RRosternomics
𝕏

Pirates PIT

‹ ›

GM: Syd Thrift

Overview

WINDOW ↗ rising
cheap & winning · year 2 in this regime · payroll 0.56× league · TAB +12.4
+12.4TAB — talent above budget2nd/26
+5.6WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)9th/26
8.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars7th/26
-2.9dead WAR — sub-replacement drag7th/26
22%dead money %6th/26
0.494win %13th/26
39.5roster fWAR5th/26
+5surplus $M (value vs cost)1st/26
$6Mpayroll $M24th/26

Roster

CFAndy Van Slyke 114GBarry Bonds 46GJohn Cangelosi 16G
LFBarry Bonds 101GR.J. Reynolds 28GJohn Cangelosi 27G
RFR.J. Reynolds 72GAndy Van Slyke 36GBobby Bonilla 34G
SSAl Pedrique 80GRafael Belliard 71GFelix Fermin 23G
2BJosé Lind 35GRafael Belliard 7GAl Pedrique 3G
3BBobby Bonilla 89GDarnell Coles 47GAl Pedrique 3G
1BSid Bream 144GMike Diaz 32GDarnell Coles 10G
STARTERSDoug Drabek 2.5WARMike Dunne 2.2WARBrian Fisher 1.5WARBob Walk 1.2WARMike Bielecki 0.3WAR
CMichael LaValliere 112GJunior Ortiz 72GMike Diaz 8G
BULLPEN★ Jeff Robinson 14svJohn Smiley 0hJim Gott 0hBarry Jones 0hBrett Gideon 0hLogan Easley 0hHipolito Pena 0hVicente Palacios 0h
CMichael LaValliere 112 · Junior Ortiz 72 · Mike Diaz 8
1BSid Bream 144 · Mike Diaz 32 · Darnell Coles 10
2BJosé Lind 35 · Rafael Belliard 7 · Al Pedrique 3
3BBobby Bonilla 89 · Darnell Coles 47 · Al Pedrique 3
SSAl Pedrique 80 · Rafael Belliard 71 · Felix Fermin 23
LFBarry Bonds 101 · R.J. Reynolds 28 · John Cangelosi 27
CFAndy Van Slyke 114 · Barry Bonds 46 · John Cangelosi 16
RFR.J. Reynolds 72 · Andy Van Slyke 36 · Bobby Bonilla 34
SPDoug Drabek 2.5 · Mike Dunne 2.2 · Brian Fisher 1.5 · Bob Walk 1.2 · Mike Bielecki 0.3
BP★ Jeff Robinson 14 · John Smiley 0 · Jim Gott 0 · Barry Jones 0 · Brett Gideon 0 · Logan Easley 0 · Hipolito Pena 0 · Vicente Palacios 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
Barry Bonds 22 pre-arb 1505.3 0.1 +1.4
Andy Van Slyke 26 arb 1575.1 0.6 +0.9
Rick Reuschel↔ SFG 38 FA-elig 253.7 0.6 +0.5
Michael LaValliere 26 arb 1213.3 0.1 +0.8
Bobby Bonilla 24 pre-arb 1412.8 0.1 +0.7
Doug Drabek 24 – 302.5 – –
Mike Dunne 24 pre-arb 232.2 0.1 +0.6
Jose Lind 23 pre-arb 352.0 0.1 +0.5
John Cangelosi 24 pre-arb 1041.9 0.8 -0.2
Brian Fisher 25 pre-arb 371.5 0.2 +0.3
Sid Bream 26 arb 1491.5 0.2 +0.2
Jim Gott↔ SFG 27 arb 251.4 0.1 +0.3
Jim Morrison↔ DET 34 FA-elig 961.2 0.2 +0.1
Bob Walk 30 FA-elig 391.2 0.3 +0.1
Al Pedrique↔ NYM 26 – 881.1 – –
Johnny Ray↔ ANA 30 FA-elig 1231.1 0.6 -0.3
Mike Diaz 27 arb 1031.0 0.1 +0.2
Don Robinson↔ SFG 30 FA-elig 440.9 0.5 -0.2
Jeff Robinson↔ SFG 26 arb 180.8 0.0 +0.2
Vicente Palacios 23 – 60.5 – –
Mike Bielecki 27 arb 80.3 0.1 -0.0
Brett Gideon 23 pre-arb 290.2 0.1 -0.0
R.J. Reynolds 28 arb 1170.2 0.2 -0.1
Tim Drummond 22 – 60.1 – –
Houston Jimenez 29 – 50.1 – –
Felix Fermin 23 – 230.1 – –
Tom Prince 22 – 40.1 – –
Bob Patterson 28 – 150.1 – –
Onix Concepcion 29 FA-elig 10.0 0.1 -0.1
Darnell Coles↔ DET 25 arb 400.0 0.1 -0.1
U L Washington 33 FA-elig 100.0 0.1 -0.1
Terry Harper↔ DET 31 FA-elig 360.0 0.2 -0.2
Miguel Garcia↔ ANA 20 – 10.0 – –
Dave Johnson 27 – 5-0.0 – –
Tommy Gregg 23 – 10-0.0 – –
Butch Davis 29 – 7-0.0 – –
Junior Ortiz 27 arb 75-0.0 0.2 -0.2
Mark Ross 29 – 1-0.1 – –
John Smiley 22 pre-arb 63-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Mackey Sasser↔ SFG 24 – 12-0.2 – –
Bill Almon↔ NYM 34 FA-elig 19-0.2 0.1 -0.1
Rafael Belliard 25 arb 81-0.2 0.1 -0.2
Denny Gonzalez 23 – 5-0.2 – –
Dorn Taylor 28 – 15-0.2 – –
Hipolito Pena 23 – 16-0.2 – –
Sam Khalifa 23 – 5-0.3 – –
Bob Kipper 22 – 26-0.3 – –
Barry Jones 24 pre-arb 32-0.3 0.1 -0.2
Logan Easley 25 – 17-0.5 – –

Key additions (new vs 1986)

PlayerfWAR
Andy Van Slyke5.1
Michael LaValliere3.3
Doug Drabek2.5
Mike Dunne2.2
Jose Lind2.0
John Cangelosi1.9

Key subtractions (gone from 1986)

Player1986 fWAR
Rick Rhoden5.8
Tony Peña Sr.4.0
Lee Mazzilli0.2
Pat Clements0.2
Jim Winn0.2
Steve Kemp0.2

Current & Historical Payroll

1987 payroll
$6.0M

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 (9)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Johnny Ray306.000$649kFREE AGENT
Rick Reuschel3815.000$551kFREE AGENT
Don Robinson309.000$507kFREE AGENT
Bob Walk307.000$285k$450k$800k$850k$850k$2.0M$2.2M
Jim Morrison3410.000$234kFREE AGENT
Terry Harper317.000$228kFREE AGENT
U L Washington3310.000$80kFREE AGENT
Onix Concepcion297.000$75kFREE AGENT
Bill Almon3413.000$70kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (12)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Andy Van Slyke264.000$550kARB 3FREE AGENT
Sid Bream264.000$200kARB 3FREE AGENT
Junior Ortiz275.000$190kFREE AGENT
R.J. Reynolds284.000$190kARB 3FREE AGENT
Jim Gott275.000$144kFREE AGENT
Rafael Belliard255.000$130kFREE AGENT
Michael LaValliere263.000$120kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Bielecki273.000$110kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Diaz274.000$90kARB 3FREE AGENT
Darnell Coles254.000$73kARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Robinson263.000$40kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Butch Davis294.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (28)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
John Cangelosi242.000$800kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brian Fisher252.000$180kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bobby Bonilla241.000$115kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Barry Bonds221.000$100kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Barry Jones241.000$75kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Dunne240.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brett Gideon230.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jose Lind230.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Smiley221.000$62kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Doug Drabek241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tim Drummond220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Logan Easley25–—
Felix Fermin230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Miguel Garcia20–—
Denny Gonzalez23–—
Tommy Gregg230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Houston Jimenez29–—
Dave Johnson270.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Sam Khalifa23–—
Bob Kipper222.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Vicente Palacios230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bob Patterson282.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Al Pedrique260.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Hipolito Pena23–—
Tom Prince220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Ross29–—
Mackey Sasser240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dorn Taylor28–—

Graphs

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