RRosternomics
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Mariners SEA

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GM: Dick Balderson

Overview

WINDOW ↗ rising
cheap & winning · year 2 in this regime · payroll 0.65× league · TAB +2.6
+2.6TAB — talent above budget11th/26
-7.8WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)22nd/26
7.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars11th/26
-4.3dead WAR — sub-replacement drag15th/26
46%dead money %22nd/26
0.422win %23rd/26
31.3roster fWAR16th/26
+2surplus $M (value vs cost)5th/26
$8Mpayroll $M22nd/26

Roster

CFHenry Cotto 120GMickey Brantley Sr. 49GMike Kingery 24G
LFMickey Brantley Sr. 118GDarnell Coles 43GBruce Fields 14G
RFDarnell Coles 59GJay Buhner 59GMike Kingery 13G
SSRey Quinones 135GMario Diaz 21GRick Renteria 11G
2BHarold Reynolds 158GMario Diaz 4GRick Renteria 4G
3BJim Presley 146GEdgar Martinez 13GRick Renteria 5G
1BAlvin Davis 115GSteve Balboni 53GMike Kingery 10G
STARTERSMike Moore 4.6WARMark Langston 4.0WARScott Bankhead 3.6WARBill Swift 1.8WARErik Hanson 0.9WAR
CScott Bradley 85GDave Valle 84GBill McGuire 9G
DHSteve Balboni 56GAlvin Davis 24GDarnell Coles 7G
BULLPEN★ Mike Schooler 15svMike Jackson 0hJerry Reed 0hRod Scurry 0hGene Walter 0hBill Wilkinson 0hJulio Solano 0hDennis Powell 0h
CScott Bradley 85 · Dave Valle 84 · Bill McGuire 9
1BAlvin Davis 115 · Steve Balboni 53 · Mike Kingery 10
2BHarold Reynolds 158 · Mario Diaz 4 · Rick Renteria 4
3BJim Presley 146 · Edgar Martinez 13 · Rick Renteria 5
SSRey Quinones 135 · Mario Diaz 21 · Rick Renteria 11
LFMickey Brantley Sr. 118 · Darnell Coles 43 · Bruce Fields 14
CFHenry Cotto 120 · Mickey Brantley Sr. 49 · Mike Kingery 24
RFDarnell Coles 59 · Jay Buhner 59 · Mike Kingery 13
DHSteve Balboni 56 · Alvin Davis 24 · Darnell Coles 7
SPMike Moore 4.6 · Mark Langston 4.0 · Scott Bankhead 3.6 · Bill Swift 1.8 · Erik Hanson 0.9
BP★ Mike Schooler 15 · Mike Jackson 0 · Jerry Reed 0 · Rod Scurry 0 · Gene Walter 0 · Bill Wilkinson 0 · Julio Solano 0 · Dennis Powell 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.

1988 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Mike Moore 28 FA-elig 374.6 0.5 +1.0
Mark Langston 27 arb 354.0 0.8 +0.4
Alvin Davis 27 arb 1403.7 0.9 +0.3
Scott Bankhead 24 pre-arb 213.6 0.1 +1.0
Jay Buhner↔ NYY 23 pre-arb 602.6 0.0 +0.8
Ken Phelps↔ NYY 33 FA-elig 722.2 0.4 +0.3
Harold Reynolds 27 arb 1582.1 0.2 +0.4
Bill Swift 26 arb 381.8 0.1 +0.5
Rey Quinones 24 pre-arb 1401.7 0.1 +0.4
Dave Valle 27 arb 931.5 0.1 +0.3
Steve Balboni↔ KCR 31 FA-elig 971.1 0.3 +0.0
Mickey Brantley Sr. 27 pre-arb 1491.0 0.1 +0.2
Mike Schooler 25 pre-arb 401.0 0.1 +0.2
Darnell Coles↔ PIT 26 arb 551.0 0.2 +0.1
Erik Hanson 23 – 60.9 – –
Henry Cotto 27 arb 1330.7 0.1 +0.1
Mike Jackson 23 pre-arb 620.7 0.1 +0.1
Mike Campbell 24 pre-arb 200.5 0.1 +0.1
Bill Wilkinson 23 arb 300.2 0.1 -0.0
Jerry Reed 32 FA-elig 460.2 0.1 -0.1
Gene Walter↔ NYM 27 arb 160.2 0.1 +0.0
Terry Taylor 23 pre-arb 50.2 0.1 -0.0
John Rabb 28 FA-elig 90.1 0.1 -0.0
Mario Diaz 26 pre-arb 280.1 0.1 -0.0
Scott Bradley 28 arb 1030.0 0.1 -0.1
Dennis Powell 24 arb 12-0.0 0.1 -0.1
Edgar Martinez 25 – 14-0.0 – –
Ed Nunez↔ NYM 25 FA-elig 14-0.0 0.2 -0.2
Greg Briley 23 – 13-0.1 – –
Bruce Fields 27 pre-arb 39-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Bill McGuire 24 pre-arb 9-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Mike Kingery 27 pre-arb 57-0.2 0.1 -0.2
Brick Smith 29 – 4-0.2 – –
Steve Trout 30 FA-elig 15-0.2 1.0 -1.1
Julio Solano 28 arb 17-0.2 0.1 -0.2
Rod Scurry 32 FA-elig 39-0.3 0.1 -0.2
Dave Hengel 26 – 26-0.6 – –
Rick Renteria 26 pre-arb 31-0.6 0.1 -0.3
Jim Presley 26 arb 150-0.8 0.5 -0.8
Glenn Wilson↔ PIT 29 FA-elig 78-0.9 0.6 -0.9

Key additions (new vs 1987)

PlayerfWAR
Jay Buhner2.6
Bill Swift1.8
Steve Balboni1.1
Mike Schooler1.0
Darnell Coles1.0
Erik Hanson0.9

Key subtractions (gone from 1987)

Player1987 fWAR
Phil Bradley3.4
Mike Morgan3.1
Lee Guetterman1.4
Domingo Ramos0.5
Mark Huismann0.2
Donell Nixon0.1

Current & Historical Payroll

1988 payroll
$7.6M

What the front office was committed to as of 1988, 1988–1994. 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)

PlayerAgeSvc1988198919901991199219931994
Steve Trout3010.000$990k$105kFREE AGENT
Glenn Wilson296.000$577kFREE AGENT
Mike Moore286.000$482kFREE AGENT
Ken Phelps338.000$412kFREE AGENT
Steve Balboni317.000$288kFREE AGENT
Ed Nunez256.000$187kFREE AGENT
Rod Scurry328.000$145kFREE AGENT
Jerry Reed327.000$125k$265k$334kFREE AGENT
John Rabb286.000$80kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (13)

PlayerAgeSvc1988198919901991199219931994
Alvin Davis274.000$888kARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Langston274.000$820kARB 3FREE AGENT
Jim Presley264.000$535kARB 3FREE AGENT
Harold Reynolds275.000$200kFREE AGENT
Darnell Coles265.000$168kFREE AGENT
Scott Bradley284.000$130kARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Valle274.000$125kARB 3FREE AGENT
Bill Wilkinson233.000$100kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Henry Cotto274.000$90kARB 3FREE AGENT
Julio Solano285.000$80kFREE AGENT
Bill Swift263.000$78kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dennis Powell243.000$72kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Gene Walter273.000$51kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (18)

PlayerAgeSvc1988198919901991199219931994
Rey Quinones242.000$120kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Scott Bankhead242.000$112kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mickey Brantley Sr.272.000$112kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Kingery272.000$112kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Jackson232.000$78kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rick Renteria262.000$66kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mario Diaz261.000$62kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bill McGuire240.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bruce Fields272.000$62kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Campbell241.000$62kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Terry Taylor230.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Schooler250.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jay Buhner231.000$47kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Greg Briley230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Erik Hanson230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Hengel26–—
Edgar Martinez251.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brick Smith29–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Mariners 1988; 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.