Rosternomics
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Athletics OAK

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GM: Billy Beane (since 1998)

1998 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+0.1
WAB — wins above budget
-6.2
TAB — roster Talent above budget
74–88 (0.457)
record
+1M
surplus $M (value/$)
20.4
roster fWAR
$22.4M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Kenny Rogers 33 FA-elig 34 4.5 5.0 -0.2
Matt Stairs 30 FA-elig 149 3.1 0.3 +3.0
Jason Giambi 27 arb 153 2.6 0.3 +2.5
Rickey Henderson 39 FA-elig 152 1.9 1.1 +0.9
Jimmy Haynes 25 arb 33 1.7 0.2 +1.7
Ben Grieve 22 pre-arb 155 1.5 0.2 +1.5
Mike Oquist 30 arb 31 1.4 0.2 +1.3
Tom Candiotti 41 FA-elig 33 1.3 2.9 -1.4
Jason McDonald 26 pre-arb 70 1.1 0.2 +1.0
Billy Taylor 36 arb 70 1.1 1.1 +0.0
Gil Heredia 32 FA-elig 8 1.0 0.3 +0.8
Dave Magadan 35 FA-elig 35 0.9 0.5 +0.5
Bip Roberts↔ DET 34 FA-elig 61 0.8 1.5 -0.6
Buddy Groom 32 FA-elig 75 0.6 0.6 +0.1
T.J. Mathews 28 arb 66 0.6 0.3 +0.3
Mike Fetters↔ ANA 33 FA-elig 48 0.5 2.0 -1.4
A.J. Hinch 24 pre-arb 120 0.5 0.2 +0.4
Tim Worrell↔ CLE 30 arb 25 0.4 0.6 -0.1
Ryan Christenson 24 pre-arb 117 0.3 0.2 +0.2
Mike Macfarlane↔ KCR 34 FA-elig 78 0.2 0.7 -0.4
Mike Mohler 29 arb 57 0.2 0.5 -0.3
Eric Chavez 20 pre-arb 16 0.2 0.2 +0.0
Mark Bellhorn 23 – 11 0.1 – –
Aaron Small↔ ARI 26 arb 24 0.1 0.1 -0.0
Izzy Molina 27 pre-arb 6 0.0 0.2 -0.1
Brian Lesher 27 pre-arb 7 0.0 0.2 -0.1
Mike Neill 28 – 6 0.0 – –
Jorge Velandia 23 – 8 -0.0 – –
Jason Wood↔ DET 28 pre-arb 3 -0.0 0.0 -0.1
Mark Holzemer 28 arb 13 -0.0 0.2 -0.3
Steve Connelly 24 – 3 -0.0 – –
Shane Mack↔ KCR 34 FA-elig 3 -0.0 0.0 -0.1
Ariel Prieto 28 – 2 -0.1 – –
Scott Spiezio 25 pre-arb 114 -0.1 0.2 -0.3
Dave Telgheder 31 arb 8 -0.2 0.2 -0.5
Jim Dougherty 30 – 9 -0.3 – –
Jay Witasick 25 – 7 -0.4 – –
Blake Stein 24 pre-arb 24 -0.4 0.2 -0.6
Miguel Tejada 24 pre-arb 105 -0.5 0.2 -0.7
Kevin Mitchell 36 FA-elig 51 -0.6 0.2 -0.8
Mike Blowers 33 FA-elig 129 -0.6 0.5 -1.2
Jack Voigt 32 – 57 -0.6 – –
Rafael Bournigal 32 FA-elig 85 -0.7 0.4 -1.1
Kurt Abbott↔ COL 29 arb 35 -0.7 0.5 -1.3
Ed Sprague Jr.↔ TOR 30 FA-elig 27 -0.9 0.5 -1.4

45 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 37 of them (82%). 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 OAK
Rickey Henderson198926.8
Mark Ellis200122.1
Dennis Eckersley198719.3
Carney Lansford198216.7
Josh Donaldson200813.8
Jed Lowrie201313.0
Brett Anderson200711.5
Sean Manaea201511.2
Ones that got away
PlayerYear tradedWAR elsewhere
Rickey Henderson198426.6
Carlos González200824.7
Andre Ethier200524.4
Gio Gonzalez201120.8
Josh Donaldson201420.4
Mark McGwire199719.7
Aaron Harang200319.3
Jeremy Bonderman200215.8
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.