RRosternomics
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Athletics OAK

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GM: Sandy Alderson

Overview

WINDOW ↗ rising
cheap & winning · year 1 in this regime · payroll 0.9× league · TAB +16.0
+16.0TAB — talent above budget2nd/26
+23.4WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)1st/26
11.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars2nd/26
-0.8dead WAR — sub-replacement drag1st/26
39%dead money %16th/26
0.642win %1st/26
49.0roster fWAR3rd/26
+5surplus $M (value vs cost)2nd/26
$11Mpayroll $M17th/26

1988: won pennant · 104–58. Ranks are vs the 26 teams that season.

Roster

CFDave Henderson 143GStan Javier 45GTony Phillips 6G
LFLuis Polonia 76GStan Javier 69GDave Parker 34G
RFJosé Canseco 144GStan Javier 30GDoug Jennings 7G
SSWalt Weiss 147GMike Gallego 42GTony Phillips 10G
2BGlenn Hubbard 104GMike Gallego 83GTony Phillips 27G
3BCarney Lansford 143GTony Phillips 32GMike Gallego 16G
1BMark McGwire 154GDoug Jennings 14GCarney Lansford 9G
STARTERSDave Stewart 5.1WARBob Welch 3.0WARStorm Davis 2.1WARTodd Burns 1.3WARSteve Ontiveros 0.6WAR
CRon Hassey 92GTerry Steinbach 83GOrlando Mercado 16G
DHDon Baylor 73GDave Parker 57GJosé Canseco 13G
BULLPEN★ Dennis Eckersley 45svGreg Cadaret 0hRick Honeycutt 0hGene Nelson 0hEric Plunk 0hJim Corsi 0hDave Otto 0hRich Bordi 0h
CRon Hassey 92 · Terry Steinbach 83 · Orlando Mercado 16
1BMark McGwire 154 · Doug Jennings 14 · Carney Lansford 9
2BGlenn Hubbard 104 · Mike Gallego 83 · Tony Phillips 27
3BCarney Lansford 143 · Tony Phillips 32 · Mike Gallego 16
SSWalt Weiss 147 · Mike Gallego 42 · Tony Phillips 10
LFLuis Polonia 76 · Stan Javier 69 · Dave Parker 34
CFDave Henderson 143 · Stan Javier 45 · Tony Phillips 6
RFJosé Canseco 144 · Stan Javier 30 · Doug Jennings 7
DHDon Baylor 73 · Dave Parker 57 · José Canseco 13
SPDave Stewart 5.1 · Bob Welch 3.0 · Storm Davis 2.1 · Todd Burns 1.3 · Steve Ontiveros 0.6
BP★ Dennis Eckersley 45 · Greg Cadaret 0 · Rick Honeycutt 0 · Gene Nelson 0 · Eric Plunk 0 · Jim Corsi 0 · Dave Otto 0 · Rich Bordi 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.

1988 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Jose Canseco 23 arb 1587.6 0.3 +2.0
Dave Henderson 29 FA-elig 1466.4 0.2 +1.8
Dave Stewart 31 FA-elig 375.1 0.6 +1.0
Mark McGwire 24 pre-arb 1553.5 0.2 +0.9
Bob Welch 31 FA-elig 363.0 0.9 -0.0
Walt Weiss 24 pre-arb 1472.8 0.1 +0.8
Terry Steinbach 26 pre-arb 1042.5 0.1 +0.7
Dennis Eckersley 33 FA-elig 602.3 0.7 +0.1
Carney Lansford 31 FA-elig 1502.2 1.3 -0.6
Storm Davis 26 FA-elig 332.1 0.6 +0.1
Glenn Hubbard 30 FA-elig 1052.0 0.4 +0.2
Ron Hassey 35 FA-elig 1071.9 0.3 +0.3
Luis Polonia 24 pre-arb 841.3 0.1 +0.3
Todd Burns 24 pre-arb 171.3 0.1 +0.3
Greg Cadaret 26 pre-arb 581.2 0.1 +0.3
Eric Plunk 24 pre-arb 490.8 0.1 +0.1
Steve Ontiveros 27 arb 130.6 0.2 +0.0
Mike Gallego 27 arb 1290.6 0.1 +0.1
Stan Javier 24 arb 1250.5 0.1 +0.1
Gene Nelson 27 FA-elig 570.5 0.5 -0.3
Dave Parker 37 FA-elig 1010.4 1.0 -0.9
Rick Honeycutt 34 FA-elig 550.4 0.9 -0.7
Jim Corsi 26 – 110.2 – –
Felix Jose 23 – 80.2 – –
Rich Bordi 29 – 20.2 – –
Dave Otto 23 – 30.1 – –
Matt Sinatro 28 FA-elig 100.1 0.7 -0.7
Jeff Shaver 24 – 1-0.0 – –
Curt Young 28 arb 26-0.0 0.4 -0.4
Ed Jurak 30 – 3-0.0 – –
Doug Jennings 23 pre-arb 71-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Don Baylor 39 FA-elig 92-0.1 0.5 -0.5
Orlando Mercado 26 – 16-0.1 – –
Lance Blankenship 24 – 10-0.2 – –
Tony Phillips 29 FA-elig 79-0.3 0.2 -0.3

Key additions (new vs 1987)

PlayerfWAR
Dave Henderson6.4
Bob Welch3.0
Glenn Hubbard2.0
Ron Hassey1.9
Todd Burns1.3
Dave Parker0.4

Key subtractions (gone from 1987)

Player1987 fWAR
Dwayne Murphy1.4
Mike Davis1.3
Alfredo Griffin1.1
Jose Rijo0.8
Dennis Lamp0.5
Dave Leiper0.3

Current & Historical Payroll

1988 payroll
$10.7M

What the front office was committed to as of 1988, 1988–1994. 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 (16)

PlayerAgeSvc1988198919901991199219931994
Carney Lansford3110.000$1.3M$1.4M$1.3M$1.3M$1.1MFREE AGENT
Dave Parker3715.000$1.0M$1.1MFREE AGENT
Bob Welch3110.000$938k$1.2M$1.1M$3.5M$3.5M$3.5M$3.5M
Rick Honeycutt3411.000$855k$650k$750k$1.4M$1.4M$725kFREE AGENT
Matt Sinatro287.000$700kFREE AGENT
Dennis Eckersley3313.000$650k$1.1M$788k$3.0M$3.1M$3.8M$3.8M
Dave Stewart3110.000$600k$1.2M$950k$3.2M$3.2MFREE AGENT
Storm Davis266.000$550k$588kFREE AGENT$502k
Don Baylor3918.000$495kFREE AGENT
Gene Nelson277.000$450k$615k$650k$1.1M$1.2MFREE AGENT
Glenn Hubbard3010.000$425k$375kFREE AGENT
Ron Hassey3510.000$300k$600k$700kFREE AGENT
Dave Henderson297.000$225k$850k$850k$2.5M$2.6M$2.2MFREE AGENT
Tony Phillips296.000$200k$450kFREE AGENT
Rich Bordi298.000—FREE AGENT
Ed Jurak306.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (5)

PlayerAgeSvc1988198919901991199219931994
Curt Young285.000$410kFREE AGENT
Jose Canseco233.000$325kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Ontiveros273.000$200kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Gallego273.000$100kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Stan Javier244.000$78kARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (14)

PlayerAgeSvc1988198919901991199219931994
Mark McGwire242.000$250kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Terry Steinbach262.000$125kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Luis Polonia241.000$115kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Eric Plunk242.000$90kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Greg Cadaret261.000$86kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Todd Burns240.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Doug Jennings230.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Walt Weiss241.000$62kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Lance Blankenship240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jim Corsi260.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Felix Jose230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Orlando Mercado26–—
Dave Otto231.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Shaver24–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Athletics 1988; 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.