Rosternomics
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Mariners SEA

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GM: Woody Woodward (since 1989)

1997 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+6.9
WAB — wins above budget
+13.8
TAB — roster Talent above budget
90–72 (0.556)
record · made playoffs
+8M
surplus $M (value/$)
49.2
roster fWAR
$43.0M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Ken Griffey Jr. 27 FA-elig 157 9.0 7.9 +1.3
Randy Johnson 33 FA-elig 30 7.0 6.3 +0.8
Edgar Martinez 34 FA-elig 155 6.1 3.0 +3.1
Jeff Fassero 34 FA-elig 35 5.0 3.5 +1.6
Alex Rodriguez 21 arb 141 4.3 1.1 +3.3
Dan Wilson 28 arb 146 3.5 1.1 +2.5
Jamie Moyer 34 FA-elig 30 3.2 1.7 +1.6
Jay Buhner 32 FA-elig 157 3.0 4.8 -1.8
Paul Sorrento 31 FA-elig 146 2.3 1.5 +0.9
Joey Cora 32 FA-elig 149 1.6 1.0 +0.6
Russ Davis 27 arb 119 1.6 0.2 +1.4
José Cruz Jr.↔ TOR 23 pre-arb 49 1.5 0.1 +1.5
Roberto Kelly↔ MIN 32 FA-elig 30 1.0 0.2 +0.8
Rob Ducey 32 FA-elig 76 1.0 0.2 +0.8
Mike Blowers 32 FA-elig 68 0.5 0.4 +0.2
Bobby Ayala 27 arb 71 0.5 0.9 -0.4
Heathcliff Slocumb↔ BOS 31 FA-elig 27 0.4 0.8 -0.4
Paul Spoljaric↔ TOR 26 arb 20 0.4 0.1 +0.3
Ken Cloude 22 – 10 0.3 – –
Mike Timlin↔ TOR 31 FA-elig 26 0.3 0.5 -0.2
Lee Tinsley 28 arb 49 0.2 0.4 -0.2
Bob Wells 30 arb 46 0.2 0.3 -0.1
Greg McCarthy 28 pre-arb 37 0.2 0.2 +0.0
Dan Rohrmeier 31 – 7 0.1 – –
Omar Olivares↔ DET 29 FA-elig 13 0.1 0.4 -0.3
John Marzano 34 FA-elig 39 0.1 0.2 -0.1
Mark Holzemer 27 – 14 0.1 – –
Rick Wilkins↔ SFG 30 FA-elig 5 0.1 0.1 -0.1
Andy Sheets 25 pre-arb 32 0.0 0.2 -0.1
Rafael Carmona 24 – 4 0.0 – –
Tim Davis 26 arb 2 0.0 0.2 -0.2
Derek Lowe↔ BOS 24 – 12 0.0 – –
Salomon Torres↔ WSN 25 arb 2 -0.0 0.0 -0.1
Brian Raabe↔ COL 29 pre-arb 2 -0.0 0.1 -0.1
Bob Wolcott 23 pre-arb 19 -0.1 0.2 -0.2
Mike Maddux 35 – 6 -0.1 – –
Giomar Guevara 24 – 5 -0.2 – –
Norm Charlton 34 FA-elig 71 -0.2 3.0 -3.2
Josias Manzanillo 29 FA-elig 16 -0.2 0.2 -0.4
Felipe Lira↔ DET 25 pre-arb 8 -0.3 0.1 -0.4
Brent Gates 27 arb 65 -0.4 0.3 -0.7
Rich Amaral 35 FA-elig 89 -0.4 0.6 -0.9
Dennis Martinez 42 – 9 -0.4 – –
Raul Ibanez 25 pre-arb 11 -0.4 0.1 -0.6
Edwin Hurtado 27 pre-arb 13 -0.5 0.2 -0.7
Scott Sanders↔ DET 28 arb 33 -0.6 0.9 -1.5
Alvaro Espinoza 35 – 33 -0.6 – –

47 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 38 of them (81%). 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 SEA
Jamie Moyer199628.0
Mike Cameron200019.8
J. P. Crawford201817.8
Freddy García199815.6
Franklin Gutiérrez200813.4
Mitch Haniger201611.1
Marco Gonzales201710.1
Luis Castillo20228.7
Ones that got away
PlayerYear tradedWAR elsewhere
Adam Jones200829.6
Jason Varitek199721.2
Shin-Soo Choo200619.2
Mike Hampton199319.2
Carlos Guillén200418.3
Derek Lowe199718.0
Freddy Peralta201517.3
Chris Taylor201616.9
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.