Rosternomics
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Pirates PIT

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GM: Larry Doughty (since 1989)

1990 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+15.4
WAB — wins above budget
+13.5
TAB — roster Talent above budget
95–67 (0.586)
record · made playoffs
+6M
surplus $M (value/$)
45.5
roster fWAR
$14.2M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Barry Bonds 25 arb 151 9.9 0.8 +3.6
Doug Drabek 27 arb 33 4.9 1.1 +1.1
Andy Van Slyke 29 FA-elig 136 4.4 1.2 +0.8
Bobby Bonilla 27 arb 160 3.8 1.2 +0.4
Sid Bream 29 FA-elig 147 3.2 0.5 +0.9
Don Slaught 31 FA-elig 84 2.5 0.7 +0.5
Zane Smith↔ WSN 29 FA-elig 11 2.2 0.3 +0.7
Michael LaValliere 29 FA-elig 96 2.1 0.6 +0.4
Jay Bell 24 arb 159 2.0 0.2 +0.7
John Smiley 25 arb 26 1.8 0.8 -0.0
Gary Redus 33 FA-elig 96 1.6 0.5 +0.2
Wally Backman 30 FA-elig 104 1.4 0.4 +0.2
Randy Tomlin 24 – 12 1.4 – –
Jose Lind 26 arb 152 1.0 0.3 +0.2
Bob Patterson 31 arb 55 1.0 0.1 +0.3
Bob Walk 33 FA-elig 26 0.9 0.8 -0.4
Jeff King 25 pre-arb 127 0.8 0.1 +0.2
Neal Heaton 30 FA-elig 32 0.7 0.7 -0.4
Bill Landrum 32 arb 54 0.6 0.3 -0.0
Rick Reed 24 – 13 0.5 – –
Stan Belinda 23 pre-arb 55 0.5 0.1 +0.1
R.J. Reynolds 31 FA-elig 95 0.4 0.5 -0.3
Vicente Palacios 26 – 7 0.3 – –
Ted Power 35 FA-elig 40 0.3 0.3 -0.2
Scott Ruskin↔ WSN 27 pre-arb 44 0.3 0.1 +0.0
Mike York 25 pre-arb 4 0.1 0.1 -0.0
Lloyd McClendon↔ CHC 31 arb 4 0.1 0.0 +0.0
Jay Tibbs↔ BAL 28 FA-elig 5 0.1 0.1 -0.1
Carlos Garcia 22 pre-arb 4 0.1 0.1 -0.1
Carmelo Martinez↔ PHI 29 FA-elig 12 0.0 0.1 -0.1
Moises Alou↔ WSN 23 pre-arb 2 -0.0 0.0 -0.0
Mike Roesler 26 – 5 -0.1 – –
Doug Bair 40 FA-elig 22 -0.1 0.3 -0.4
Randy Kramer↔ CHC 29 pre-arb 12 -0.1 0.1 -0.1
Orlando Merced 23 pre-arb 25 -0.1 0.1 -0.1
Jerry Reuss 41 – 4 -0.1 – –
Mark Ross 32 – 9 -0.1 – –
Mark Huismann 32 – 2 -0.2 – –
Steve Carter 25 – 5 -0.2 – –
Tom Prince 25 arb 4 -0.2 0.1 -0.2
John Cangelosi 27 – 58 -0.2 – –
Mark Ryal 30 – 9 -0.3 – –
Dann Bilardello 31 – 19 -0.3 – –
Bob Kipper 25 arb 41 -0.4 0.5 -0.7
Rafael Belliard 28 FA-elig 47 -0.4 0.4 -0.6
Walt Terrell↔ DET 32 FA-elig 16 -0.6 0.4 -0.7

46 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 35 of them (76%). Players without a salary show "–" — no single historical salary source is fully complete (especially 2020–2022).

WAR = FanGraphs (fWAR). Green = produced more value than paid (bargain); red = paid more than produced. Service: pre-arb (<3 yr) / arb (3–6) / FA-eligible (6+). Click headers to sort.

History: front-office performance & develop-vs-buy (1985–2024)

Trade ledger (realized WAR, all-time)

Best acquisitions
PlayerYearWAR for PIT
Andy Van Slyke198731.1
Brian Giles199825.4
Doug Drabek198621.4
Bobby Bonilla198620.6
Bryan Reynolds201820.0
Mike LaValliere198712.9
Josh Harrison200911.9
Jack Wilson200011.0
Ones that got away
PlayerYear tradedWAR elsewhere
Aramis Ramírez200325.0
Jason Schmidt200123.6
Brian Giles200317.1
Willie Randolph197514.7
Moisés Alou199013.8
John Tudor198412.0
Randy Milligan198811.9
Bip Roberts198511.1
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.