RRosternomics
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Phillies PHI

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GM: Lee Thomas

Overview

REBUILD ↗ rising
cheap & losing · year 3 in this regime · payroll 0.85× league · TAB -10.2
-10.2TAB — talent above budget24th/26
-1.8WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)14th/26
5.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars21st/26
-5.1dead WAR — sub-replacement drag15th/26
40%dead money %20th/26
0.481win %17th/26
22.0roster fWAR25th/26
-7surplus $M (value vs cost)17th/26
$19Mpayroll $M18th/26

Roster

CFLenny Dykstra 63GVon Hayes 49GJohn Morris 27G
LFWes Chamberlain 95GJohn Kruk 36GVon Hayes 20G
RFDale Murphy 147GJohn Morris 24GJim Lindeman 10G
SSDickie Thon 146GRod Booker 20GKim Batiste 7G
2BMickey Morandini 97GRandy Ready 66GWally Backman 36G
3BCharlie Hayes 138GDave Hollins 36GWally Backman 20G
1BJohn Kruk 102GRicky Jordan 72GDave Hollins 6G
STARTERSTerry Mulholland 4.1WARTommy Greene 3.8WARBruce Ruffin 2.0WARJose De Jesus 1.0WARCliff Brantley 0.4WAR
CDarren Daulton 88GSteve Lake 58GDarrin Fletcher 45G
BULLPEN★ Mitch Williams 30svJoe Boever 0hMike Hartley 0hWally Ritchie 0hDarrel Akerfelds 0hTim Mauser 0hAmalio Carreno 0hDave LaPoint 0h
CDarren Daulton 88 · Steve Lake 58 · Darrin Fletcher 45
1BJohn Kruk 102 · Ricky Jordan 72 · Dave Hollins 6
2BMickey Morandini 97 · Randy Ready 66 · Wally Backman 36
3BCharlie Hayes 138 · Dave Hollins 36 · Wally Backman 20
SSDickie Thon 146 · Rod Booker 20 · Kim Batiste 7
LFWes Chamberlain 95 · John Kruk 36 · Von Hayes 20
CFLenny Dykstra 63 · Von Hayes 49 · John Morris 27
RFDale Murphy 147 · John Morris 24 · Jim Lindeman 10
SPTerry Mulholland 4.1 · Tommy Greene 3.8 · Bruce Ruffin 2.0 · Jose De Jesus 1.0 · Cliff Brantley 0.4
BP★ Mitch Williams 30 · Joe Boever 0 · Mike Hartley 0 · Wally Ritchie 0 · Darrel Akerfelds 0 · Tim Mauser 0 · Amalio Carreno 0 · Dave LaPoint 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.

1991 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
John Kruk 30 arb 1524.9 1.2 +1.8
Terry Mulholland 28 arb 354.1 0.5 +2.0
Tommy Greene 24 pre-arb 383.8 0.1 +2.1
Lenny Dykstra 28 FA-elig 632.7 2.2 -0.6
Bruce Ruffin 27 – 312.0 – –
Dave Hollins 25 pre-arb 561.5 0.1 +0.8
Randy Ready 31 FA-elig 761.3 0.6 +0.2
Jose De Jesus 26 arb 311.0 0.1 +0.4
Von Hayes 32 FA-elig 771.0 2.2 -1.6
Ricky Jordan 26 arb 1010.8 0.2 +0.2
Dickie Thon 33 FA-elig 1460.7 1.2 -0.8
Dale Murphy 35 FA-elig 1530.7 2.5 -2.1
Mickey Morandini 25 – 980.7 – –
Wally Backman 31 FA-elig 940.5 0.7 -0.3
Jim Lindeman 29 – 650.5 – –
Cliff Brantley 23 – 60.4 – –
Wes Chamberlain 25 pre-arb 1010.2 0.1 +0.0
Jason Grimsley 23 pre-arb 120.2 0.1 -0.0
Mitch Williams 26 arb 690.1 1.5 -1.5
Roger McDowell↔ LAD 30 FA-elig 380.1 1.1 -1.0
Sil Campusano 25 arb 150.0 0.2 -0.2
Steve Searcy↔ DET 27 arb 180.0 0.1 -0.1
Andy Ashby 23 – 8-0.1 – –
Joe Boever 30 FA-elig 68-0.1 0.7 -0.8
Wally Ritchie 25 – 39-0.1 – –
Kim Batiste 23 pre-arb 10-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Dave LaPoint 31 – 2-0.1 – –
Darren Daulton 29 FA-elig 89-0.1 1.9 -2.0
Pat Combs 24 pre-arb 14-0.2 0.2 -0.3
Ron Jones 27 arb 28-0.2 0.1 -0.2
Doug Lindsey 23 – 1-0.2 – –
John Morris 30 – 85-0.2 – –
Amalio Carreno 27 – 3-0.2 – –
Tim Mauser 24 – 3-0.2 – –
Darrin Fletcher 24 – 46-0.3 – –
Danny Cox 31 FA-elig 23-0.3 0.5 -0.7
Rod Booker 32 arb 28-0.3 0.1 -0.3
Rick Schu 29 – 17-0.3 – –
Charlie Hayes 26 arb 142-0.4 0.3 -0.5
Mike Hartley↔ LAD 29 pre-arb 18-0.4 0.1 -0.3
Braulio Castillo 23 – 28-0.5 – –
Darrel Akerfelds 29 arb 30-0.5 0.2 -0.5
Steve Lake 34 FA-elig 58-0.5 0.4 -0.7

Key additions (new vs 1990)

PlayerfWAR
Wally Backman0.5
Jim Lindeman0.5
Cliff Brantley0.4
Mitch Williams0.1
Steve Searcy0.0
Andy Ashby-0.1

Key subtractions (gone from 1990)

Player1990 fWAR
Dennis Cook0.9
Carmelo Martinez0.7
Tom Herr0.5
Ken Howell0.4
Chuck McElroy0.2
Jeff Parrett0.1

Current & Historical Payroll

1991 payroll
$19.4M

What the front office was committed to as of 1991, 1991–1997. 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)

PlayerAgeSvc1991199219931994199519961997
Dale Murphy3515.000$2.5M$2.5MFREE AGENT
Lenny Dykstra286.000$2.2M$2.3M$3.1M$2.6M$6.2M$6.2MFREE AGENT
Von Hayes3210.000$2.2MFREE AGENT
Darren Daulton298.000$1.9M$2.6M$2.5M$2.3M$5.3M$5.2M$3.0M
Dickie Thon3312.000$1.2MFREE AGENT
Roger McDowell306.000$1.1MFREE AGENT
Joe Boever306.000$725kFREE AGENT
Wally Backman3111.000$650k$650kFREE AGENT
Randy Ready318.000$600kFREE AGENT$150k
Danny Cox318.000$520k$400kFREE AGENT
Steve Lake348.000$390kFREE AGENT
Dave LaPoint3111.000—FREE AGENT
Rick Schu297.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (15)

PlayerAgeSvc1991199219931994199519961997
Mitch Williams265.000$1.5MFREE AGENT
John Kruk305.000$1.2MFREE AGENT
Terry Mulholland285.000$475kFREE AGENT
Charlie Hayes263.000$280kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ricky Jordan263.000$250kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Sil Campusano253.000$220kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Darrel Akerfelds295.000$165kFREE AGENT
Jose De Jesus263.000$145kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rod Booker324.000$140kARB 3FREE AGENT
Ron Jones273.000$130kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Searcy273.000$66kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jim Lindeman295.000—FREE AGENT
John Morris305.000—FREE AGENT
Wally Ritchie254.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bruce Ruffin275.000—FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (15)

PlayerAgeSvc1991199219931994199519961997
Pat Combs242.000$220kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jason Grimsley232.000$118kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Hollins251.000$116kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tommy Greene242.000$115kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Wes Chamberlain251.000$105kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kim Batiste230.000$100kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Hartley292.000$51kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Andy Ashby230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Cliff Brantley230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Amalio Carreno27–—
Braulio Castillo23–—
Darrin Fletcher242.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Doug Lindsey23–—
Tim Mauser240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mickey Morandini251.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Phillies 1991; 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.