RRosternomics
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Cardinals STL

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GM: Dal Maxvill

Overview

WINDOW → steady
cheap & winning · year 2 in this regime · payroll 0.88× league · TAB +3.4
+3.4TAB — talent above budget10th/26
+2.7WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)13th/26
9.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars3rd/26
-5.2dead WAR — sub-replacement drag15th/26
52%dead money %21st/26
0.512win %11th/26
36.0roster fWAR12th/26
-4surplus $M (value vs cost)14th/26
$26Mpayroll $M20th/26

Roster

CFRay Lankford 153GChuck Carr 9GBrian Jordan 9G
LFBernard Gilkey 110GMilt Thompson 35GBrian Jordan 27G
RFFelix Jose 127GBrian Jordan 21GMilt Thompson 11G
SSOzzie Smith 132GTim Jones 34GBien Figueroa 9G
2BLuis Alicea 75GGeronimo Pena 57GTim Jones 28G
3BTodd Zeile 124GTracy Woodson 26GCraig Wilson 18G
1BAndres Galarraga 90GGerald Perry 29GPedro Guerrero 28G
STARTERSBob Tewksbury 3.8WARRheal Cormier 2.8WARDonovan Osborne 2.4WAROmar Olivares 2.0WARJoe Magrane 0.3WAR
CTom Pagnozzi 138GRich Gedman 40G
BULLPEN★ Lee Smith 43svMike Perez 0hCris Carpenter 0hBob McClure 0hTodd Worrell 0hBryn Smith 0hFrank DiPino 0h
CTom Pagnozzi 138 · Rich Gedman 40
1BAndres Galarraga 90 · Gerald Perry 29 · Pedro Guerrero 28
2BLuis Alicea 75 · Geronimo Pena 57 · Tim Jones 28
3BTodd Zeile 124 · Tracy Woodson 26 · Craig Wilson 18
SSOzzie Smith 132 · Tim Jones 34 · Bien Figueroa 9
LFBernard Gilkey 110 · Milt Thompson 35 · Brian Jordan 27
CFRay Lankford 153 · Chuck Carr 9 · Brian Jordan 9
RFFelix Jose 127 · Brian Jordan 21 · Milt Thompson 11
SPBob Tewksbury 3.8 · Rheal Cormier 2.8 · Donovan Osborne 2.4 · Omar Olivares 2.0 · Joe Magrane 0.3
BP★ Lee Smith 43 · Mike Perez 0 · Cris Carpenter 0 · Bob McClure 0 · Todd Worrell 0 · Bryn Smith 0 · Frank DiPino 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.

1992 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Ozzie Smith 37 FA-elig 1325.1 2.0 +2.0
Ray Lankford 25 pre-arb 1534.8 0.2 +3.5
Bernard Gilkey 25 pre-arb 1314.0 0.1 +3.0
Bob Tewksbury 31 FA-elig 333.8 0.8 +2.1
Rheal Cormier 25 pre-arb 312.8 0.1 +2.0
Donovan Osborne 23 – 342.4 – –
Felix Jose 27 arb 1312.3 0.3 +1.5
Geronimo Pena 25 – 622.2 – –
Omar Olivares 24 pre-arb 362.0 0.2 +1.4
Todd Zeile 26 arb 1261.9 0.3 +1.2
Milt Thompson 33 FA-elig 1091.4 1.6 -0.5
Luis Alicea 26 – 851.3 – –
Tom Pagnozzi 29 arb 1391.2 1.0 -0.1
Lee Smith 34 FA-elig 701.2 2.8 -1.9
Todd Worrell 32 FA-elig 670.9 0.8 -0.1
Jose DeLeon↔ PHI 31 FA-elig 290.8 2.2 -1.6
Rod Brewer 26 – 290.6 – –
Craig Wilson 27 arb 610.5 0.1 +0.3
Tracy Woodson 29 – 310.5 – –
Joe Magrane 27 arb 50.3 0.8 -0.5
Frank DiPino 35 – 90.3 – –
Mike Perez 27 – 770.3 – –
Stan Royer 24 – 130.2 – –
José Oquendo 28 FA-elig 140.2 2.0 -1.9
Chuck Carr 24 – 220.2 – –
Mark Clark 24 pre-arb 200.2 0.1 +0.0
Ozzie Canseco 27 – 90.0 – –
Andres Galarraga 31 FA-elig 95-0.0 2.4 -2.4
Juan Agosto↔ SEA 34 FA-elig 22-0.1 0.9 -1.1
Brian Jordan 25 pre-arb 55-0.2 0.1 -0.3
Bien Figueroa 28 – 12-0.2 – –
Bryn Smith 36 FA-elig 13-0.4 2.2 -2.5
Gerald Perry 31 FA-elig 87-0.4 1.2 -1.5
Rex Hudler 31 FA-elig 61-0.4 0.4 -0.7
Rich Gedman 32 FA-elig 41-0.5 0.2 -0.6
Tim Jones 29 arb 67-0.6 0.2 -0.7
Cris Carpenter 27 arb 73-0.7 0.2 -0.7
Pedro Guerrero 36 FA-elig 43-0.8 2.4 -3.0
Bob McClure 40 FA-elig 70-0.9 0.5 -1.2

Key additions (new vs 1991)

PlayerfWAR
Donovan Osborne2.4
Todd Worrell0.9
Tracy Woodson0.5
Joe Magrane0.3
Frank DiPino0.3
Chuck Carr0.2

Key subtractions (gone from 1991)

Player1991 fWAR
Ken Hill2.0
Scott Terry1.2
Mark Grater-0.0
Ray Stephens-0.1
Tim Sherrill-0.1
Jamie Moyer-0.2

Current & Historical Payroll

1992 payroll
$26.3M

What the front office was committed to as of 1992, 1992–1998. 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)

PlayerAgeSvc1992199319941995199619971998
Lee Smith3412.000$2.8M$2.3MFREE AGENT
Pedro Guerrero3614.000$2.4MFREE AGENT
Andres Galarraga317.000$2.4MFREE AGENT
Jose DeLeon319.000$2.2MFREE AGENT
Bryn Smith3611.000$2.2MFREE AGENT
José Oquendo289.000$2.0M$2.0M$2.1M$2.2MFREE AGENT
Ozzie Smith3714.000$2.0M$3.0M$3.0M$3.0M$3.5MFREE AGENT
Milt Thompson338.000$1.6MFREE AGENT
Gerald Perry319.000$1.2M$967k$650k$299kFREE AGENT
Juan Agosto3411.000$940kFREE AGENT
Bob Tewksbury316.000$825k$2.6M$3.5MFREE AGENT
Todd Worrell327.000$790kFREE AGENT
Bob McClure4017.000$500kFREE AGENT
Rex Hudler318.000$400kFREE AGENT
Rich Gedman3212.000$200kFREE AGENT
Frank DiPino3511.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (9)

PlayerAgeSvc1992199319941995199619971998
Tom Pagnozzi295.000$992kFREE AGENT
Joe Magrane275.000$820kFREE AGENT
Todd Zeile263.000$315kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Felix Jose274.000$315kARB 3FREE AGENT
Cris Carpenter274.000$170kARB 3FREE AGENT
Tim Jones294.000$165kARB 3FREE AGENT
Craig Wilson273.000$135kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Luis Alicea264.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tracy Woodson295.000—FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (14)

PlayerAgeSvc1992199319941995199619971998
Ray Lankford252.000$230kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Omar Olivares242.000$170kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bernard Gilkey252.000$135kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rheal Cormier251.000$120kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brian Jordan250.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Clark241.000$109kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rod Brewer262.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ozzie Canseco272.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chuck Carr242.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bien Figueroa28–—
Donovan Osborne230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Geronimo Pena252.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Perez272.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Stan Royer241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Cardinals 1992; 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.