Rosternomics
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Cardinals STL

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GM: Dal Maxvill (since 1986)

1990 roster — every player, value & surplus

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-13.8
WAB — wins above budget
+1.9
TAB — roster Talent above budget
70–92 (0.432)
record
-3M
surplus $M (value/$)
37.9
roster fWAR
$19.6M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Willie McGee↔ OAK 31 FA-elig 125 4.2 1.2 +0.6
Joe Magrane 25 arb 31 3.4 0.3 +1.2
Vince Coleman 28 arb 124 3.3 1.0 +0.5
Ozzie Smith 35 FA-elig 143 3.1 2.0 -0.6
Bob Tewksbury 29 arb 28 3.1 0.1 +1.3
Bryn Smith 34 FA-elig 26 2.9 1.6 -0.3
Jose DeLeon 29 FA-elig 32 2.5 1.7 -0.5
Todd Zeile 24 pre-arb 144 2.5 0.1 +1.0
John Tudor 36 FA-elig 25 2.3 0.3 +0.7
Lee Smith↔ BOS 32 FA-elig 53 2.0 1.0 -0.1
Tom Pagnozzi 27 arb 69 1.9 0.1 +0.8
Rex Hudler↔ WSN 29 FA-elig 89 1.9 0.1 +0.7
José Oquendo 26 FA-elig 156 1.5 0.6 +0.1
Ken Hill 24 pre-arb 17 1.2 0.1 +0.4
Ray Lankford 23 pre-arb 39 0.8 0.1 +0.3
Bernard Gilkey 23 pre-arb 18 0.8 0.1 +0.3
Omar Olivares 22 pre-arb 9 0.7 0.1 +0.2
Milt Thompson 31 FA-elig 135 0.5 0.9 -0.6
Ken Dayley 31 FA-elig 58 0.5 0.9 -0.7
Terry Pendleton 29 FA-elig 121 0.4 1.9 -1.7
Greg Mathews 28 arb 12 0.4 0.1 +0.0
Felix Jose↔ OAK 25 pre-arb 25 0.3 0.0 +0.1
Pedro Guerrero 34 FA-elig 136 0.3 2.1 -1.9
Tom Niedenfuer 30 – 52 0.3 – –
Mike Perez 25 pre-arb 13 0.2 0.1 -0.0
Stan Clarke 29 – 2 0.1 – –
Scott Terry 30 arb 50 0.0 0.4 -0.4
Tim Sherrill 24 pre-arb 8 0.0 0.1 -0.1
Frank DiPino 33 FA-elig 62 0.0 0.7 -0.6
Howard Hilton 26 pre-arb 2 -0.0 0.1 -0.1
Rod Brewer 24 pre-arb 14 -0.0 0.1 -0.1
Tim Jones 27 pre-arb 67 -0.1 0.1 -0.1
John Costello↔ WSN 29 pre-arb 4 -0.1 0.1 -0.1
Geronimo Pena 23 pre-arb 18 -0.1 0.1 -0.1
Cris Carpenter 25 pre-arb 4 -0.1 0.1 -0.2
Dave Collins 37 FA-elig 99 -0.1 0.2 -0.3
Ernie Camacho↔ SFG 35 FA-elig 6 -0.2 0.1 -0.2
Ray Stephens 27 pre-arb 5 -0.2 0.1 -0.2
John Morris 29 arb 18 -0.3 0.2 -0.3
Ricky Horton 30 FA-elig 32 -0.3 0.1 -0.3
Craig Wilson 25 pre-arb 55 -0.4 0.1 -0.3
Tom Brunansky↔ BOS 29 FA-elig 19 -0.4 0.2 -0.4
Denny Walling 36 FA-elig 78 -0.8 0.5 -0.9

43 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 41 of them (95%). 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 STL
Adam Wainwright200352.6
Ozzie Smith198148.0
Paul Goldschmidt201821.3
Mark McGwire199719.7
Nolan Arenado202118.3
Édgar Rentería199817.4
Carlos Martínez201316.0
José Oquendo198515.3
Ones that got away
PlayerYear tradedWAR elsewhere
Andy Van Slyke198731.1
Lance Johnson198817.3
Keith Hernandez198316.5
David Peralta201414.5
Mike LaValliere198712.9
Jack Wilson200011.0
Marco Gonzales201710.1
Coco Crisp20029.9
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.