mahomes 28 FA-elig 410.2 0.3 -0.1
Jay Payton 26 – 130.1 – –
Rigo Beltran↔ COL 29 pre-arb 210.1 0.1 +0.0
Dennis Cook 36 FA-elig 710.1 2.0 -1.9
Chuck McElroy↔ COL 31 FA-elig 150.1 0.3 -0.2
Matt Franco 29 arb 1220.1 0.2 -0.2
Jermaine Allensworth 27 arb 400.1 0.3 -0.2
Melvin Mora 27 pre-arb 660.0 0.2 -0.2
Josias Manzanillo 31 FA-elig 130.0 0.2 -0.2
Greg McMichael↔ OAK 32 FA-elig 190.0 1.0 -1.0
Glendon Rusch↔ KCR 24 – 10.0 – –
Shane Halter 29 pre-arb 70.0 0.2 -0.2
Jorge Toca 24 – 4-0.0 – –
Dan Murray↔ KCR 25 – 1-0.0 – –
Mike Kinkade 26 pre-arb 28-0.0 0.2 -0.2
Billy Taylor↔ OAK 37 arb 18-0.0 0.7 -0.8
Terrence Long 23 pre-arb 3-0.1 0.2 -0.3
Jeff Tam↔ CLE 28 pre-arb 9-0.1 0.2 -0.3
Luis Lopez 28 FA-elig 68-0.2 0.6 -0.8
Jason Isringhausen↔ OAK 26 arb 13-0.2 0.2 -0.5
Bobby Bonilla 36 FA-elig 60-1.3 5.9 -7.6
Brian McRae↔ COL 31 FA-elig 96-2.3 2.7 -5.6

Key additions (new vs 1998)

PlayerfWAR
Robin Ventura7.3
Armando Benitez3.0
Rickey Henderson2.1
Orel Hershiser1.8
Roger Cedeno1.5
Darryl Hamilton1.2

Key subtractions (gone from 1998)

Player1998 fWAR
Hideo Nomo0.9
Armando Reynoso0.7
Brian Bohanon0.6
Alberto Castillo0.6
Butch Huskey0.5
Rich Becker0.4

Current & Historical Payroll

1999 payroll
$67.9M

What the front office was committed to as of 1999, 1999–2005. 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)

PlayerAgeSvc1999200020012002200320042005
Mike Piazza307.000$7.2M$12.1M$13.6M$10.6M$15.6M$16.1M$16.1M
Robin Ventura3110.000$7.0M$8.0M$8.0MFREE AGENT
Bobby Bonilla3613.000$5.9MFREE AGENT
Al Leiter3312.000$5.2M$7.8M$9.8M$9.2M$8.0M$10.3MFREE AGENT
Bobby Jones296.000$4.9M$5.4MFREE AGENT
John Olerud3010.000$4.2MFREE AGENT
John Franco3815.000$3.0M$3.4M$3.6MFREE AGENT$3.8M$1.0M
Brian McRae319.000$2.7MFREE AGENT
Orel Hershiser4016.000$2.5MFREE AGENT
Dennis Cook3611.000$2.0M$2.2M$1.7MFREE AGENT
Kenny Rogers3410.000$1.9MFREE AGENT
Rickey Henderson4020.000$1.9M$1.5MFREE AGENT
Rick Reed3411.000$1.7M$4.4M$4.2MFREE AGENT
Darryl Hamilton3411.000$1.4M$3.6M$3.3MFREE AGENT
Turk Wendell326.000$1.2M$2.1M$2.2MFREE AGENT
Greg McMichael326.000$1.0MFREE AGENT
Luis Lopez286.000$575kFREE AGENT
Todd Pratt327.000$350k$500k$338kFREE AGENT
Pat Mahomes287.000$310k$750kFREE AGENT
Chuck McElroy3110.000$281kFREE AGENT
Allen Watson286.000$276kFREE AGENT
Shawon Dunston3614.000$246kFREE AGENT
Josias Manzanillo318.000$200kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (8)

PlayerAgeSvc1999200020012002200320042005
Edgardo Alfonzo254.000$2.8MARB 3FREE AGENT
Armando Benitez265.000$2.0MFREE AGENT
Rey Ordonez283.000$1.6MARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Billy Taylor375.000$738kFREE AGENT
Roger Cedeno244.000$488kARB 3FREE AGENT
Jermaine Allensworth273.000$284kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Matt Franco294.000$250kARB 3FREE AGENT
Jason Isringhausen264.000$187kARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (13)

PlayerAgeSvc1999200020012002200320042005
Masato Yoshii341.000$2.0MPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Shane Halter292.000$235kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Terrence Long230.000$200kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Melvin Mora270.000$200kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Benny Agbayani271.000$200kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Kinkade261.000$200kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Octavio Dotel250.000$200kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Tam281.000$187kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rigo Beltran292.000$137kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Glendon Rusch242.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jay Payton261.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dan Murray25–—
Jorge Toca24–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Mets 1999; 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.