Rosternomics
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Pirates PIT

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GM: Neal Huntington (since 2008)

2012 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+2.0
WAB — wins above budget
-6.0
TAB — roster Talent above budget
79–83 (0.488)
record
-9M
surplus $M (value/$)
23.5
roster fWAR
$67.9M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Andrew McCutchen 25 arb 157 7.3 0.5 +18.4
A.J. Burnett 35 FA-elig 31 3.1 16.5 -8.5
Pedro Álvarez 25 pre-arb 149 2.5 0.7 +5.8
Neil Walker 26 arb 129 2.4 0.5 +5.7
James McDonald 27 arb 33 2.0 0.5 +4.7
Jeff Karstens 29 FA-elig 19 1.6 3.1 +1.1
Garrett Jones 31 arb 145 1.6 2.2 +1.9
Jason Grilli 35 FA-elig 64 1.3 1.1 +2.2
Erik Bedard 33 FA-elig 24 1.3 4.5 -1.2
Brad Lincoln↔ TOR 27 – 29 0.8 – –
Wandy Rodriguez↔ HOU 33 FA-elig 13 0.8 3.8 -1.8
Kevin Correia 31 FA-elig 32 0.6 3.0 -1.4
Tony Watson 27 pre-arb 68 0.5 0.5 +0.9
Casey McGehee↔ NYY 29 arb 92 0.5 2.0 -0.7
Clint Barmes 33 FA-elig 144 0.5 5.0 -3.7
Chris Resop 29 FA-elig 61 0.3 0.8 -0.1
Charlie Morton 28 arb 9 0.2 2.4 -1.9
Travis Snider↔ TOR 24 pre-arb 50 0.2 0.4 +0.2
Starling Marte 23 – 47 0.2 0.2 +0.4
Jordy Mercer 25 – 42 0.2 0.5 -0.0
Kyle McPherson 24 – 10 0.2 – –
Gaby Sanchez↔ MIA 28 arb 50 0.2 0.2 +0.2
Chad Qualls↔ NYY 33 FA-elig 17 0.2 0.3 +0.1
Jeff Locke 24 pre-arb 8 0.1 0.5 -0.1
Chris Leroux 28 arb 10 0.1 0.5 -0.1
Justin Wilson 24 – 8 0.1 0.1 +0.1
Michael McKenry 27 pre-arb 88 0.0 0.5 -0.4
Bryan Morris 25 – 5 0.0 0.5 -0.4
Juan Cruz 33 FA-elig 43 0.0 1.2 -1.2
Rick Van Den Hurk 27 – 4 0.0 – –
Eric Fryer 26 – 6 0.0 – –
Gorkys Hernández↔ MIA 24 – 25 0.0 0.2 -0.2
Daniel McCutchen 29 pre-arb 1 0.0 0.5 -0.5
Josh Harrison 24 pre-arb 104 -0.0 0.5 -0.5
Jared Hughes 26 pre-arb 66 -0.0 0.5 -0.5
Alex Presley 26 pre-arb 104 -0.0 0.5 -0.5
Hisanori Takahashi↔ ANA 37 pre-arb 9 -0.0 0.7 -0.9
Evan Meek 29 arb 12 -0.1 0.9 -1.0
Doug Slaten 32 arb 10 -0.1 0.5 -0.8
Chase d'Arnaud 25 pre-arb 8 -0.1 0.5 -0.8
Brock Holt 24 – 24 -0.2 0.1 -0.7
Matt Hague 26 pre-arb 30 -0.2 0.5 -1.1
Jose Tabata 23 pre-arb 103 -0.3 0.8 -1.4
Joel Hanrahan 30 arb 63 -0.3 4.1 -4.8
Jeff Clement 28 pre-arb 23 -0.3 0.5 -1.2
Drew Sutton↔ TBR 29 – 24 -0.3 – –
Yamaico Navarro 24 pre-arb 29 -0.4 0.5 -1.5
Nate McLouth↔ BAL 30 FA-elig 34 -0.6 0.7 -2.1
Rod Barajas 36 FA-elig 104 -2.6 4.0 -10.8

49 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 44 of them (90%). 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.