RRosternomics
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Mariners SEA

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GM: Lee Pelekoudas

Overview

FORCED-SPEND ↘ cooling
expensive & losing · year 5 in this regime · payroll 1.27× league · TAB -20.0
-20.0TAB — talent above budget30th/30
-24.0WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)30th/30
5.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars25th/30
-9.6dead WAR — sub-replacement drag30th/30
38%dead money %14th/30
0.377win %29th/30
17.1roster fWAR28th/30
-69surplus $M (value vs cost)28th/30
$111Mpayroll $M9th/30

Roster

CFIchiro Suzuki 69GJeremy Reed 58GWladimir Balentien 29G
LFRaul Ibanez 153GWillie Bloomquist 8GJeremy Reed 6G
RFIchiro Suzuki 91GWladimir Balentien 35GJeremy Reed 14G
SSYuniesky Betancourt 153GWillie Bloomquist 12GTug Hulett 4G
2BJose Lopez 139GLuis Valbuena 16GWillie Bloomquist 7G
3BAdrian Beltré 139GMiguel Cairo 19GMatt Tuiasosopo 13G
1BMiguel Cairo 70GBryan LaHair 36GJose Lopez 13G
STARTERSFélix Hernández 3.9WARCarlos Silva 1.3WARJarrod Washburn 1.3WARErik Bedard 1.1WARRyan Rowland-Smith 1.0WAR
CKenji Johjima 100GJamie Burke 43GJeff Clement 38G
DHJose Vidro 70GJeff Clement 21GTug Hulett 13G
BULLPEN★ J.J. Putz 15svSean Green 17hRoy Corcoran 8hCesar Jimenez 4hMark Lowe 2hRandy Messenger 2hJake Woods 1hJustin Thomas 1h
CKenji Johjima 100 · Jamie Burke 43 · Jeff Clement 38
1BMiguel Cairo 70 · Bryan LaHair 36 · Jose Lopez 13
2BJose Lopez 139 · Luis Valbuena 16 · Willie Bloomquist 7
3BAdrian Beltré 139 · Miguel Cairo 19 · Matt Tuiasosopo 13
SSYuniesky Betancourt 153 · Willie Bloomquist 12 · Tug Hulett 4
LFRaul Ibanez 153 · Willie Bloomquist 8 · Jeremy Reed 6
CFIchiro Suzuki 69 · Jeremy Reed 58 · Wladimir Balentien 29
RFIchiro Suzuki 91 · Wladimir Balentien 35 · Jeremy Reed 14
DHJose Vidro 70 · Jeff Clement 21 · Tug Hulett 13
SPFélix Hernández 3.9 · Carlos Silva 1.3 · Jarrod Washburn 1.3 · Erik Bedard 1.1 · Ryan Rowland-Smith 1.0
BP★ J.J. Putz 15 · Sean Green 17 · Roy Corcoran 8 · Cesar Jimenez 4 · Mark Lowe 2 · Randy Messenger 2 · Jake Woods 1 · Justin Thomas 1

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.

2008 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Ichiro Suzuki 34 FA-elig 1624.3 17.1 -7.4
Adrian Beltré 29 FA-elig 1433.9 13.4 -4.4
Félix Hernández 22 arb 313.9 0.5 +8.3
Raul Ibanez 36 FA-elig 1622.9 5.5 +1.0
Jose Lopez 24 arb 1592.2 1.8 +3.3
Jarrod Washburn 33 FA-elig 301.3 9.8 -6.9
Carlos Silva 29 FA-elig 281.3 8.2 -5.3
Erik Bedard 29 FA-elig 151.1 7.0 -4.5
Ryan Rowland-Smith 25 pre-arb 471.0 0.4 +1.8
Sean Green 29 pre-arb 720.8 0.4 +1.5
Arthur Rhodes↔ MIA 38 – 360.6 – –
Cesar Jimenez 23 – 310.6 0.4 +0.9
J.J. Putz 31 arb 470.5 4.4 -3.2
Brandon Morrow 23 – 450.5 – –
Willie Bloomquist 30 FA-elig 710.5 1.0 +0.1
Roy Corcoran 28 – 500.4 – –
Jeremy Reed 27 – 970.2 – –
Miguel Cairo 34 FA-elig 1080.2 0.8 -0.4
Greg Norton↔ ATL 35 – 60.2 – –
Ryan Feierabend 22 – 80.1 – –
Yuniesky Betancourt 26 arb 1530.1 1.6 -1.3
Mark Lowe 25 pre-arb 570.1 0.4 -0.3
Justin Thomas 24 – 80.1 – –
Michael Morse 26 arb 50.0 0.4 -0.3
Luis Valbuena 22 – 180.0 – –
Randy Messenger 26 – 130.0 – –
Brad Wilkerson↔ TOR 31 FA-elig 19-0.0 0.5 -0.6
Charlton Jimerson 28 arb 2-0.1 0.4 -0.5
Jamie Burke 36 FA-elig 48-0.1 0.4 -0.7
R.A. Dickey 33 – 32-0.1 – –
Bryan LaHair 25 – 45-0.2 – –
Tug Hulett 25 – 30-0.2 – –
Jared Wells↔ SDP 26 – 6-0.2 – –
Jeff Clement 24 – 66-0.2 – –
Cha Seung Baek↔ SDP 28 arb 10-0.2 0.1 -0.7
Matt Tuiasosopo 22 – 14-0.4 – –
Eric O'Flaherty 23 pre-arb 7-0.4 0.4 -1.2
Jake Woods 26 – 15-0.4 – –
Rob Johnson 25 – 14-0.4 – –
Richie Sexson↔ NYY 33 FA-elig 74-0.8 11.9 -13.7
Jose Vidro 33 FA-elig 85-1.3 8.5 -11.4
Miguel Batista 37 FA-elig 44-1.3 9.5 -12.5
Wladimir Balentien 23 – 71-1.5 – –
Kenji Johjima 32 pre-arb 112-1.8 6.4 -10.5

Key additions (new vs 2007)

PlayerfWAR
Carlos Silva1.3
Erik Bedard1.1
Arthur Rhodes0.6
Cesar Jimenez0.6
Roy Corcoran0.4
Miguel Cairo0.2

Key subtractions (gone from 2007)

Player2007 fWAR
Jose Guillen2.2
George Sherrill1.1
Jeff Weaver1.0
Adam Jones0.2
Julio Mateo0.2
Jon Huber0.1

Current & Historical Payroll

2008 payroll
$111.4M

What the front office was committed to as of 2008, 2008–2014. 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 (16)

PlayerAgeSvc2008200920102011201220132014
Ichiro Suzuki347.000$17.1M$18.0M$18.0M$18.0M$10.0MFREE AGENT
Adrian Beltré2910.000$13.4M$13.4MFREE AGENT
Richie Sexson3311.000$11.9MFREE AGENT
Jarrod Washburn3310.000$9.8M$7.0MFREE AGENT
Miguel Batista3716.000$9.5M$9.5MFREE AGENT
Jose Vidro3311.000$8.5MFREE AGENT
Carlos Silva296.000$8.2M$12.2MFREE AGENT
Erik Bedard296.000$7.0M$7.8MFREE AGENT$667k
Raul Ibanez3612.000$5.5MFREE AGENT$2.8M
Willie Bloomquist306.000$1.0MFREE AGENT$2.8M
Miguel Cairo3412.000$850kFREE AGENT
Brad Wilkerson317.000$548kFREE AGENT
Jamie Burke367.000$435kFREE AGENT
Greg Norton3512.000—FREE AGENT
Arthur Rhodes3817.000—FREE AGENT
R.A. Dickey337.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (11)

PlayerAgeSvc2008200920102011201220132014
J.J. Putz315.000$4.4MFREE AGENT
Jose Lopez244.000$1.8MARB 3FREE AGENT
Yuniesky Betancourt263.000$1.6MARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Félix Hernández223.000$540kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Michael Morse263.000$394kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Charlton Jimerson283.000$390kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Cha Seung Baek284.000$115kARB 3FREE AGENT
Roy Corcoran285.000—FREE AGENT
Jeremy Reed274.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jake Woods263.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Randy Messenger263.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (17)

PlayerAgeSvc2008200920102011201220132014
Kenji Johjima322.000$6.4MARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Sean Green292.000$405kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Eric O'Flaherty232.000$400kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ryan Rowland-Smith251.000$395kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Lowe252.000$390kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Cesar Jimenez230.000$390kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Wladimir Balentien231.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bryan LaHair250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Matt Tuiasosopo220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brandon Morrow231.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rob Johnson251.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ryan Feierabend22–—
Jared Wells26–—
Jeff Clement241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tug Hulett25–—
Luis Valbuena220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Justin Thomas240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Mariners 2008; 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.