RRosternomics
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Mariners SEA

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GM: Woody Woodward

Overview

WINDOW ↘ cooling
cheap & winning · year 3 in this regime · payroll 0.61× league · TAB +4.4
+4.4TAB — talent above budget10th/26
-2.5WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)15th/26
10.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars2nd/26
-4.3dead WAR — sub-replacement drag15th/26
35%dead money %21st/26
0.451win %21st/26
32.6roster fWAR13th/26
+3surplus $M (value vs cost)3rd/26
$8Mpayroll $M26th/26

Roster

CFKen Griffey Jr. 127GHenry Cotto 30GMike Kingery 20G
LFGreg Briley 96GHenry Cotto 57GJeffrey Leonard 25G
RFDarnell Coles 83GJay Buhner 56GHenry Cotto 14G
SSOmar Vizquel 143GMario Diaz 37GDave Cochrane 29G
2BHarold Reynolds 151GMario Diaz 14GGreg Briley 10G
3BJim Presley 90GEdgar Martinez 60GDarnell Coles 26G
1BAlvin Davis 125GJim Presley 30GDarnell Coles 18G
STARTERSScott Bankhead 3.5WARErik Hanson 2.4WARBrian Holman 2.3WARRandy Johnson 1.6WARBill Swift 1.5WAR
CDave Valle 93GScott Bradley 70GBill McGuire 14G
DHJeffrey Leonard 122GAlvin Davis 14GDarnell Coles 12G
BULLPEN★ Mike Schooler 33svMike Jackson 0hJerry Reed 0hDennis Powell 0hKeith Comstock 0hTom Niedenfuer 0hSteve Trout 0hJulio Solano 0h
CDave Valle 93 · Scott Bradley 70 · Bill McGuire 14
1BAlvin Davis 125 · Jim Presley 30 · Darnell Coles 18
2BHarold Reynolds 151 · Mario Diaz 14 · Greg Briley 10
3BJim Presley 90 · Edgar Martinez 60 · Darnell Coles 26
SSOmar Vizquel 143 · Mario Diaz 37 · Dave Cochrane 29
LFGreg Briley 96 · Henry Cotto 57 · Jeffrey Leonard 25
CFKen Griffey Jr. 127 · Henry Cotto 30 · Mike Kingery 20
RFDarnell Coles 83 · Jay Buhner 56 · Henry Cotto 14
DHJeffrey Leonard 122 · Alvin Davis 14 · Darnell Coles 12
SPScott Bankhead 3.5 · Erik Hanson 2.4 · Brian Holman 2.3 · Randy Johnson 1.6 · Bill Swift 1.5
BP★ Mike Schooler 33 · Mike Jackson 0 · Jerry Reed 0 · Dennis Powell 0 · Keith Comstock 0 · Tom Niedenfuer 0 · Steve Trout 0 · Julio Solano 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.

1989 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Harold Reynolds 28 FA-elig 1534.2 0.6 +0.9
Alvin Davis 28 arb 1424.1 1.4 +0.1
Scott Bankhead 25 arb 333.5 0.2 +1.0
Mike Schooler 26 pre-arb 672.7 0.1 +0.8
Ken Griffey Jr. 19 pre-arb 1272.5 0.1 +0.8
Erik Hanson 24 pre-arb 172.4 0.1 +0.8
Brian Holman↔ WSN 24 – 232.3 – –
Dave Valle 28 arb 942.2 0.3 +0.5
Greg Briley 24 pre-arb 1152.1 0.1 +0.7
Mark Langston↔ WSN 28 arb 102.1 0.4 +0.4
Randy Johnson↔ WSN 25 pre-arb 221.6 0.1 +0.5
Bill Swift 27 arb 371.5 0.2 +0.3
Jay Buhner 24 pre-arb 581.3 0.1 +0.4
Jeffrey Leonard 33 FA-elig 1500.8 1.0 -0.7
Mike Dunne↔ PIT 26 pre-arb 150.7 0.2 +0.1
Mike Jackson 24 arb 650.6 0.3 -0.1
Henry Cotto 28 arb 1000.5 0.2 -0.1
Edgar Martinez 26 – 650.5 – –
Clint Zavaras 22 – 100.4 – –
Keith Comstock 33 arb 310.3 0.1 +0.0
Scott Bradley 29 arb 1030.2 0.3 -0.2
Mike Kingery 28 – 310.1 – –
Gene Harris↔ WSN 24 pre-arb 110.1 0.0 +0.0
Omar Vizquel 22 pre-arb 1430.1 0.1 -0.0
Bruce Fields 28 – 30.0 – –
Dave Cochrane 26 – 54-0.0 – –
Julio Solano 29 – 7-0.0 – –
Steve Trout 31 FA-elig 19-0.0 0.1 -0.1
Bill McGuire 25 – 14-0.0 – –
Luis DeLeon 30 – 1-0.1 – –
Darnell Coles 27 FA-elig 146-0.1 0.6 -0.6
Jerry Reed 33 FA-elig 52-0.2 0.3 -0.3
Mike Campbell 25 – 5-0.2 – –
Jim Wilson 28 – 5-0.2 – –
Dennis Powell 25 – 43-0.3 – –
Jim Presley 27 arb 117-0.5 0.6 -0.8
Tom Niedenfuer 29 FA-elig 25-0.5 0.8 -1.0
Rey Quinones↔ PIT 25 arb 7-0.5 0.0 -0.2
Mickey Brantley Sr. 28 – 34-0.7 – –
Mario Diaz 27 pre-arb 52-0.7 0.1 -0.3

Key additions (new vs 1988)

PlayerfWAR
Ken Griffey Jr.2.5
Brian Holman2.3
Randy Johnson1.6
Jeffrey Leonard0.8
Mike Dunne0.7
Clint Zavaras0.4

Key subtractions (gone from 1988)

Player1988 fWAR
Mike Moore4.6
Ken Phelps2.2
Steve Balboni1.1
Bill Wilkinson0.2
Gene Walter0.2
Terry Taylor0.2

Current & Historical Payroll

1989 payroll
$8.3M

What the front office was committed to as of 1989, 1989–1995. 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 (8)

PlayerAgeSvc1989199019911992199319941995
Jeffrey Leonard3312.000$1.0M$800kFREE AGENT
Tom Niedenfuer298.000$800kFREE AGENT
Harold Reynolds286.000$635k$967k$1.9M$2.2MFREE AGENT
Darnell Coles276.000$560k$403kFREE AGENT
Jerry Reed338.000$265k$334kFREE AGENT
Steve Trout3111.000$105kFREE AGENT
Luis DeLeon308.000—FREE AGENT
Julio Solano296.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (16)

PlayerAgeSvc1989199019911992199319941995
Alvin Davis285.000$1.4MFREE AGENT
Jim Presley275.000$595kFREE AGENT
Mark Langston285.000$397kFREE AGENT
Scott Bradley295.000$330kFREE AGENT
Dave Valle285.000$315kFREE AGENT
Mike Jackson243.000$265kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Henry Cotto285.000$250kFREE AGENT
Scott Bankhead253.000$245kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bill Swift274.000$195kARB 3FREE AGENT
Keith Comstock335.000$80kFREE AGENT
Rey Quinones253.000$19kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mickey Brantley Sr.283.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Cochrane263.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bruce Fields283.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Kingery283.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dennis Powell254.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (16)

PlayerAgeSvc1989199019911992199319941995
Mike Dunne262.000$185kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Schooler261.000$145kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jay Buhner242.000$80kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mario Diaz272.000$78kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Greg Briley241.000$68kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ken Griffey Jr.190.000$68kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Erik Hanson241.000$68kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Omar Vizquel220.000$68kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Randy Johnson251.000$53kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Gene Harris240.000$34kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Campbell252.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brian Holman241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Edgar Martinez262.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bill McGuire251.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jim Wilson28–—
Clint Zavaras22–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Mariners 1989; 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.