RRosternomics
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Cardinals STL

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GM: Dal Maxvill

Overview

REBUILD ↘ cooling
cheap & losing · year 1 in this regime · payroll 0.88× league · TAB -4.7
-4.7TAB — talent above budget17th/26
-0.7WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)13th/26
6.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars16th/26
-2.5dead WAR — sub-replacement drag4th/26
20%dead money %3rd/26
0.491win %13th/26
27.8roster fWAR18th/26
-1surplus $M (value vs cost)16th/26
$10Mpayroll $M18th/26

Roster

CFWillie McGee 121GAndy Van Slyke 27GVince Coleman 20G
LFVince Coleman 131GCurt Ford 24GTito Landrum 9G
RFAndy Van Slyke 86GTito Landrum 70GCurt Ford 40G
SSOzzie Smith 144GJosé Oquendo 29G
2BTom Herr 152GJosé Oquendo 21GTom Lawless 7G
3BTerry Pendleton 156GTom Lawless 12GClint Hurdle 4G
1BJack Clark 64GClint Hurdle 39GAndy Van Slyke 38G
STARTERSDanny Cox 2.8WARBob Forsch 2.6WARJohn Tudor 2.1WARRicky Horton 1.1WARGreg Mathews 0.5WAR
CMichael LaValliere 108GSteve Lake 36GClint Hurdle 5G
BULLPEN★ Todd Worrell 36svPat Perry 0hKen Dayley 0hRay Soff 0hGreg Bargar 0hRick Ownbey 0hJoe Boever 0hJeff Lahti 0h
CMichael LaValliere 108 · Steve Lake 36 · Clint Hurdle 5
1BJack Clark 64 · Clint Hurdle 39 · Andy Van Slyke 38
2BTom Herr 152 · José Oquendo 21 · Tom Lawless 7
3BTerry Pendleton 156 · Tom Lawless 12 · Clint Hurdle 4
SSOzzie Smith 144 · José Oquendo 29
LFVince Coleman 131 · Curt Ford 24 · Tito Landrum 9
CFWillie McGee 121 · Andy Van Slyke 27 · Vince Coleman 20
RFAndy Van Slyke 86 · Tito Landrum 70 · Curt Ford 40
SPDanny Cox 2.8 · Bob Forsch 2.6 · John Tudor 2.1 · Ricky Horton 1.1 · Greg Mathews 0.5
BP★ Todd Worrell 36 · Pat Perry 0 · Ken Dayley 0 · Ray Soff 0 · Greg Bargar 0 · Rick Ownbey 0 · Joe Boever 0 · Jeff Lahti 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.

1986 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Ozzie Smith 31 FA-elig 1534.9 1.9 -0.5
Andy Van Slyke 25 arb 1373.4 0.3 +0.7
Danny Cox 26 arb 322.8 0.4 +0.4
Bob Forsch 36 FA-elig 342.6 0.5 +0.2
John Tudor 32 FA-elig 302.1 1.0 -0.4
Tom Herr 30 FA-elig 1522.0 0.8 -0.1
Jack Clark 30 FA-elig 651.6 1.3 -0.8
Michael LaValliere 25 pre-arb 1101.4 0.1 +0.4
Willie McGee 27 arb 1241.3 0.5 -0.1
Ricky Horton 26 pre-arb 421.1 0.3 +0.1
Terry Pendleton 25 pre-arb 1591.1 0.2 +0.1
Ken Dayley 27 arb 321.1 0.3 +0.0
Curt Ford 25 pre-arb 851.0 0.1 +0.2
Vince Coleman 24 pre-arb 1540.9 0.1 +0.1
Mike Laga↔ DET 26 arb 180.5 0.0 +0.1
Greg Mathews 24 pre-arb 230.5 0.1 +0.1
Steve Lake↔ CHC 29 arb 260.5 0.0 +0.1
Tito Landrum 31 FA-elig 960.3 0.2 -0.1
John Morris 25 pre-arb 390.3 0.1 +0.0
Todd Worrell 26 pre-arb 740.3 0.1 -0.0
Mike Heath↔ DET 31 FA-elig 650.2 0.4 -0.3
Tim Conroy 26 FA-elig 260.2 0.1 -0.1
José Oquendo 22 arb 760.2 0.1 -0.0
Jeff Lahti 29 arb 40.1 0.5 -0.4
Jim Lindeman 24 – 190.1 – –
Bill Earley 30 – 30.0 – –
Alan Knicely 31 – 340.0 – –
Clint Hurdle 28 FA-elig 78-0.0 0.1 -0.1
Fred Manrique 24 – 13-0.0 – –
Tom Lawless 29 arb 46-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Jerry White 33 FA-elig 25-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Ray Soff 27 pre-arb 30-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Kurt Kepshire 26 – 2-0.1 – –
Joe Boever 25 – 11-0.2 – –
Rick Ownbey 28 – 17-0.2 – –
Greg Bargar 27 – 22-0.3 – –
Pat Perry 27 pre-arb 46-0.6 0.1 -0.2
Ray Burris 35 – 23-0.7 – –

Key additions (new vs 1985)

PlayerfWAR
Mike Laga0.5
Greg Mathews0.5
Steve Lake0.5
John Morris0.3
Mike Heath0.2
Tim Conroy0.2

Key subtractions (gone from 1985)

Player1985 fWAR
Joaquin Andujar2.9
Darrell Porter2.1
Cesar Cedeno1.4
Lonnie Smith0.4
Bill Campbell0.3
Matt Keough0.2

Current & Historical Payroll

1986 payroll
$9.8M

What the front office was committed to as of 1986, 1986–1992. 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 (12)

PlayerAgeSvc1986198719881989199019911992
Ozzie Smith318.000$1.9M$1.9M$2.3M$2.2M$2.0M$2.2M$2.0M
Jack Clark3011.000$1.3M$1.3MFREE AGENT
John Tudor327.000$1.0M$1.1M$791kFREE AGENT$350k
Tom Herr307.000$750k$925k$745kFREE AGENT
Bob Forsch3612.000$527k$750k$335kFREE AGENT
Mike Heath318.000$365kFREE AGENT
Tito Landrum316.000$237k$39kFREE AGENT
Clint Hurdle289.000$120kFREE AGENT
Tim Conroy268.000$114k$115kFREE AGENT
Jerry White3312.000$100kFREE AGENT
Ray Burris3513.000—FREE AGENT
Alan Knicely317.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (10)

PlayerAgeSvc1986198719881989199019911992
Willie McGee274.000$500kARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Lahti294.000$450kARB 3FREE AGENT
Danny Cox263.000$400kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Andy Van Slyke253.000$335kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ken Dayley274.000$300kARB 3FREE AGENT
Tom Lawless294.000$100kARB 3FREE AGENT
José Oquendo223.000$79kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Lake293.000$43kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Laga264.000$40kARB 3FREE AGENT
Fred Manrique245.000—FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (16)

PlayerAgeSvc1986198719881989199019911992
Ricky Horton262.000$275kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Terry Pendleton252.000$190kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Vince Coleman241.000$150kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Todd Worrell261.000$100kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Michael LaValliere252.000$70kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Pat Perry271.000$65kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Greg Mathews240.000$60kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Curt Ford251.000$60kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ray Soff270.000$60kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Morris250.000$60kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Greg Bargar27–—
Joe Boever251.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bill Earley30–—
Kurt Kepshire262.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jim Lindeman240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rick Ownbey28–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Cardinals 1986; 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.