RRosternomics
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Pirates PIT

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GM: Syd Thrift

Overview

WINDOW ↗ rising
cheap & winning · year 1 in this regime · payroll 0.72× league · TAB +0.6
+0.6TAB — talent above budget11th/26
-13.6WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)24th/26
7.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars10th/26
-3.9dead WAR — sub-replacement drag10th/26
40%dead money %19th/26
0.395win %26th/26
30.8roster fWAR16th/26
+1surplus $M (value vs cost)6th/26
$8Mpayroll $M23rd/26

Roster

CFBarry Bonds 110GJoe Orsulak 46GR.J. Reynolds 12G
LFR.J. Reynolds 84GBobby Bonilla 76GBill Almon 53G
RFJoe Orsulak 73GMike Brown 71GR.J. Reynolds 44G
SSRafael Belliard 96GSam Khalifa 60GU L Washington 51G
2BJohnny Ray 151GRafael Belliard 23GSam Khalifa 6G
3BJim Morrison 151GBill Almon 28GMike Diaz 5G
1BSid Bream 153GBobby Bonilla 34GMike Diaz 20G
STARTERSRick Rhoden 5.8WARRick Reuschel 2.9WARBob Patterson 1.1WARMike Bielecki 0.6WARBob Kipper 0.5WAR
CTony Peña Sr. 139GJunior Ortiz 36GRuben Rodriguez 2G
BULLPEN★ Don Robinson 14svPat Clements 0hCecilio Guante 0hJim Winn 0hBarry Jones 0hJohn Smiley 0hRay Krawczyk 0hHipolito Pena 0h
CTony Peña Sr. 139 · Junior Ortiz 36 · Ruben Rodriguez 2
1BSid Bream 153 · Bobby Bonilla 34 · Mike Diaz 20
2BJohnny Ray 151 · Rafael Belliard 23 · Sam Khalifa 6
3BJim Morrison 151 · Bill Almon 28 · Mike Diaz 5
SSRafael Belliard 96 · Sam Khalifa 60 · U L Washington 51
LFR.J. Reynolds 84 · Bobby Bonilla 76 · Bill Almon 53
CFBarry Bonds 110 · Joe Orsulak 46 · R.J. Reynolds 12
RFJoe Orsulak 73 · Mike Brown 71 · R.J. Reynolds 44
SPRick Rhoden 5.8 · Rick Reuschel 2.9 · Bob Patterson 1.1 · Mike Bielecki 0.6 · Bob Kipper 0.5
BP★ Don Robinson 14 · Pat Clements 0 · Cecilio Guante 0 · Jim Winn 0 · Barry Jones 0 · John Smiley 0 · Ray Krawczyk 0 · Hipolito Pena 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.

1986 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Rick Rhoden 33 FA-elig 415.8 0.6 +1.1
Johnny Ray 29 arb 1554.5 0.8 +0.6
Tony Peña Sr. 29 FA-elig 1444.0 1.2 -0.0
Sid Bream 25 arb 1543.3 0.1 +0.9
Barry Bonds 21 pre-arb 1133.3 0.1 +0.9
Jim Morrison 33 FA-elig 1543.1 0.3 +0.6
Rick Reuschel 37 FA-elig 432.9 0.7 +0.2
R.J. Reynolds 27 arb 1181.2 0.1 +0.2
Bob Patterson 27 – 111.1 – –
Mike Diaz 26 arb 971.0 0.1 +0.2
Don Robinson 29 FA-elig 500.8 0.7 -0.4
Mike Bielecki 26 pre-arb 310.6 0.1 +0.1
Junior Ortiz 26 arb 490.5 0.1 +0.1
Bob Kipper 21 pre-arb 210.5 0.1 +0.1
Bill Almon 33 FA-elig 1020.3 0.3 -0.2
Rafael Belliard 24 arb 1170.3 0.1 +0.0
Lee Mazzilli↔ NYM 31 FA-elig 610.2 0.4 -0.3
Pat Clements 24 pre-arb 650.2 0.1 -0.0
Jim Winn 26 arb 500.2 0.1 -0.0
Steve Kemp 31 – 130.2 – –
Bob Walk 29 FA-elig 440.2 0.2 -0.1
Larry McWilliams 32 FA-elig 500.1 1.1 -1.0
Stan Fansler 21 – 50.1 – –
Barry Jones 23 pre-arb 260.0 0.1 -0.0
Sam Khalifa 22 – 64-0.0 – –
John Smiley 21 – 12-0.1 – –
Ruben Rodriguez 21 – 2-0.1 – –
Bobby Bonilla↔ CHW 23 pre-arb 63-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Rick Renteria 24 – 10-0.1 – –
Rich Sauveur 22 – 3-0.2 – –
Cecilio Guante 26 arb 52-0.2 0.3 -0.4
U L Washington 32 FA-elig 72-0.3 0.2 -0.3
Benny Distefano 24 pre-arb 31-0.3 0.1 -0.2
Trench Davis 25 – 15-0.3 – –
Jose DeLeon↔ CHW 25 arb 9-0.3 0.1 -0.2
Ray Krawczyk 26 pre-arb 12-0.3 0.1 -0.2
Hipolito Pena 22 – 10-0.4 – –
Joe Orsulak 24 arb 138-0.4 0.1 -0.3
Mike Brown 26 – 87-0.8 – –

Key additions (new vs 1985)

PlayerfWAR
Barry Bonds3.3
Bob Patterson1.1
Mike Diaz1.0
Stan Fansler0.1
Barry Jones0.0
John Smiley-0.1

Key subtractions (gone from 1985)

Player1985 fWAR
Bill Madlock0.9
Lee Tunnell0.9
Al Holland0.9
Jason Thompson0.9
John Candelaria0.4
Sixto Lezcano0.4

Current & Historical Payroll

1986 payroll
$8.0M

What the front office was committed to as of 1986, 1986–1992. 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 (11)

PlayerAgeSvc1986198719881989199019911992
Tony Peña Sr.296.000$1.2MFREE AGENT
Larry McWilliams328.000$1.1MFREE AGENT
Rick Reuschel3714.000$700k$551kFREE AGENT
Don Robinson298.000$670k$507kFREE AGENT
Rick Rhoden3312.000$620kFREE AGENT
Lee Mazzilli3110.000$366kFREE AGENT
Jim Morrison339.000$318k$234kFREE AGENT
Bill Almon3312.000$260k$180kFREE AGENT
U L Washington329.000$180k$80kFREE AGENT
Bob Walk296.000$175k$285k$450k$800k$850k$850k$2.0M
Steve Kemp319.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (10)

PlayerAgeSvc1986198719881989199019911992
Johnny Ray295.000$757kFREE AGENT
Cecilio Guante264.000$308kARB 3FREE AGENT
Joe Orsulak243.000$135kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
R.J. Reynolds273.000$130kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jim Winn263.000$110kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Junior Ortiz264.000$97kARB 3FREE AGENT
Sid Bream253.000$92kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jose DeLeon253.000$75kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Diaz263.000$66kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rafael Belliard244.000$65kARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (18)

PlayerAgeSvc1986198719881989199019911992
Mike Bielecki262.000$110kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Pat Clements241.000$102kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ray Krawczyk262.000$67kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Benny Distefano242.000$66kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bob Kipper211.000$65kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Barry Bonds210.000$60kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Barry Jones230.000$60kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bobby Bonilla230.000$52kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Brown26–—
Trench Davis25–—
Stan Fansler21–—
Sam Khalifa22–—
Bob Patterson271.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Hipolito Pena22–—
Rick Renteria240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ruben Rodriguez210.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rich Sauveur22–—
John Smiley210.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Pirates 1986; 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.