Rosternomics
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Cardinals STL

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GM: John Mozeliak (since 2008)

2009 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+7.0
WAB — wins above budget
+5.0
TAB — roster Talent above budget
91–71 (0.562)
record · made playoffs
-7M
surplus $M (value/$)
41.2
roster fWAR
$106.5M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Albert Pujols 29 FA-elig 160 8.4 14.4 +5.4
Adam Wainwright 27 arb 40 5.7 2.8 +10.8
Chris Carpenter 34 FA-elig 28 5.5 13.3 -0.3
Yadier Molina 26 arb 140 4.6 3.3 +7.6
Joel Pineiro 30 FA-elig 33 4.4 7.5 +2.9
Colby Rasmus 22 pre-arb 147 2.7 0.4 +5.9
Brendan Ryan 27 pre-arb 129 2.6 0.4 +5.9
Matt Holliday↔ OAK 29 arb 63 2.5 5.5 +0.6
Ryan Ludwick 30 FA-elig 139 2.3 3.7 +1.7
Skip Schumaker 29 arb 153 1.5 0.4 +3.2
John Smoltz↔ BOS 42 FA-elig 7 1.0 2.6 -0.2
Kyle Lohse 30 FA-elig 23 1.0 7.4 -5.1
Ryan Franklin 36 FA-elig 62 0.8 2.5 -0.6
Mitchell Boggs 25 pre-arb 16 0.5 0.4 +0.8
Trever Miller 36 FA-elig 70 0.5 0.5 +0.7
Mark DeRosa↔ CLE 34 FA-elig 68 0.5 2.7 -1.6
Julio Lugo↔ BOS 33 FA-elig 51 0.2 5.4 -4.9
Jason LaRue 35 FA-elig 51 0.2 0.9 -0.5
Jarrett Hoffpauir 26 pre-arb 8 0.2 0.4 +0.1
Kyle McClellan 25 pre-arb 66 0.2 0.4 -0.0
David Freese 26 pre-arb 17 0.2 0.4 -0.0
Brian Barden 28 pre-arb 52 0.1 0.4 -0.1
Rick Ankiel 29 FA-elig 122 0.1 2.8 -2.5
Dennys Reyes 32 FA-elig 75 0.1 1.0 -0.7
Blake Hawksworth 26 pre-arb 30 0.1 0.4 -0.2
Blaine Boyer↔ ARI 27 arb 15 0.0 0.1 -0.1
Matt Pagnozzi 26 – 6 -0.0 – –
Jess Todd↔ CLE 23 – 1 -0.1 – –
Chris Perez↔ CLE 23 pre-arb 29 -0.1 0.2 -0.4
Clayton Mortensen↔ OAK 24 – 1 -0.1 – –
Brad Thompson 27 arb 32 -0.1 0.7 -0.9
Shane Robinson 24 – 11 -0.2 – –
Tyler Greene 25 pre-arb 48 -0.2 0.4 -0.9
Joe Thurston 29 FA-elig 124 -0.2 0.5 -1.0
Todd Wellemeyer 30 FA-elig 30 -0.3 4.0 -4.7
Jason Motte 27 pre-arb 69 -0.3 0.4 -1.2
Troy Glaus 32 FA-elig 14 -0.3 12.1 -12.9
Josh Kinney 30 arb 17 -0.4 0.4 -1.3
P.J. Walters 24 – 8 -0.4 – –
Chris Duncan 28 arb 87 -0.4 0.8 -1.9
Nick Stavinoha 27 pre-arb 39 -0.6 0.4 -1.9
Khalil Greene 29 FA-elig 77 -1.0 6.5 -8.8

42 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 37 of them (88%). 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.