Rosternomics
𝕏

Yankees NYY

Switch team:

GM: Clyde King (since 1985)

1986 roster — every player, value & surplus

‹ Prev Next ›
+3.7
WAB — wins above budget
+5.2
TAB — roster Talent above budget
90–72 (0.556)
record
-3M
surplus $M (value/$)
43.6
roster fWAR
$15.7M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Don Mattingly 25 arb 162 7.2 1.4 +0.8
Rickey Henderson 27 FA-elig 153 6.4 1.6 +0.3
Willie Randolph 31 FA-elig 141 3.9 1.1 +0.1
Dave Winfield 34 FA-elig 154 3.0 1.9 -1.0
Ron Guidry 35 FA-elig 30 3.0 1.0 -0.1
Dave Righetti 27 FA-elig 74 3.0 0.8 +0.0
Mike Pagliarulo 26 pre-arb 149 2.9 0.1 +0.7
Dan Pasqua 24 pre-arb 102 2.7 0.1 +0.7
Bob Tewksbury 25 – 23 2.2 – –
Dennis Rasmussen 27 arb 31 1.8 0.1 +0.4
Ron Hassey↔ CHW 33 FA-elig 64 1.7 0.2 +0.3
Mike Easler 35 FA-elig 146 1.6 0.7 -0.2
Doug Drabek 23 pre-arb 27 1.5 0.1 +0.4
Wayne Tolleson↔ CHW 30 – 60 1.4 – –
Tommy John 43 FA-elig 13 0.9 0.1 +0.2
Ken Griffey Sr.↔ ATL 36 FA-elig 59 0.9 0.4 -0.2
Rod Scurry 30 FA-elig 31 0.6 0.5 -0.3
Al Holland 33 – 25 0.6 – –
Butch Wynegar 30 FA-elig 61 0.5 0.7 -0.6
Joe Niekro 41 FA-elig 25 0.5 0.8 -0.6
Phil Lombardi 23 – 20 0.4 – –
Claudell Washington↔ ATL 31 FA-elig 54 0.3 0.4 -0.3
Dale Berra 29 FA-elig 42 0.2 0.6 -0.5
Bob Shirley 32 FA-elig 39 0.2 0.8 -0.7
Joel Skinner↔ CHW 25 arb 54 0.1 0.0 +0.0
Brad Arnsberg 22 – 2 0.1 – –
Leo Hernandez 26 – 7 0.1 – –
Bobby Meacham 25 – 56 0.0 – –
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 – –

43 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 29 of them (67%). 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 NYY
Rickey Henderson198426.6
David Cone199516.6
Tino Martinez199516.0
Gleyber Torres201615.9
Willie Randolph197514.7
Nick Swisher200814.4
Giancarlo Stanton201711.1
Randy Velarde198710.1
Ones that got away
PlayerYear tradedWAR elsewhere
Rickey Henderson198926.8
Doug Drabek198621.4
Fred McGriff198219.7
Greg Gagne198215.6
Austin Jackson200914.8
Jake Westbrook200013.5
Eric Milton199813.4
Nick Johnson200310.5
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.