RRosternomics
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Yankees NYY

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GM: Bob Watson

Overview

CONTEND ↗ rising
expensive & winning · year 3 in this regime · payroll 1.59× league · TAB +17.3
+17.3TAB — talent above budget3rd/30
+26.0WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)1st/30
12.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars1st/30
-1.7dead WAR — sub-replacement drag1st/30
18%dead money %5th/30
0.704win %1st/30
57.2roster fWAR2nd/30
-4surplus $M (value vs cost)14th/30
$66Mpayroll $M2nd/30

1998: World Series champions · 114–48. Ranks are vs the 30 teams that season.

Roster

CFBernie Williams 123GChad Curtis 45GRicky Ledee 3G
LFChad Curtis 100GTim Raines Sr. 47GRicky Ledee 36G
RFPaul O'Neill 150GShane Spencer 15GChad Curtis 9G
SSDerek Jeter 148GLuis Sojo 20GHomer Bush 2G
2BChuck Knoblauch 149GHomer Bush 24GLuis Sojo 8G
3BScott Brosius 150GMike Lowell 7GLuis Sojo 6G
1BTino Martinez 142GDale Sveum 21GLuis Sojo 19G
STARTERSDavid Cone 5.1WARDavid Wells 4.4WAROrlando Hernandez 3.2WARAndy Pettitte 3.1WARRamiro Mendoza 1.9WAR
CJorge Posada 99GJoe Girardi 78GMike Figga 1G
DHDarryl Strawberry 79GTim Raines Sr. 37GChili Davis 26G
BULLPEN★ Mariano Rivera 36svMike Stanton 0hGraeme Lloyd 0hJeff Nelson 0hJim Bruske 0hDarren Holmes 0hMike Buddie 0hJoe Borowski 0h
CJorge Posada 99 · Joe Girardi 78 · Mike Figga 1
1BTino Martinez 142 · Dale Sveum 21 · Luis Sojo 19
2BChuck Knoblauch 149 · Homer Bush 24 · Luis Sojo 8
3BScott Brosius 150 · Mike Lowell 7 · Luis Sojo 6
SSDerek Jeter 148 · Luis Sojo 20 · Homer Bush 2
LFChad Curtis 100 · Tim Raines Sr. 47 · Ricky Ledee 36
CFBernie Williams 123 · Chad Curtis 45 · Ricky Ledee 3
RFPaul O'Neill 150 · Shane Spencer 15 · Chad Curtis 9
DHDarryl Strawberry 79 · Tim Raines Sr. 37 · Chili Davis 26
SPDavid Cone 5.1 · David Wells 4.4 · Orlando Hernandez 3.2 · Andy Pettitte 3.1 · Ramiro Mendoza 1.9
BP★ Mariano Rivera 36 · Mike Stanton 0 · Graeme Lloyd 0 · Jeff Nelson 0 · Jim Bruske 0 · Darren Holmes 0 · Mike Buddie 0 · Joe Borowski 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
Derek Jeter 24 arb 1496.2 0.8 +5.9
Paul O'Neill 35 FA-elig 1525.4 5.5 +0.4
David Cone 35 FA-elig 315.1 6.7 -1.2
Scott Brosius 31 FA-elig 1525.0 2.6 +2.7
Bernie Williams 29 FA-elig 1284.9 8.3 -3.0
David Wells 35 FA-elig 304.4 4.7 +0.1
Tino Martinez 30 FA-elig 1423.3 4.3 -0.7
Orlando Hernandez 32 pre-arb 213.2 0.8 +2.8
Andy Pettitte 26 arb 333.1 3.8 -0.4
Jorge Posada 27 arb 1113.1 0.2 +3.1
Chuck Knoblauch 29 FA-elig 1502.7 6.0 -3.1
Chad Curtis 29 FA-elig 1512.1 1.2 +1.0
Ramiro Mendoza 26 pre-arb 411.9 0.3 +1.8
Mariano Rivera 28 arb 541.2 0.8 +0.6
Darryl Strawberry 36 FA-elig 1011.2 0.9 +0.4
Shane Spencer 26 pre-arb 271.2 0.2 +1.1
Hideki Irabu 29 pre-arb 291.0 2.9 -1.9
Joe Girardi 33 FA-elig 780.7 2.9 -2.1
Tim Raines Sr. 38 FA-elig 1090.6 1.3 -0.7
Homer Bush 25 pre-arb 450.5 0.2 +0.4
Darren Holmes 32 FA-elig 340.4 1.1 -0.6
Graeme Lloyd 31 arb 500.4 0.9 -0.4
Jeff Nelson 31 FA-elig 450.4 1.8 -1.3
Chili Davis 38 FA-elig 350.2 4.3 -4.1
Ricky Ledee 24 – 420.2 – –
Joe Borowski 27 arb 80.1 0.2 -0.0
Mike Stanton 31 FA-elig 670.1 1.9 -1.8
Mike Buddie 27 – 240.1 – –
Mike Lowell 24 – 80.0 – –
Jay Tessmer 26 pre-arb 70.0 0.2 -0.2
Todd Erdos 24 – 20.0 – –
Mike Figga 27 – 1-0.0 – –
Jim Bruske↔ LAD 33 arb 3-0.0 0.0 -0.0
Ryan Bradley 22 – 5-0.0 – –
Mike Jerzembeck 26 – 3-0.2 – –
Luis Sojo 33 FA-elig 54-0.3 0.8 -1.1
Willie Banks↔ ARI 29 FA-elig 9-0.5 0.1 -0.6
Dale Sveum 34 FA-elig 30-0.7 0.8 -1.6

Key additions (new vs 1997)

PlayerfWAR
Scott Brosius5.0
Orlando Hernandez3.2
Chuck Knoblauch2.7
Shane Spencer1.2
Darren Holmes0.4
Chili Davis0.2

Key subtractions (gone from 1997)

Player1997 fWAR
Wade Boggs2.0
Charlie Hayes1.1
Cecil Fielder0.9
Kenny Rogers0.6
Brian Boehringer0.5
Dwight Gooden0.4

Current & Historical Payroll

1998 payroll
$66.2M

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 (18)

PlayerAgeSvc1998199920002001200220032004
Bernie Williams297.000$8.3M$9.9M$12.4M$12.4M$12.4M$12.4M$12.4M
David Cone3512.000$6.7M$9.5M$12.0MFREE AGENT
Chuck Knoblauch297.000$6.0M$6.0M$6.0M$6.0MFREE AGENT
Paul O'Neill3513.000$5.5M$6.2M$6.5M$7.2MFREE AGENT
David Wells3511.000$4.7MFREE AGENT$2.2M$3.2M
Chili Davis3817.000$4.3M$4.3MFREE AGENT
Tino Martinez308.000$4.3M$4.3M$4.8M$6.3MFREE AGENT
Joe Girardi339.000$2.9M$3.4MFREE AGENT
Scott Brosius317.000$2.6M$5.2M$5.2M$5.2MFREE AGENT
Mike Stanton319.000$1.9M$2.0M$2.4M$2.5M$2.5MFREE AGENT
Jeff Nelson316.000$1.8M$1.8M$1.9MFREE AGENT$2.6M
Tim Raines Sr.3819.000$1.3MFREE AGENT
Chad Curtis296.000$1.2M$2.0MFREE AGENT
Darren Holmes328.000$1.1MFREE AGENT
Darryl Strawberry3615.000$875kFREE AGENT
Dale Sveum3412.000$800kFREE AGENT
Luis Sojo338.000$800k$800k$289k$500kFREE AGENT
Willie Banks297.000$73kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (7)

PlayerAgeSvc1998199920002001200220032004
Andy Pettitte263.000$3.8MARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Graeme Lloyd315.000$875kFREE AGENT
Derek Jeter243.000$750kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mariano Rivera283.000$750kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jorge Posada273.000$250kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Joe Borowski273.000$189kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jim Bruske333.000$14kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (13)

PlayerAgeSvc1998199920002001200220032004
Hideki Irabu291.000$2.9MPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Orlando Hernandez320.000$750kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ramiro Mendoza262.000$275kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Homer Bush251.000$179kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Shane Spencer260.000$170kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jay Tessmer260.000$170kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Todd Erdos241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Figga271.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Buddie270.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ricky Ledee240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Jerzembeck26–—
Ryan Bradley22–—
Mike Lowell240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

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