RRosternomics
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Athletics OAK

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GM: Sandy Alderson

Overview

FORCED-SPEND ↘ cooling
expensive & losing · year 1 in this regime · payroll 1.11× league · TAB -13.9
-13.9TAB — talent above budget28th/28
-15.4WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)27th/28
5.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars20th/28
-6.6dead WAR — sub-replacement drag20th/28
43%dead money %24th/28
0.420win %24th/28
21.7roster fWAR23rd/28
-18surplus $M (value vs cost)26th/28
$35Mpayroll $M13th/28

Roster

CFDave Henderson 60GLance Blankenship 49GScott Brosius 34G
LFJerry Browne 30GMike Aldrete 17GScott Lydy 17G
RFRuben Sierra 133GScott Lydy 16GDave Henderson 14G
SSMike Bordick 159GKurt Abbott 6GScott Brosius 6G
2BBrent Gates 139GLance Blankenship 19GDale Sveum 4G
3BCraig Paquette 104GJerry Browne 13GScott Brosius 10G
1BMike Aldrete 59GTroy Neel 34GMark McGwire 25G
STARTERSBobby Witt 3.2WARRon Darling 1.0WARSteve Karsay 0.9WARBob Welch 0.1WARKelly Downs -0.0WAR
CTerry Steinbach 86GScott Hemond 75GHenry Mercedes 18G
DHTroy Neel 84GDave Henderson 26GRuben Sierra 25G
BULLPEN★ Dennis Eckersley 36svEd Nunez 0hRick Honeycutt 0hVince Horsman 0hRich Gossage 0hJohn Briscoe 0hRoger Smithberg 0hKevin Campbell 0h
CTerry Steinbach 86 · Scott Hemond 75 · Henry Mercedes 18
1BMike Aldrete 59 · Troy Neel 34 · Mark McGwire 25
2BBrent Gates 139 · Lance Blankenship 19 · Dale Sveum 4
3BCraig Paquette 104 · Jerry Browne 13 · Scott Brosius 10
SSMike Bordick 159 · Kurt Abbott 6 · Scott Brosius 6
LFJerry Browne 30 · Mike Aldrete 17 · Scott Lydy 17
CFDave Henderson 60 · Lance Blankenship 49 · Scott Brosius 34
RFRuben Sierra 133 · Scott Lydy 16 · Dave Henderson 14
DHTroy Neel 84 · Dave Henderson 26 · Ruben Sierra 25
SPBobby Witt 3.2 · Ron Darling 1.0 · Steve Karsay 0.9 · Bob Welch 0.1 · Kelly Downs -0.0
BP★ Dennis Eckersley 36 · Ed Nunez 0 · Rick Honeycutt 0 · Vince Horsman 0 · Rich Gossage 0 · John Briscoe 0 · Roger Smithberg 0 · Kevin Campbell 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.

1993 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Rickey Henderson↔ TOR 34 FA-elig 904.4 2.4 +1.2
Bobby Witt 29 FA-elig 353.2 3.0 -0.4
Brent Gates 23 pre-arb 1392.4 0.1 +1.8
Terry Steinbach 31 FA-elig 1042.3 2.8 -0.9
Dennis Eckersley 38 FA-elig 642.0 3.8 -2.2
Troy Neel 27 pre-arb 1231.8 0.1 +1.3
Scott Hemond 27 arb 911.7 0.1 +1.2
Mark McGwire 29 FA-elig 271.5 4.0 -2.7
Mike Aldrete 32 FA-elig 951.4 0.2 +1.0
Ed Nunez 30 – 561.4 – –
Lance Blankenship 29 arb 941.3 0.6 +0.5
Ron Darling 32 FA-elig 321.0 2.2 -1.4
Steve Karsay 21 pre-arb 80.9 0.1 +0.6
Mike Bordick 27 arb 1590.9 0.4 +0.3
Scott Brosius 26 pre-arb 700.7 0.1 +0.4
Storm Davis↔ DET 31 FA-elig 190.4 0.4 -0.1
Rick Honeycutt 39 FA-elig 520.2 0.7 -0.5
Kurt Abbott 24 pre-arb 200.2 0.1 +0.1
Kevin Seitzer↔ MIL 31 FA-elig 730.2 0.4 -0.2
Bob Welch 36 FA-elig 300.1 3.5 -3.3
Craig Paquette 24 pre-arb 1050.1 0.1 -0.0
Marcos Armas 23 – 150.1 – –
Henry Mercedes 23 pre-arb 200.1 0.1 -0.1
Eric Helfand 24 pre-arb 80.0 0.1 -0.1
Scott Lydy 24 – 410.0 – –
Joe Boever↔ DET 32 FA-elig 42-0.0 0.4 -0.4
Kelly Downs 32 FA-elig 42-0.0 0.7 -0.7
Kevin Campbell 28 – 11-0.1 – –
Vince Horsman 26 – 40-0.1 – –
Rich Gossage 41 FA-elig 39-0.1 0.3 -0.4
Miguel Jimenez 23 – 5-0.1 – –
Dale Sveum 29 – 30-0.1 – –
Roger Smithberg 27 – 13-0.1 – –
John Briscoe 25 pre-arb 17-0.2 0.1 -0.2
Joe Slusarski 26 pre-arb 2-0.2 0.1 -0.3
Todd Van Poppel 21 pre-arb 16-0.2 0.5 -0.6
Shawn Hillegas 28 FA-elig 18-0.3 0.2 -0.4
Jerry Browne 27 FA-elig 76-0.3 0.6 -0.9
Dave Henderson 34 FA-elig 107-0.3 2.2 -2.5
Curt Young 33 FA-elig 3-0.4 0.3 -0.6
Mike Mohler 24 pre-arb 42-0.6 0.1 -0.6
Eric Fox 29 pre-arb 29-0.8 0.1 -0.8
Ruben Sierra 27 FA-elig 158-2.6 4.2 -6.4

Key additions (new vs 1992)

PlayerfWAR
Brent Gates2.4
Mike Aldrete1.4
Ed Nunez1.4
Steve Karsay0.9
Storm Davis0.4
Kurt Abbott0.2

Key subtractions (gone from 1992)

Player1992 fWAR
Jose Canseco1.9
Carney Lansford1.9
Willie Wilson1.9
Mike Moore1.4
Dave Stewart1.2
Jeff Parrett0.8

Current & Historical Payroll

1993 payroll
$35.4M

What the front office was committed to as of 1993, 1993–1999. 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)

PlayerAgeSvc1993199419951996199719981999
Ruben Sierra277.000$4.2M$4.7M$3.4MFREE AGENT
Mark McGwire297.000$4.0M$3.0M$6.9M$7.0M$4.8MFREE AGENT
Dennis Eckersley3818.000$3.8M$3.8M$2.9MFREE AGENT
Bob Welch3615.000$3.5M$3.5MFREE AGENT
Bobby Witt297.000$3.0M$3.2MFREE AGENT
Terry Steinbach317.000$2.8M$2.8M$4.2M$4.2MFREE AGENT
Rickey Henderson3414.000$2.4M$4.8M$3.8MFREE AGENT$1.1M
Dave Henderson3412.000$2.2MFREE AGENT
Ron Darling3210.000$2.2M$2.2M$3.0MFREE AGENT
Rick Honeycutt3916.000$725kFREE AGENT$188k
Kelly Downs327.000$675kFREE AGENT
Jerry Browne277.000$625kFREE AGENT
Joe Boever328.000$403kFREE AGENT
Storm Davis3111.000$398kFREE AGENT
Kevin Seitzer317.000$365kFREE AGENT
Curt Young3310.000$325kFREE AGENT
Rich Gossage4121.000$325kFREE AGENT
Shawn Hillegas286.000$210kFREE AGENT
Mike Aldrete327.000$200k$430k$331kFREE AGENT
Ed Nunez3011.000—$430kFREE AGENT
Dale Sveum297.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (3)

PlayerAgeSvc1993199419951996199719981999
Lance Blankenship295.000$627kFREE AGENT
Mike Bordick273.000$400kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Scott Hemond274.000$132kARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (19)

PlayerAgeSvc1993199419951996199719981999
Todd Van Poppel212.000$454kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Joe Slusarski262.000$130kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Scott Brosius262.000$130kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Eric Fox291.000$125kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Troy Neel271.000$120kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Henry Mercedes231.000$111kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Briscoe252.000$110kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kurt Abbott240.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brent Gates230.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Eric Helfand240.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Craig Paquette240.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Karsay210.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Mohler240.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Marcos Armas23–—
Kevin Campbell282.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Vince Horsman262.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Miguel Jimenez23–—
Scott Lydy24–—
Roger Smithberg27–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Athletics 1993; 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.