RRosternomics
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Phillies PHI

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GM: Bill Giles

Overview

FORCED-SPEND ↗ rising
expensive & losing · year 1 in this regime · payroll 1.09× league · TAB -7.3
-7.3TAB — talent above budget21st/26
-3.1WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)16th/26
6.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars18th/26
-4.3dead WAR — sub-replacement drag17th/26
17%dead money %3rd/26
0.494win %13th/26
28.1roster fWAR19th/26
-3surplus $M (value vs cost)21st/26
$12Mpayroll $M12th/26

Roster

CFMilt Thompson 145GVon Hayes 29GChris James 16G
LFChris James 96GGreg Gross 50GJeff Stone 20G
RFGlenn Wilson 154GKeith Hughes 6GChris James 5G
SSSteve Jeltz 114GLuis Aguayo 78GKen Dowell 15G
2BJuan Samuel 160GLuis Aguayo 6GGreg Legg 1G
3BMike Schmidt 138GRick Schu 45GGreg Jelks 4G
1BVon Hayes 144GRick Schu 28GGreg Gross 11G
STARTERSShane Rawley 2.4WARBruce Ruffin 1.9WARKevin Gross 1.1WARDon Carman 0.5WARMike Jackson -0.0WAR
CLance Parrish 127GDarren Daulton 40GJohn Russell 7G
BULLPEN★ Steve Bedrosian 40svKent Tekulve 0hWally Ritchie 0hJeff Calhoun 0hDoug Bair 0hFreddie Toliver 0hTodd Frohwirth 0hMike Maddux 0h
CLance Parrish 127 · Darren Daulton 40 · John Russell 7
1BVon Hayes 144 · Rick Schu 28 · Greg Gross 11
2BJuan Samuel 160 · Luis Aguayo 6 · Greg Legg 1
3BMike Schmidt 138 · Rick Schu 45 · Greg Jelks 4
SSSteve Jeltz 114 · Luis Aguayo 78 · Ken Dowell 15
LFChris James 96 · Greg Gross 50 · Jeff Stone 20
CFMilt Thompson 145 · Von Hayes 29 · Chris James 16
RFGlenn Wilson 154 · Keith Hughes 6 · Chris James 5
SPShane Rawley 2.4 · Bruce Ruffin 1.9 · Kevin Gross 1.1 · Don Carman 0.5 · Mike Jackson -0.0
BP★ Steve Bedrosian 40 · Kent Tekulve 0 · Wally Ritchie 0 · Jeff Calhoun 0 · Doug Bair 0 · Freddie Toliver 0 · Todd Frohwirth 0 · Mike Maddux 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.

1987 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Mike Schmidt 37 FA-elig 1476.1 2.1 -0.4
Von Hayes 28 FA-elig 1583.8 1.3 -0.2
Juan Samuel 26 arb 1603.8 0.7 +0.4
Milt Thompson 28 arb 1503.4 0.1 +0.8
Chris James 24 pre-arb 1152.8 0.1 +0.7
Shane Rawley 31 FA-elig 372.4 0.8 -0.1
Bruce Ruffin 23 pre-arb 351.9 0.1 +0.4
Lance Parrish 31 FA-elig 1301.3 1.0 -0.6
Kent Tekulve 40 FA-elig 901.1 0.9 -0.6
Kevin Gross 26 arb 341.1 0.4 -0.1
Glenn Wilson 28 arb 1541.0 0.7 -0.4
Steve Bedrosian 29 FA-elig 650.7 1.1 -0.8
Luis Aguayo 28 FA-elig 940.7 0.3 -0.1
Don Carman 27 arb 350.5 0.2 -0.1
Mike Maddux 25 pre-arb 70.5 0.1 +0.1
Jeff Calhoun 29 arb 420.4 0.1 +0.0
Todd Frohwirth 24 – 100.3 – –
Freddie Toliver 26 – 100.2 – –
Dan Schatzeder↔ MIN 32 FA-elig 260.2 0.2 -0.1
Mike Easler↔ NYY 36 FA-elig 330.2 0.2 -0.2
Rick Schu 25 arb 920.2 0.1 -0.1
Greg Jelks 25 – 100.0 – –
Greg Gross 34 FA-elig 1140.0 0.4 -0.4
Mike Jackson 22 pre-arb 55-0.0 0.1 -0.1
Greg Legg 27 – 3-0.0 – –
Wally Ritchie 21 pre-arb 49-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Tom Newell 24 – 2-0.1 – –
Ken Dowell 26 – 15-0.2 – –
Ken Jackson 23 – 8-0.2 – –
Jeff Stone 26 arb 66-0.2 0.1 -0.2
Steve Jeltz 28 arb 114-0.3 0.1 -0.2
Darren Daulton 25 arb 53-0.3 0.1 -0.2
Ron Roenicke 30 FA-elig 63-0.3 0.2 -0.3
Joe Cowley 28 – 5-0.4 – –
Doug Bair 37 – 11-0.4 – –
Keith Hughes↔ NYY 23 pre-arb 37-0.4 0.1 -0.2
John Russell 26 – 24-0.7 – –
Tom Hume↔ CIN 34 FA-elig 38-0.7 0.1 -0.3

Key additions (new vs 1986)

PlayerfWAR
Lance Parrish1.3
Jeff Calhoun0.4
Todd Frohwirth0.3
Mike Easler0.2
Greg Jelks0.0
Wally Ritchie-0.1

Key subtractions (gone from 1986)

Player1986 fWAR
Gary Redus2.0
Larry Andersen0.3
Jeff Bittiger0.1
Marvin Freeman0.1
Tom Gorman0.1
Dave Stewart0.1

Current & Historical Payroll

1987 payroll
$11.8M

What the front office was committed to as of 1987, 1987–1993. 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 (13)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Mike Schmidt3715.000$2.1M$2.2MFREE AGENT
Von Hayes286.000$1.3M$1.3M$1.3M$2.0M$2.2MFREE AGENT
Steve Bedrosian296.000$1.1M$925k$853kFREE AGENT
Lance Parrish3110.000$1.0M$1.0MFREE AGENT
Kent Tekulve4013.000$925k$850kFREE AGENT
Shane Rawley319.000$800k$900kFREE AGENT
Greg Gross3414.000$420k$320kFREE AGENT
Luis Aguayo287.000$325k$189kFREE AGENT
Mike Easler3614.000$236kFREE AGENT
Dan Schatzeder3210.000$197kFREE AGENT
Ron Roenicke306.000$192kFREE AGENT
Tom Hume3410.000$96kFREE AGENT
Doug Bair3711.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (13)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Glenn Wilson285.000$662kFREE AGENT
Juan Samuel264.000$660kARB 3FREE AGENT
Kevin Gross264.000$420kARB 3FREE AGENT
Don Carman274.000$245kARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Jeltz284.000$150kARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Stone264.000$140kARB 3FREE AGENT
Rick Schu253.000$140kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Milt Thompson283.000$140kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Darren Daulton254.000$98kARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Calhoun293.000$85kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Joe Cowley285.000—FREE AGENT
John Russell263.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Freddie Toliver263.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (12)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Bruce Ruffin231.000$100kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris James241.000$65kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Maddux251.000$65kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Jackson221.000$62kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Wally Ritchie210.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Keith Hughes230.000$56kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ken Dowell26–—
Todd Frohwirth240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ken Jackson23–—
Greg Jelks25–—
Greg Legg27–—
Tom Newell24–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Phillies 1987; 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.