RRosternomics
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Pirates PIT

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GM: Joe Brown

Overview

REBUILD → steady
cheap & losing · year 1 in this regime · payroll 0.99× league · TAB -10.2
-10.2TAB — talent above budget22nd/26
-24.4WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)26th/26
0.354win %26th/26
23.8roster fWAR21st/26
-4surplus $M (value vs cost)23rd/26
$10Mpayroll $M16th/26

Roster

CFMarvell Wynne 100GJoe Orsulak 72GR.J. Reynolds 13G
LFSteve Kemp 63GR.J. Reynolds 60GJoe Orsulak 41G
RFMike Brown 102GSixto Lezcano 16GJoe Orsulak 16G
SSSam Khalifa 95GBill Almon 43GJohnnie LeMaster 41G
2BJohnny Ray 151GJim Morrison 15GDenny Gonzalez 6G
3BJim Morrison 59GDenny Gonzalez 21GBill Almon 7G
1BJason Thompson 114GSid Bream 41GLee Mazzilli 19G
STARTERSRick Reuschel 5.5WARRick Rhoden 3.0WARJose DeLeon 1.5WARBob Walk 1.1WARDon Robinson 1.1WAR
CTony Peña Sr. 146GJunior Ortiz 23G
BULLPEN★ Cecilio Guante 5svPat Clements 0hRay Krawczyk 0hDave Tomlin 0h
CTony Peña Sr. 146 · Junior Ortiz 23
1BJason Thompson 114 · Sid Bream 41 · Lee Mazzilli 19
2BJohnny Ray 151 · Jim Morrison 15 · Denny Gonzalez 6
3BJim Morrison 59 · Denny Gonzalez 21 · Bill Almon 7
SSSam Khalifa 95 · Bill Almon 43 · Johnnie LeMaster 41
LFSteve Kemp 63 · R.J. Reynolds 60 · Joe Orsulak 41
CFMarvell Wynne 100 · Joe Orsulak 72 · R.J. Reynolds 13
RFMike Brown 102 · Sixto Lezcano 16 · Joe Orsulak 16
SPRick Reuschel 5.5 · Rick Rhoden 3.0 · Jose DeLeon 1.5 · Bob Walk 1.1 · Don Robinson 1.1
BP★ Cecilio Guante 5 · Pat Clements 0 · Ray Krawczyk 0 · Dave Tomlin 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.

1985 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Rick Reuschel 36 FA-elig 315.5 0.2 +1.2
Rick Rhoden 32 FA-elig 373.0 0.6 +0.1
Tony Peña Sr. 28 arb 1472.5 1.1 -0.4
Jose DeLeon 24 pre-arb 311.5 0.2 +0.2
Mike Brown↔ ANA 25 – 571.5 – –
Cecilio Guante 25 arb 631.4 0.1 +0.2
Bill Almon 32 FA-elig 881.2 0.3 +0.1
R.J. Reynolds↔ LAD 26 – 311.2 – –
Don Robinson 28 FA-elig 441.1 0.5 -0.2
Bob Walk 28 – 91.1 – –
Lee Mazzilli 30 FA-elig 921.1 0.6 -0.3
Sam Khalifa 21 – 951.0 – –
Bill Madlock↔ LAD 34 FA-elig 1100.9 0.7 -0.5
Lee Tunnell 24 arb 240.9 0.1 +0.1
Al Holland↔ ANA 32 FA-elig 380.9 0.4 -0.2
Jason Thompson 30 FA-elig 1230.9 1.1 -0.8
Joe Orsulak 23 pre-arb 1210.6 0.1 +0.1
Johnny Ray 28 arb 1540.6 0.6 -0.5
John Candelaria↔ ANA 31 FA-elig 370.4 0.5 -0.4
Sixto Lezcano 31 FA-elig 720.4 0.4 -0.3
Steve Kemp 30 – 920.3 – –
Junior Ortiz 25 – 230.3 – –
Jim Winn 25 – 300.2 – –
Sid Bream↔ LAD 24 – 260.1 – –
Pat Clements↔ ANA 23 – 270.1 – –
Bob Kipper↔ ANA 20 – 50.1 – –
Rafael Belliard 23 – 170.1 – –
Larry McWilliams 31 FA-elig 320.0 0.8 -0.8
Tim Foli 34 – 190.0 – –
Rod Scurry↔ NYY 29 arb 300.0 0.3 -0.3
Scott Loucks 28 – 40.0 – –
Dave Tomlin 36 – 1-0.0 – –
Ray Krawczyk 25 – 8-0.1 – –
Jerry Dybzinski 29 – 5-0.1 – –
Kent Tekulve↔ PHI 38 FA-elig 3-0.1 0.0 -0.1
Johnnie LeMaster↔ CLE 31 FA-elig 22-0.2 0.2 -0.3
Trench Davis 24 – 2-0.2 – –
Jim Morrison 32 FA-elig 92-0.2 0.2 -0.3
Denny Gonzalez 21 – 35-0.3 – –
Mike Bielecki 25 – 13-0.4 – –
Doug Frobel↔ WSN 26 – 53-0.7 – –
George Hendrick↔ ANA 35 FA-elig 69-1.1 0.6 -0.9
Marvell Wynne 25 – 103-1.8 – –

Key additions (new vs 1984)

PlayerfWAR
Rick Reuschel5.5
Rick Rhoden3.0
Tony Peña Sr.2.5
Jose DeLeon1.5
Mike Brown1.5
Cecilio Guante1.4

Key subtractions (gone from 1984)

Player1984 fWAR
—

Current & Historical Payroll

1985 payroll
$9.7M

What the front office was committed to as of 1985, 1985–1991. 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 (17)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
Jason Thompson309.000$1.1MFREE AGENT
Larry McWilliams317.000$797k$1.1MFREE AGENT
Bill Madlock3412.000$745kFREE AGENT
Rick Rhoden3211.000$645k$620kFREE AGENT
Lee Mazzilli309.000$600k$366kFREE AGENT
George Hendrick3514.000$598kFREE AGENT
Don Robinson287.000$520k$670k$507kFREE AGENT
John Candelaria3110.000$453kFREE AGENT
Sixto Lezcano3111.000$425kFREE AGENT
Al Holland328.000$424kFREE AGENT
Bill Almon3211.000$255k$260k$180kFREE AGENT
Johnnie LeMaster3110.000$244kFREE AGENT
Jim Morrison328.000$232k$318k$234kFREE AGENT
Rick Reuschel3613.000$200k$700k$551kFREE AGENT
Kent Tekulve3811.000$41kFREE AGENT
Steve Kemp308.000—FREE AGENT
Dave Tomlin3613.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (8)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
Tony Peña Sr.285.000$1.1MFREE AGENT
Johnny Ray284.000$632kARB 3FREE AGENT
Rod Scurry295.000$300kFREE AGENT
Cecilio Guante253.000$150kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Lee Tunnell243.000$130kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rafael Belliard233.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Junior Ortiz253.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bob Walk285.000—FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (18)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
Jose DeLeon242.000$155kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Joe Orsulak232.000$60kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Bielecki251.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Sid Bream242.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Brown25–—
Pat Clements230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Trench Davis24–—
Jerry Dybzinski29–—
Tim Foli34–—
Doug Frobel26–—
Denny Gonzalez21–—
Sam Khalifa21–—
Bob Kipper200.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ray Krawczyk251.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Scott Loucks28–—
R.J. Reynolds262.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jim Winn252.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Marvell Wynne252.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Pirates's path through relative payroll × TAB, smoothed; markers grow and the arrow points toward the present. WINDOW cheap&winning · CONTEND expensive&winning · FORCED-SPEND dead zone · REBUILD cheap&losing. Compare franchises →

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.