RRosternomics
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Rangers TEX

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GM: Tom Grieve

Overview

WINDOW ↗ rising
cheap & winning · year 1 in this regime · payroll 0.54× league · TAB +6.3
+6.3TAB — talent above budget7th/26
+13.0WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)3rd/26
7.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars10th/26
-2.6dead WAR — sub-replacement drag6th/26
34%dead money %13th/26
0.537win %6th/26
32.9roster fWAR10th/26
+3surplus $M (value vs cost)2nd/26
$6Mpayroll $M25th/26

Roster

CFOddibe McDowell 147GRuben Sierra 21GGary Ward 4G
LFGary Ward 102GRuben Sierra 44GTom Paciorek 22G
RFPete Incaviglia 112GRuben Sierra 68GBob Jones 4G
SSScott Fletcher 136GCurtis Wilkerson 56GJeff Kunkel 5G
2BToby Harrah 93GCurtis Wilkerson 60GSteve Buechele 33G
3BSteve Buechele 137GLarry Parrish 30GTom Paciorek 21G
1BPete O'Brien 155GTom Paciorek 23GBob Jones 2G
STARTERSEd Correa 3.4WARMike Mason 2.2WARCharlie Hough 1.8WARJose Guzman 1.2WARBobby Witt 0.8WAR
CDon Slaught 91GOrlando Mercado 45GGeno Petralli 41G
DHLarry Parrish 97GPete Incaviglia 37GDarrell Porter 19G
BULLPEN★ Greg Harris 20svMitch Williams 0hDale Mohorcic 0hJeff Russell 0hRicky Wright 0hDwayne Henry 0hDave Rozema 0hRon Meridith 0h
CDon Slaught 91 · Orlando Mercado 45 · Geno Petralli 41
1BPete O'Brien 155 · Tom Paciorek 23 · Bob Jones 2
2BToby Harrah 93 · Curtis Wilkerson 60 · Steve Buechele 33
3BSteve Buechele 137 · Larry Parrish 30 · Tom Paciorek 21
SSScott Fletcher 136 · Curtis Wilkerson 56 · Jeff Kunkel 5
LFGary Ward 102 · Ruben Sierra 44 · Tom Paciorek 22
CFOddibe McDowell 147 · Ruben Sierra 21 · Gary Ward 4
RFPete Incaviglia 112 · Ruben Sierra 68 · Bob Jones 4
DHLarry Parrish 97 · Pete Incaviglia 37 · Darrell Porter 19
SPEd Correa 3.4 · Mike Mason 2.2 · Charlie Hough 1.8 · Jose Guzman 1.2 · Bobby Witt 0.8
BP★ Greg Harris 20 · Mitch Williams 0 · Dale Mohorcic 0 · Jeff Russell 0 · Ricky Wright 0 · Dwayne Henry 0 · Dave Rozema 0 · Ron Meridith 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.

1986 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Pete O'Brien 28 arb 1564.3 0.3 +1.0
Scott Fletcher 27 arb 1474.1 0.3 +0.9
Ed Correa 20 pre-arb 323.4 0.1 +0.9
Oddibe McDowell 23 pre-arb 1543.1 0.1 +0.8
Gary Ward 32 FA-elig 1052.8 0.9 -0.0
Larry Parrish 32 FA-elig 1292.3 0.6 +0.1
Mike Mason 27 – 272.2 – –
Charlie Hough 38 FA-elig 331.8 0.7 -0.2
Steve Buechele 24 pre-arb 1531.8 0.1 +0.4
Ruben Sierra 20 pre-arb 1131.6 0.1 +0.4
Greg Harris 30 arb 731.4 0.3 +0.1
Jose Guzman 23 pre-arb 291.2 0.1 +0.3
Darrell Porter 34 FA-elig 680.9 0.2 +0.1
Dale Mohorcic 30 pre-arb 580.9 0.1 +0.2
Bobby Witt 22 pre-arb 310.8 0.1 +0.2
Pete Incaviglia 22 pre-arb 1530.6 0.2 -0.0
Mike Loynd 22 pre-arb 90.5 0.1 +0.1
Ricky Wright 27 arb 210.4 0.1 +0.1
Mickey Mahler↔ TOR 33 – 290.4 – –
Don Slaught 27 arb 950.4 0.3 -0.2
Kevin Brown 21 – 10.3 – –
Mike Stanley 23 – 150.2 – –
Ron Meridith 29 – 50.1 – –
Jeff Kunkel 24 – 80.0 – –
Jeff Russell 24 arb 370.0 0.1 -0.1
Dave Rozema 29 FA-elig 60.0 0.3 -0.3
Jerry Browne 20 – 120.0 – –
Bob Brower 26 – 21-0.1 – –
Toby Harrah 37 FA-elig 95-0.1 0.7 -0.7
Dwayne Henry 24 – 19-0.1 – –
Orlando Mercado 24 – 46-0.2 – –
Tom Paciorek 39 FA-elig 88-0.2 0.2 -0.3
Geno Petralli 26 arb 69-0.2 0.1 -0.1
Curtis Wilkerson 25 arb 110-0.3 0.2 -0.2
Bob Jones 36 – 13-0.3 – –
Mitch Williams 21 pre-arb 80-0.5 0.1 -0.2
George Wright↔ WSN 27 – 49-0.5 – –

Key additions (new vs 1985)

PlayerfWAR
Scott Fletcher4.1
Ed Correa3.4
Ruben Sierra1.6
Darrell Porter0.9
Dale Mohorcic0.9
Bobby Witt0.8

Key subtractions (gone from 1985)

Player1985 fWAR
Wayne Tolleson1.3
Dave Schmidt1.2
Dickie Noles1.0
Buddy Bell0.9
Burt Hooton0.7
Cliff Johnson0.6

Current & Historical Payroll

1986 payroll
$6.1M

What the front office was committed to as of 1986, 1986–1992. 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 (8)

PlayerAgeSvc1986198719881989199019911992
Gary Ward327.000$865kFREE AGENT
Toby Harrah3717.000$700kFREE AGENT
Charlie Hough3816.000$690k$820k$850k$900k$1.0MFREE AGENT
Larry Parrish3212.000$561k$615k$312kFREE AGENT
Dave Rozema299.000$350kFREE AGENT
Tom Paciorek3916.000$202k$235kFREE AGENT
Darrell Porter3415.000$162k$260kFREE AGENT
Bob Jones3612.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (9)

PlayerAgeSvc1986198719881989199019911992
Pete O'Brien284.000$338kARB 3FREE AGENT
Don Slaught274.000$332kARB 3FREE AGENT
Greg Harris305.000$310kFREE AGENT
Scott Fletcher275.000$282kFREE AGENT
Curtis Wilkerson253.000$165kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Russell243.000$80kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Geno Petralli264.000$80kARB 3FREE AGENT
Ricky Wright274.000$70kARB 3FREE AGENT
George Wright274.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (20)

PlayerAgeSvc1986198719881989199019911992
Pete Incaviglia220.000$210kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Oddibe McDowell231.000$135kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Buechele241.000$85kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jose Guzman231.000$75kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ed Correa201.000$62kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Loynd220.000$60kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dale Mohorcic300.000$60kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ruben Sierra200.000$60kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mitch Williams210.000$60kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bobby Witt220.000$60kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bob Brower260.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kevin Brown210.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jerry Browne200.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dwayne Henry242.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Kunkel242.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mickey Mahler33–—
Mike Mason27–—
Orlando Mercado24–—
Ron Meridith29–—
Mike Stanley230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Rangers 1986; 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.