Rosternomics
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Yankees NYY

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GM: Woody Woodward (since 1987)

1987 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+1.5
WAB — wins above budget
-3.3
TAB — roster Talent above budget
89–73 (0.549)
record
-6M
surplus $M (value/$)
36.2
roster fWAR
$16.6M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Don Mattingly 26 arb 141 5.3 2.0 -0.4
Rickey Henderson 28 FA-elig 95 5.0 1.7 -0.2
Willie Randolph 32 FA-elig 120 4.7 0.9 +0.5
Tommy John 44 FA-elig 33 3.5 0.3 +0.7
Rick Rhoden 34 FA-elig 30 2.5 0.6 +0.1
Ron Guidry 36 FA-elig 22 2.2 0.8 -0.2
Mike Pagliarulo 27 arb 150 2.0 0.2 +0.4
Dave Winfield 35 FA-elig 156 1.7 1.9 -1.4
Charles Hudson 28 arb 35 1.5 0.3 +0.1
Bobby Meacham 26 arb 77 1.2 0.1 +0.2
Dave Righetti 28 FA-elig 60 1.2 0.8 -0.5
Claudell Washington 32 FA-elig 102 1.0 0.5 -0.2
Rick Cerone 33 FA-elig 113 0.9 0.2 +0.0
Joe Niekro↔ MIN 42 FA-elig 8 0.8 0.2 +0.0
Tim Stoddard 34 FA-elig 57 0.8 0.8 -0.5
Pat Clements 25 pre-arb 55 0.8 0.1 +0.1
Bill Gullickson↔ CIN 28 FA-elig 8 0.6 0.2 -0.0
Ron Kittle 29 arb 59 0.5 0.4 -0.3
Al Leiter 21 – 4 0.5 – –
Henry Cotto 26 – 68 0.4 – –
Dan Pasqua 25 pre-arb 113 0.4 0.1 -0.0
Neil Allen↔ CHW 29 FA-elig 8 0.3 0.4 -0.3
Roberto Kelly 22 – 23 0.3 – –
Bob Tewksbury↔ CHC 26 pre-arb 8 0.2 0.0 +0.0
Lenn Sakata 33 FA-elig 19 0.2 0.1 -0.1
Pete Filson 28 arb 7 0.2 0.2 -0.1
Dennis Rasmussen↔ CIN 28 arb 26 0.1 0.1 -0.1
Jerry Royster↔ CHW 34 FA-elig 18 0.1 0.1 -0.0
Steve Trout↔ CHC 29 FA-elig 14 0.1 0.5 -0.5
Cecilio Guante 27 arb 23 0.1 0.4 -0.4
Gary Ward 33 FA-elig 146 0.1 0.6 -0.6
Orestes Destrade 25 – 9 0.1 – –
Juan Bonilla 32 – 23 0.0 – –
Jeff Moronko 27 – 7 -0.0 – –
Mike Easler↔ PHI 36 FA-elig 65 -0.1 0.5 -0.5
Bob Shirley↔ KCR 33 FA-elig 12 -0.1 0.2 -0.2
Randy Velarde 24 pre-arb 8 -0.1 0.1 -0.1
Keith Hughes↔ PHI 23 pre-arb 4 -0.1 0.0 -0.0
Phil Lombardi 24 – 5 -0.1 – –
Wayne Tolleson 31 FA-elig 121 -0.1 0.4 -0.4
Al Holland 34 FA-elig 3 -0.1 0.4 -0.4
Rich Bordi 28 – 16 -0.2 – –
Jay Buhner 22 – 7 -0.2 – –
Mark Salas↔ MIN 26 arb 50 -0.2 0.1 -0.1
Bill Fulton 23 – 3 -0.3 – –
Brad Arnsberg 23 pre-arb 6 -0.3 0.1 -0.1
Paul Zuvella 28 – 14 -0.5 – –
Joel Skinner 26 arb 64 -0.9 0.1 -0.4

48 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 37 of them (77%). 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.