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 0.9× league · TAB -2.8
-2.8TAB — talent above budget11th/28
-3.8WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)17th/28
3.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars22nd/28
-4.1dead WAR — sub-replacement drag14th/28
8%dead money %2nd/28
0.465win %17th/28
21.3roster fWAR12th/28
-3surplus $M (value vs cost)12th/28
$29Mpayroll $M19th/28

Roster

CFRay Lankford 104GBrian Jordan 9GGerald Young 6G
LFBernard Gilkey 102GBrian Jordan 18GGerald Young 3G
RFMark Whiten 90GBrian Jordan 22GJohn Mabry 6G
SSOzzie Smith 96GJosé Oquendo 28GTripp Cromer III 2G
2BGeronimo Pena 59GLuis Alicea 53GJosé Oquendo 16G
3BTodd Zeile 112GScott Coolbaugh 4GGeronimo Pena 1G
1BGregg Jefferies 102GGerald Perry 13GScott Coolbaugh 4G
STARTERSBob Tewksbury 2.1WARRene Arocha 0.9WARRheal Cormier 0.5WARVicente Palacios 0.4WARTom Urbani 0.4WAR
CTom Pagnozzi 70GTerry McGriff 39GErik Pappas 15G
BULLPEN★ Mike Perez 12svRich Rodriguez 0hJohn Habyan 0hBryan Eversgerd 0hFrank Cimorelli 0hGary Buckels 0hWillie Smith 0hSteve Dixon 0h
CTom Pagnozzi 70 · Terry McGriff 39 · Erik Pappas 15
1BGregg Jefferies 102 · Gerald Perry 13 · Scott Coolbaugh 4
2BGeronimo Pena 59 · Luis Alicea 53 · José Oquendo 16
3BTodd Zeile 112 · Scott Coolbaugh 4 · Geronimo Pena 1
SSOzzie Smith 96 · José Oquendo 28 · Tripp Cromer III 2
LFBernard Gilkey 102 · Brian Jordan 18 · Gerald Young 3
CFRay Lankford 104 · Brian Jordan 9 · Gerald Young 6
RFMark Whiten 90 · Brian Jordan 22 · John Mabry 6
SPBob Tewksbury 2.1 · Rene Arocha 0.9 · Rheal Cormier 0.5 · Vicente Palacios 0.4 · Tom Urbani 0.4
BP★ Mike Perez 12 · Rich Rodriguez 0 · John Habyan 0 · Bryan Eversgerd 0 · Frank Cimorelli 0 · Gary Buckels 0 · Willie Smith 0 · Steve Dixon 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.

1994 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Mark Whiten 27 arb 922.7 1.1 +2.1
Ray Lankford 27 arb 1092.4 1.6 +1.2
Bob Tewksbury 33 FA-elig 242.1 3.5 -1.0
Todd Zeile 28 arb 1132.0 2.7 -0.4
Ozzie Smith 39 FA-elig 981.9 3.0 -0.7
Gregg Jefferies 26 FA-elig 1031.8 4.6 -2.5
Geronimo Pena 27 arb 831.7 0.6 +1.4
Tom Pagnozzi 31 FA-elig 701.6 2.6 -0.7
Luis Alicea 28 FA-elig 881.1 0.7 +0.6
Brian Jordan 27 pre-arb 531.0 0.8 +0.4
José Oquendo 30 FA-elig 550.9 2.1 -1.1
Rene Arocha 30 pre-arb 450.9 0.2 +0.9
John Habyan 30 FA-elig 520.9 0.5 +0.5
Gerald Perry 33 FA-elig 600.9 0.7 +0.3
Bernard Gilkey 27 arb 1050.8 1.6 -0.7
Rheal Cormier 27 arb 70.5 0.2 +0.5
Allen Watson 23 pre-arb 220.4 0.1 +0.3
Vicente Palacios 30 FA-elig 310.4 0.2 +0.3
Tom Urbani 26 pre-arb 200.4 0.1 +0.3
Gerald Young 29 – 160.4 – –
John Mabry 23 pre-arb 60.1 0.1 -0.0
Bryan Eversgerd 25 – 400.1 – –
Scott Coolbaugh 28 – 150.1 – –
Rich Rodriguez 31 arb 560.1 0.4 -0.3
Terry McGriff 30 FA-elig 42-0.1 0.1 -0.2
Tripp Cromer III 26 pre-arb 2-0.1 0.1 -0.2
Gary Buckels 28 – 10-0.1 – –
Frank Cimorelli 25 – 11-0.2 – –
Steve Dixon 24 – 2-0.2 – –
John Frascatore 24 – 1-0.2 – –
Omar Olivares 26 – 15-0.3 – –
Mike Perez 29 arb 36-0.4 0.2 -0.6
Rob Murphy↔ NYY 34 FA-elig 50-0.4 0.6 -1.0
Willie Smith 26 – 8-0.4 – –
Rick Sutcliffe 38 FA-elig 16-0.5 0.2 -0.8
Stan Royer↔ BOS 26 arb 39-0.5 0.1 -0.7
Erik Pappas 28 arb 15-0.7 0.1 -1.0

Key additions (new vs 1993)

PlayerfWAR
John Habyan0.9
Vicente Palacios0.4
Gerald Young0.4
John Mabry0.1
Bryan Eversgerd0.1
Scott Coolbaugh0.1

Key subtractions (gone from 1993)

Player1993 fWAR
Donovan Osborne1.4
Tim Jones0.5
Paul Kilgus0.5
Lee Guetterman0.4
Les Lancaster0.2
Rich Batchelor-0.0

Current & Historical Payroll

1994 payroll
$28.9M

What the front office was committed to as of 1994, 1994–2000. 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 (13)

PlayerAgeSvc1994199519961997199819992000
Gregg Jefferies267.000$4.6MFREE AGENT
Bob Tewksbury338.000$3.5MFREE AGENT
Ozzie Smith3916.000$3.0M$3.0M$3.5MFREE AGENT
Tom Pagnozzi317.000$2.6M$2.7M$2.7M$1.6M$2.1MFREE AGENT
José Oquendo3011.000$2.1M$2.2MFREE AGENT
Luis Alicea286.000$650kFREE AGENT$750k
Gerald Perry3311.000$650k$299kFREE AGENT
Rob Murphy349.000$566kFREE AGENT
John Habyan309.000$500k$315kFREE AGENT
Rick Sutcliffe3818.000$250kFREE AGENT
Vicente Palacios307.000$175k$250kFREE AGENT
Terry McGriff307.000$109kFREE AGENT
Gerald Young297.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (12)

PlayerAgeSvc1994199519961997199819992000
Todd Zeile285.000$2.7MFREE AGENT
Ray Lankford274.000$1.6MARB 3FREE AGENT
Bernard Gilkey274.000$1.6MARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Whiten274.000$1.1MARB 3FREE AGENT
Geronimo Pena274.000$575kARB 3FREE AGENT
Rich Rodriguez314.000$400kARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Perez294.000$200kARB 3FREE AGENT
Rheal Cormier273.000$160kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Erik Pappas283.000$140kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Stan Royer263.000$118kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Scott Coolbaugh285.000—FREE AGENT
Omar Olivares264.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (12)

PlayerAgeSvc1994199519961997199819992000
Brian Jordan272.000$847kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rene Arocha301.000$160kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tom Urbani261.000$130kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Allen Watson231.000$130kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tripp Cromer III261.000$109kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Mabry230.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Gary Buckels28–—
Frank Cimorelli25–—
Steve Dixon24–—
Bryan Eversgerd250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Frascatore240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Willie Smith26–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Cardinals 1994; 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.