RRosternomics
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Yankees NYY

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GM: Clyde King

Overview

CONTEND ↘ cooling
expensive & winning · year 2 in this regime · payroll 1.4× league · TAB +5.2
+5.2TAB — talent above budget8th/26
+3.7WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)11th/26
9.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars5th/26
-4.3dead WAR — sub-replacement drag13th/26
32%dead money %10th/26
0.556win %5th/26
43.6roster fWAR3rd/26
-3surplus $M (value vs cost)21st/26
$16Mpayroll $M2nd/26

Roster

CFRickey Henderson 138GHenry Cotto 19GClaudell Washington 19G
LFDan Pasqua 71GGary Roenicke 33GRon Kittle 21G
RFDave Winfield 145GClaudell Washington 47GDan Pasqua 12G
SSWayne Tolleson 74GBobby Meacham 56GMike Fischlin 42G
2BWillie Randolph 139GMike Fischlin 27GBryan Little 26G
3BMike Pagliarulo 143GWayne Tolleson 72GDale Berra 18G
1BDon Mattingly 160GDan Pasqua 5GGary Roenicke 2G
STARTERSRon Guidry 3.0WARBob Tewksbury 2.2WARDennis Rasmussen 1.8WARDoug Drabek 1.5WARTommy John 0.9WAR
CJoel Skinner 114GButch Wynegar 57GJuan Espino 27G
DHMike Easler 115GRon Kittle 81GGary Roenicke 8G
BULLPEN★ Dave Righetti 46svBrian Fisher 0hTim Stoddard 0hRod Scurry 0hAl Holland 0hAlfonso Pulido 0hMike Armstrong 0hJohn Montefusco 0h
CJoel Skinner 114 · Butch Wynegar 57 · Juan Espino 27
1BDon Mattingly 160 · Dan Pasqua 5 · Gary Roenicke 2
2BWillie Randolph 139 · Mike Fischlin 27 · Bryan Little 26
3BMike Pagliarulo 143 · Wayne Tolleson 72 · Dale Berra 18
SSWayne Tolleson 74 · Bobby Meacham 56 · Mike Fischlin 42
LFDan Pasqua 71 · Gary Roenicke 33 · Ron Kittle 21
CFRickey Henderson 138 · Henry Cotto 19 · Claudell Washington 19
RFDave Winfield 145 · Claudell Washington 47 · Dan Pasqua 12
DHMike Easler 115 · Ron Kittle 81 · Gary Roenicke 8
SPRon Guidry 3.0 · Bob Tewksbury 2.2 · Dennis Rasmussen 1.8 · Doug Drabek 1.5 · Tommy John 0.9
BP★ Dave Righetti 46 · Brian Fisher 0 · Tim Stoddard 0 · Rod Scurry 0 · Al Holland 0 · Alfonso Pulido 0 · Mike Armstrong 0 · John Montefusco 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.

1986 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Don Mattingly 25 arb 1627.2 1.4 +0.8
Rickey Henderson 27 FA-elig 1536.4 1.6 +0.3
Willie Randolph 31 FA-elig 1413.9 1.1 +0.1
Dave Winfield 34 FA-elig 1543.0 1.9 -1.0
Ron Guidry 35 FA-elig 303.0 1.0 -0.1
Dave Righetti 27 FA-elig 743.0 0.8 +0.0
Mike Pagliarulo 26 pre-arb 1492.9 0.1 +0.7
Dan Pasqua 24 pre-arb 1022.7 0.1 +0.7
Bob Tewksbury 25 – 232.2 – –
Dennis Rasmussen 27 arb 311.8 0.1 +0.4
Ron Hassey↔ CHW 33 FA-elig 641.7 0.2 +0.3
Mike Easler 35 FA-elig 1461.6 0.7 -0.2
Doug Drabek 23 pre-arb 271.5 0.1 +0.4
Wayne Tolleson↔ CHW 30 – 601.4 – –
Tommy John 43 FA-elig 130.9 0.1 +0.2
Ken Griffey Sr.↔ ATL 36 FA-elig 590.9 0.4 -0.2
Rod Scurry 30 FA-elig 310.6 0.5 -0.3
Al Holland 33 – 250.6 – –
Butch Wynegar 30 FA-elig 610.5 0.7 -0.6
Joe Niekro 41 FA-elig 250.5 0.8 -0.6
Phil Lombardi 23 – 200.4 – –
Claudell Washington↔ ATL 31 FA-elig 540.3 0.4 -0.3
Dale Berra 29 FA-elig 420.2 0.6 -0.5
Bob Shirley 32 FA-elig 390.2 0.8 -0.7
Joel Skinner↔ CHW 25 arb 540.1 0.0 +0.0
Brad Arnsberg 22 – 20.1 – –
Leo Hernandez 26 – 70.1 – –
Bobby Meacham 25 – 560.0 – –
Tim Stoddard↔ SDP 33 FA-elig 24-0.0 0.3 -0.3
Ron Kittle↔ CHW 28 arb 30-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Gary Roenicke 31 FA-elig 69-0.1 0.7 -0.7
Ed Whitson↔ SDP 31 FA-elig 14-0.1 0.4 -0.4
Brian Fisher 24 pre-arb 62-0.1 0.1 -0.2
Scott Nielsen 27 – 10-0.2 – –
John Montefusco 36 FA-elig 4-0.2 0.7 -0.8
Ivan De Jesus Sr. 33 – 7-0.2 – –
Mike Armstrong 32 – 7-0.3 – –
Bryan Little↔ CHW 26 – 14-0.3 – –
Henry Cotto 25 – 35-0.4 – –
Alfonso Pulido 29 – 10-0.4 – –
Juan Espino 30 arb 27-0.5 0.1 -0.2
Mike Fischlin 30 FA-elig 71-0.6 0.2 -0.4
Paul Zuvella 27 – 21-0.7 – –

Key additions (new vs 1985)

PlayerfWAR
Bob Tewksbury2.2
Mike Easler1.6
Doug Drabek1.5
Wayne Tolleson1.4
Tommy John0.9
Al Holland0.6

Key subtractions (gone from 1985)

Player1985 fWAR
Rich Bordi1.9
Phil Niekro1.0
Don Baylor0.8
Andre Robertson0.4
Omar Moreno0.4
Bill Sample0.3

Current & Historical Payroll

1986 payroll
$15.7M

What the front office was committed to as of 1986, 1986–1992. 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 (22)

PlayerAgeSvc1986198719881989199019911992
Dave Winfield3413.000$1.9M$1.9M$2.0MFREE AGENT$1.7M
Rickey Henderson277.000$1.6M$1.7M$1.8M$1.2MFREE AGENT
Willie Randolph3111.000$1.1M$900k$875kFREE AGENT
Ron Guidry3511.000$975k$850k$825kFREE AGENT
Dave Righetti277.000$838k$800k$1.3M$1.4M$1.6MFREE AGENT
Joe Niekro4119.000$750k$545kFREE AGENT
Bob Shirley329.000$750k$200kFREE AGENT
Butch Wynegar3010.000$733kFREE AGENT
John Montefusco3612.000$717kFREE AGENT
Gary Roenicke3110.000$658kFREE AGENT
Mike Easler3513.000$658k$464kFREE AGENT
Dale Berra299.000$558kFREE AGENT
Rod Scurry306.000$450kFREE AGENT
Ken Griffey Sr.3613.000$446kFREE AGENT
Claudell Washington3112.000$431k$480k$480kFREE AGENT$495k
Ed Whitson319.000$361kFREE AGENT
Tim Stoddard3311.000$300k$775k$700kFREE AGENT
Ron Hassey338.000$227kFREE AGENT
Mike Fischlin309.000$200kFREE AGENT
Tommy John4323.000$60k$350k$375kFREE AGENT
Ivan De Jesus Sr.3312.000—FREE AGENT
Al Holland339.000—$400kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (8)

PlayerAgeSvc1986198719881989199019911992
Don Mattingly254.000$1.4MARB 3FREE AGENT
Ron Kittle284.000$103kARB 3FREE AGENT
Dennis Rasmussen273.000$100kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Juan Espino304.000$65kARB 3FREE AGENT
Joel Skinner253.000$36kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bobby Meacham253.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Wayne Tolleson305.000—FREE AGENT
Paul Zuvella274.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (13)

PlayerAgeSvc1986198719881989199019911992
Brian Fisher241.000$120kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Pagliarulo262.000$120kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dan Pasqua241.000$70kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Doug Drabek230.000$60kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Armstrong32–—
Brad Arnsberg220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Henry Cotto252.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Leo Hernandez26–—
Bryan Little26–—
Phil Lombardi23–—
Scott Nielsen270.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Alfonso Pulido29–—
Bob Tewksbury250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Yankees 1986; 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.