RRosternomics
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Yankees NYY

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GM: Brian Cashman

Overview

CONTEND → steady
expensive & winning · year 4 in this regime · payroll 1.8× league · TAB +5.6
+5.6TAB — talent above budget9th/30
+8.4WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)8th/30
11.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars1st/30
-1.8dead WAR — sub-replacement drag4th/30
10%dead money %1st/30
0.605win %3rd/30
47.1roster fWAR6th/30
-29surplus $M (value vs cost)27th/30
$88Mpayroll $M1st/30

1999: World Series champions · 98–64. Ranks are vs the 30 teams that season.

Roster

CFBernie Williams 155GChad Curtis 6GRicky Ledee 6G
LFChad Curtis 72GRicky Ledee 69GShane Spencer 46G
RFPaul O'Neill 151GShane Spencer 22GTony Tarasco 5G
SSDerek Jeter 158GLuis Sojo 6GClay Bellinger 1G
2BChuck Knoblauch 150GLuis Sojo 16GD'Angelo Jimenez 1G
3BScott Brosius 132GLuis Sojo 20GClay Bellinger 16G
1BTino Martinez 158GJim Leyritz 28GClay Bellinger 8G
STARTERSDavid Cone 3.5WAROrlando Hernandez 3.4WARRoger Clemens 3.1WARAndy Pettitte 2.7WARHideki Irabu 2.4WAR
CJorge Posada 109GJoe Girardi 65GJim Leyritz 25G
DHChili Davis 127GDarryl Strawberry 15GJim Leyritz 7G
BULLPEN★ Mariano Rivera 45svMike Stanton 22hJeff Nelson 10hJason Grimsley 8hAllen Watson 2hDan Naulty 1hJay Tessmer 0hTony Fossas 0h
CJorge Posada 109 · Joe Girardi 65 · Jim Leyritz 25
1BTino Martinez 158 · Jim Leyritz 28 · Clay Bellinger 8
2BChuck Knoblauch 150 · Luis Sojo 16 · D'Angelo Jimenez 1
3BScott Brosius 132 · Luis Sojo 20 · Clay Bellinger 16
SSDerek Jeter 158 · Luis Sojo 6 · Clay Bellinger 1
LFChad Curtis 72 · Ricky Ledee 69 · Shane Spencer 46
CFBernie Williams 155 · Chad Curtis 6 · Ricky Ledee 6
RFPaul O'Neill 151 · Shane Spencer 22 · Tony Tarasco 5
DHChili Davis 127 · Darryl Strawberry 15 · Jim Leyritz 7
SPDavid Cone 3.5 · Orlando Hernandez 3.4 · Roger Clemens 3.1 · Andy Pettitte 2.7 · Hideki Irabu 2.4
BP★ Mariano Rivera 45 · Mike Stanton 22 · Jeff Nelson 10 · Jason Grimsley 8 · Allen Watson 2 · Dan Naulty 1 · Jay Tessmer 0 · Tony Fossas 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.

1999 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Derek Jeter 25 arb 1587.4 5.0 +4.3
Bernie Williams 30 FA-elig 1584.9 9.9 -3.7
David Cone 36 FA-elig 313.5 9.5 -5.1
Orlando Hernandez 33 pre-arb 333.4 1.9 +2.5
Chuck Knoblauch 30 FA-elig 1503.3 6.0 -1.9
Roger Clemens 36 FA-elig 303.1 8.2 -4.4
Andy Pettitte 27 arb 312.7 6.0 -2.6
Paul O'Neill 36 FA-elig 1532.6 6.2 -3.0
Hideki Irabu 30 pre-arb 322.4 3.1 -0.1
Tino Martinez 31 FA-elig 1592.4 4.3 -1.3
Mariano Rivera 29 arb 662.1 4.2 -1.6
Ramiro Mendoza 27 arb 531.9 0.4 +2.0
Mike Stanton 32 FA-elig 731.5 2.0 -0.2
Scott Brosius 32 FA-elig 1331.4 5.2 -3.5
Jorge Posada 28 arb 1121.2 0.3 +1.2
Chili Davis 39 FA-elig 1461.1 4.3 -3.0
Darryl Strawberry 37 – 240.8 – –
Chad Curtis 30 FA-elig 960.6 2.0 -1.2
Allen Watson↔ NYM 28 FA-elig 210.6 0.4 +0.3
Ricky Ledee 25 pre-arb 880.6 0.2 +0.5
Shane Spencer 27 pre-arb 710.5 0.2 +0.4
Jeff Nelson 32 FA-elig 390.3 1.8 -1.4
D'Angelo Jimenez 21 – 70.3 – –
Ed Yarnall 23 – 50.2 – –
Jason Grimsley 31 FA-elig 550.2 0.3 -0.1
Jeff Juden 28 – 20.0 – –
Clay Bellinger 30 pre-arb 320.0 0.2 -0.2
Jim Leyritz↔ SDP 35 FA-elig 31-0.0 0.7 -0.7
Mike Buddie 28 – 2-0.0 – –
Jay Tessmer 27 – 6-0.1 – –
Jeff Manto↔ CLE 34 – 6-0.1 – –
Tony Fossas 41 – 5-0.1 – –
Todd Erdos 25 – 4-0.1 – –
Luis Sojo 34 FA-elig 49-0.1 0.8 -1.0
Alfonso Soriano 23 – 9-0.2 0.6 -0.9
Dan Naulty 29 arb 33-0.3 0.3 -0.7
Joe Girardi 34 FA-elig 65-0.3 3.4 -3.8
Tony Tarasco 28 – 14-0.5 – –

Key additions (new vs 1998)

PlayerfWAR
Roger Clemens3.1
Allen Watson0.6
D'Angelo Jimenez0.3
Ed Yarnall0.2
Jason Grimsley0.2
Jeff Juden0.0

Key subtractions (gone from 1998)

Player1998 fWAR
David Wells4.4
Tim Raines Sr.0.6
Homer Bush0.5
Darren Holmes0.4
Graeme Lloyd0.4
Joe Borowski0.1

Current & Historical Payroll

1999 payroll
$87.7M

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 (21)

PlayerAgeSvc1999200020012002200320042005
Bernie Williams308.000$9.9M$12.4M$12.4M$12.4M$12.4M$12.4M$12.4M
David Cone3613.000$9.5M$12.0MFREE AGENT
Roger Clemens3615.000$8.2M$6.3M$10.3M$10.3M$10.1MFREE AGENT
Paul O'Neill3614.000$6.2M$6.5M$7.2MFREE AGENT
Chuck Knoblauch308.000$6.0M$6.0M$6.0MFREE AGENT
Scott Brosius328.000$5.2M$5.2M$5.2MFREE AGENT
Chili Davis3918.000$4.3MFREE AGENT
Tino Martinez319.000$4.3M$4.8M$6.3MFREE AGENT$2.8M
Joe Girardi3410.000$3.4MFREE AGENT
Mike Stanton3210.000$2.0M$2.4M$2.5M$2.5MFREE AGENT$2.0M
Chad Curtis307.000$2.0MFREE AGENT
Jeff Nelson327.000$1.8M$1.9MFREE AGENT$2.6M
Luis Sojo349.000$800k$289k$500kFREE AGENT
Jim Leyritz359.000$727k$631kFREE AGENT
Allen Watson286.000$414k$1.3MFREE AGENT
Jason Grimsley3110.000$350k$750kFREE AGENT
Tony Fossas4111.000—FREE AGENT
Jeff Juden288.000—FREE AGENT
Jeff Manto349.000—FREE AGENT
Darryl Strawberry3716.000—FREE AGENT
Tony Tarasco286.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (6)

PlayerAgeSvc1999200020012002200320042005
Andy Pettitte274.000$6.0MARB 3FREE AGENT
Derek Jeter254.000$5.0MARB 3FREE AGENT
Mariano Rivera294.000$4.2MARB 3FREE AGENT
Ramiro Mendoza273.000$375kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jorge Posada284.000$350kARB 3FREE AGENT
Dan Naulty293.000$300kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (11)

PlayerAgeSvc1999200020012002200320042005
Hideki Irabu302.000$3.1MARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Orlando Hernandez331.000$1.9MPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Alfonso Soriano230.000$630kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Shane Spencer271.000$204kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ricky Ledee251.000$203kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Clay Bellinger300.000$200kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Todd Erdos252.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Buddie281.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jay Tessmer271.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
D'Angelo Jimenez210.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ed Yarnall23–—

Graphs

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