Rosternomics
𝕏

Cardinals STL

Switch team:

GM: John Mozeliak (since 2008)

2012 roster — every player, value & surplus

‹ Prev Next ›
+3.7
WAB — wins above budget
+8.2
TAB — roster Talent above budget
88–74 (0.543)
record · made playoffs
-4M
surplus $M (value/$)
44.6
roster fWAR
$118.9M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Yadier Molina 29 FA-elig 138 7.5 7.0 +12.3
Matt Holliday 32 FA-elig 157 4.6 17.0 -5.1
Adam Wainwright 30 FA-elig 33 4.0 9.0 +1.2
David Freese 29 arb 144 3.7 0.5 +9.1
Carlos Beltrán 35 FA-elig 151 3.4 13.0 -4.3
Jaime García 25 arb 20 3.2 3.2 +5.0
Kyle Lohse 33 FA-elig 34 3.0 11.9 -4.0
Jon Jay 27 pre-arb 117 2.9 0.5 +6.9
Allen Craig 27 pre-arb 119 2.3 0.5 +5.4
Lance Lynn 25 pre-arb 35 2.2 0.5 +5.3
Jake Westbrook 34 FA-elig 30 2.0 8.5 -3.3
Matt Carpenter 26 pre-arb 114 1.5 0.5 +3.4
Pete Kozma 24 pre-arb 26 1.1 0.5 +2.2
Jason Motte 30 arb 67 0.9 1.9 +0.4
Skip Schumaker 32 FA-elig 107 0.8 1.5 +0.5
Joe Kelly 24 – 29 0.8 0.3 +1.6
Rafael Furcal 34 FA-elig 121 0.7 6.0 -4.2
Shelby Miller 21 – 6 0.6 0.5 +1.1
Edward Mujica↔ MIA 28 FA-elig 29 0.6 0.7 +0.9
Mitchell Boggs 28 arb 78 0.6 0.5 +1.0
Shane Robinson 27 arb 102 0.5 0.5 +0.9
Fernando Salas 27 pre-arb 65 0.3 0.5 +0.3
Trevor Rosenthal 22 – 19 0.2 0.2 +0.4
Chris Carpenter 37 FA-elig 3 0.1 10.5 -10.1
Lance Berkman 36 FA-elig 32 0.1 12.0 -11.7
Tony Cruz 25 pre-arb 51 0.0 0.5 -0.4
C.J. Fick↔ HOU 26 – 2 -0.0 – –
Sam Freeman 25 – 24 -0.0 0.5 -0.5
Bryan Anderson 25 pre-arb 10 -0.0 0.5 -0.6
Adron Chambers 25 pre-arb 41 -0.0 0.5 -0.6
Steven Hill 27 – 9 -0.1 0.5 -0.6
Daniel Descalso 25 pre-arb 143 -0.1 0.5 -0.7
Barret Browning 27 pre-arb 22 -0.1 0.5 -0.7
Brandon Dickson 27 pre-arb 4 -0.1 0.5 -0.7
Erik Komatsu↔ MIN 24 pre-arb 15 -0.1 0.2 -0.5
Tyler Greene↔ HOU 28 arb 77 -0.1 0.3 -0.6
Brian Fuentes↔ OAK 36 FA-elig 6 -0.1 0.9 -1.3
Kyle McClellan 28 arb 16 -0.2 2.5 -3.0
Ryan Jackson 24 pre-arb 13 -0.2 0.5 -1.0
Maikel Cleto 23 pre-arb 9 -0.2 0.5 -1.1
J.C. Romero↔ BAL 36 FA-elig 11 -0.2 0.5 -1.2
Victor Marte 31 pre-arb 48 -0.2 0.5 -1.1
Eduardo Sanchez 23 pre-arb 17 -0.3 0.5 -1.3
Matt Adams 23 – 27 -0.3 0.5 -1.4
Marc Rzepczynski 26 arb 70 -0.6 0.5 -2.1

45 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 44 of them (98%). 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.