RRosternomics
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Pirates PIT

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GM: Ted Simmons

Overview

REBUILD ↘ cooling
cheap & losing · year 2 in this regime · payroll 0.69× league · TAB -7.8
-7.8TAB — talent above budget17th/28
-1.3WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)11th/28
1.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars26th/28
-4.5dead WAR — sub-replacement drag16th/28
29%dead money %12th/28
0.465win %17th/28
15.4roster fWAR26th/28
-5surplus $M (value vs cost)14th/28
$22Mpayroll $M24th/28

Roster

CFAndy Van Slyke 99GAl Martin 13GMidre Cummings 5G
LFAl Martin 67GMidre Cummings 19GGary Varsho 18G
RFOrlando Merced 68GDave Clark 49GGary Varsho 18G
SSJay Bell 110GTom Foley 8GTony Womack 2G
2BCarlos García 98GTom Foley 17GTony Womack 3G
3BJeff King 91GKevin Young 17GTom Foley 14G
1BOrlando Merced 55GKevin Young 37GTom Foley 3G
STARTERSDenny Neagle 1.9WARPaul Wagner 1.7WARZane Smith 1.6WARJon Lieber 1.5WARSteve Cooke 0.3WAR
CDon Slaught 74GLance Parrish 38GJerry Goff 7G
BULLPEN★ Alejandro Pena 7svRavelo Manzanillo 0hMark Dewey 0hJeff Ballard 0hDan Miceli 0hBlas Minor 0hMike Dyer 0hRandy Tomlin 0h
CDon Slaught 74 · Lance Parrish 38 · Jerry Goff 7
1BOrlando Merced 55 · Kevin Young 37 · Tom Foley 3
2BCarlos García 98 · Tom Foley 17 · Tony Womack 3
3BJeff King 91 · Kevin Young 17 · Tom Foley 14
SSJay Bell 110 · Tom Foley 8 · Tony Womack 2
LFAl Martin 67 · Midre Cummings 19 · Gary Varsho 18
CFAndy Van Slyke 99 · Al Martin 13 · Midre Cummings 5
RFOrlando Merced 68 · Dave Clark 49 · Gary Varsho 18
SPDenny Neagle 1.9 · Paul Wagner 1.7 · Zane Smith 1.6 · Jon Lieber 1.5 · Steve Cooke 0.3
BP★ Alejandro Pena 7 · Ravelo Manzanillo 0 · Mark Dewey 0 · Jeff Ballard 0 · Dan Miceli 0 · Blas Minor 0 · Mike Dyer 0 · Randy 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.

1994 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Jay Bell 28 FA-elig 1103.6 3.4 +0.8
Denny Neagle 25 arb 241.9 0.2 +2.0
Paul Wagner 26 pre-arb 291.7 0.2 +1.8
Al Martin 26 pre-arb 821.6 0.2 +1.7
Zane Smith 33 FA-elig 261.6 3.1 -1.3
Jon Lieber 24 pre-arb 171.5 0.1 +1.6
Orlando Merced 27 arb 1081.2 1.5 -0.1
Don Slaught 35 FA-elig 761.1 1.5 -0.2
Dave Clark 31 FA-elig 861.0 0.4 +0.8
Tom Foley 34 FA-elig 590.9 0.4 +0.7
Carlos Garcia 26 arb 980.7 0.2 +0.6
Andy Van Slyke 33 FA-elig 1050.6 3.5 -2.8
Randy Tomlin 28 arb 100.5 1.0 -0.4
Lance Parrish 38 – 400.4 – –
Steve Pegues↔ CIN 26 pre-arb 70.4 0.0 +0.4
Steve Cooke 24 pre-arb 250.3 0.2 +0.2
Jeff King 29 arb 940.3 2.4 -2.1
Mark Dewey 29 arb 450.2 0.1 +0.1
Alejandro Pena 35 FA-elig 220.1 0.8 -0.7
Rick White 25 pre-arb 430.1 0.1 +0.0
Tony Womack 24 – 50.1 – –
John Hope 23 – 90.0 – –
Joel Johnston 27 arb 4-0.0 0.1 -0.2
Junior Noboa↔ OAK 29 FA-elig 2-0.0 0.0 -0.1
Will Pennyfeather 26 pre-arb 4-0.1 0.1 -0.2
John Wehner 27 arb 2-0.1 0.1 -0.2
Lloyd McClendon 35 FA-elig 51-0.1 0.7 -0.8
Rich Robertson 25 – 8-0.1 – –
Mike Dyer 27 arb 14-0.2 0.2 -0.4
Dan Miceli 23 pre-arb 28-0.2 0.1 -0.3
Jeff Tabaka↔ SDP 30 pre-arb 5-0.2 0.0 -0.3
Midre Cummings 22 pre-arb 24-0.3 0.1 -0.4
Blas Minor 28 pre-arb 17-0.3 0.1 -0.5
Ravelo Manzanillo 30 FA-elig 46-0.3 0.1 -0.5
Gary Varsho 33 FA-elig 67-0.3 0.2 -0.6
Jerry Goff 30 arb 8-0.4 0.1 -0.6
Kevin Young 25 pre-arb 59-0.5 0.2 -0.7
Jeff Ballard 30 FA-elig 28-0.6 0.2 -0.8
Brian R. Hunter↔ CIN 26 arb 76-0.7 0.2 -1.0

Key additions (new vs 1993)

PlayerfWAR
Jon Lieber1.5
Lance Parrish0.4
Steve Pegues0.4
Alejandro Pena0.1
Rick White0.1
Junior Noboa-0.0

Key subtractions (gone from 1993)

Player1993 fWAR
Lonnie Smith2.3
Stan Belinda0.3
Bob Walk0.2
John Candelaria0.0
Dennis Moeller-0.0
Freddie Toliver-0.0

Current & Historical Payroll

1994 payroll
$22.1M

What the front office was committed to as of 1994, 1994–2000. 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)

PlayerAgeSvc1994199519961997199819992000
Andy Van Slyke3311.000$3.5MFREE AGENT
Jay Bell288.000$3.4M$4.4M$4.7MFREE AGENT
Zane Smith3310.000$3.1MFREE AGENT$400k
Don Slaught3512.000$1.5M$2.0MFREE AGENT
Alejandro Pena3513.000$800kFREE AGENT
Lloyd McClendon357.000$650kFREE AGENT
Tom Foley3411.000$400kFREE AGENT
Dave Clark318.000$380k$647k$688kFREE AGENT
Gary Varsho336.000$244kFREE AGENT
Jeff Ballard307.000$175kFREE AGENT
Ravelo Manzanillo306.000$109kFREE AGENT
Junior Noboa2910.000$13kFREE AGENT
Lance Parrish3817.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (11)

PlayerAgeSvc1994199519961997199819992000
Jeff King295.000$2.4MFREE AGENT
Orlando Merced274.000$1.5MARB 3FREE AGENT
Randy Tomlin284.000$975kARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Dyer275.000$230kFREE AGENT
Brian R. Hunter263.000$224kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Denny Neagle253.000$220kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Carlos Garcia264.000$192kARB 3FREE AGENT
Jerry Goff304.000$145kARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Dewey294.000$140kARB 3FREE AGENT
Joel Johnston273.000$130kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Wehner273.000$116kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (15)

PlayerAgeSvc1994199519961997199819992000
Al Martin262.000$192kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Cooke242.000$188kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Paul Wagner262.000$180kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kevin Young252.000$160kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Blas Minor282.000$145kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Will Pennyfeather262.000$115kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dan Miceli231.000$110kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jon Lieber240.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Midre Cummings221.000$109kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rick White250.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Pegues260.000$42kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Tabaka300.000$14kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Hope231.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rich Robertson251.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tony Womack241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Pirates 1994; 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.