Rosternomics
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Rangers TEX

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GM: Douglas Melvin (since 1995)

1997 roster — every player, value & surplus

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-8.2
WAB — wins above budget
-4.9
TAB — roster Talent above budget
77–85 (0.475)
record
-16M
surplus $M (value/$)
32.4
roster fWAR
$50.3M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Ivan Rodriguez 25 FA-elig 150 6.2 6.8 -0.5
John Burkett 32 FA-elig 30 4.6 3.5 +1.1
Rusty Greer 28 arb 157 4.2 0.4 +4.0
Will Clark 33 FA-elig 110 3.2 5.7 -2.4
Juan Gonzalez 27 FA-elig 133 2.2 7.5 -5.2
Danny Patterson 26 pre-arb 54 2.2 0.1 +2.1
Bobby Witt 33 FA-elig 35 1.7 2.0 -0.2
John Wetteland 30 FA-elig 61 1.7 4.6 -2.8
Ken Hill↔ ANA 31 FA-elig 19 1.2 3.0 -1.7
Lee Stevens 29 FA-elig 137 1.2 0.3 +0.9
Darren Oliver 26 arb 32 1.1 1.1 +0.1
Rick Helling↔ MIA 26 arb 10 1.0 0.0 +1.0
Matt Whiteside 29 arb 42 0.8 0.4 +0.5
Dean Palmer↔ KCR 28 FA-elig 94 0.8 3.2 -2.3
Jim Leyritz↔ ANA 33 FA-elig 37 0.6 0.6 +0.0
Benji Gil 24 arb 110 0.4 0.2 +0.3
Fernando Tatis 22 pre-arb 60 0.4 0.1 +0.3
Roger Pavlik 29 arb 11 0.4 2.9 -2.4
Damon Buford 27 arb 122 0.4 0.2 +0.2
Warren Newson 32 FA-elig 81 0.4 0.4 +0.0
Ed Vosberg↔ MIA 35 FA-elig 42 0.4 0.3 +0.1
Eric Gunderson 31 FA-elig 60 0.4 0.2 +0.2
Terry Clark↔ CLE 36 FA-elig 9 0.3 0.1 +0.2
Domingo Cedeno 28 arb 113 0.2 0.3 -0.0
Julio Santana 24 pre-arb 30 0.2 0.1 +0.0
Mark McLemore 32 FA-elig 89 0.1 1.8 -1.7
Kevin Brown 24 – 4 0.1 – –
Scott Bailes 35 FA-elig 24 0.1 0.1 -0.0
Billy Ripken 32 FA-elig 71 0.1 0.3 -0.2
Eric Moody 26 – 10 0.1 – –
Bryan Eversgerd 28 arb 3 -0.1 0.1 -0.2
Xavier Hernandez 31 FA-elig 44 -0.1 0.6 -0.7
Tanyon Sturtze 26 – 9 -0.2 – –
Dave Silvestri 29 arb 2 -0.2 0.2 -0.4
Jose Alberro 28 – 10 -0.2 – –
Henry Mercedes 27 arb 23 -0.2 0.2 -0.4
Wilson Heredia 25 pre-arb 10 -0.2 0.1 -0.4
Mike Devereaux 34 FA-elig 29 -0.3 0.2 -0.6
Mike Simms 30 FA-elig 59 -0.4 0.2 -0.6
Hanley Frias 23 – 14 -0.5 – –
Alex Diaz 28 arb 28 -0.5 0.2 -0.8
Tom Goodwin↔ KCR 28 FA-elig 53 -0.5 0.4 -0.9
Mickey Tettleton 36 FA-elig 17 -0.5 1.8 -2.3
Marc Sagmoen 26 – 21 -0.6 – –

44 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 38 of them (86%). 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 TEX
Rafael Palmeiro198842.3
Elvis Andrus200729.8
Michael Young200025.0
Charlie Hough198011.2
John Burkett199411.0
Nathaniel Lowe202010.8
Scott Fletcher198510.3
Aaron Sele19979.6
Ones that got away
PlayerYear tradedWAR elsewhere
Kyle Hendricks201224.4
Travis Hafner200222.3
Rich Aurilia199419.8
John Danks200617.4
Ian Kinsler201316.3
Tom Henke198516.2
Ron Darling198214.0
Odúbel Herrera201413.2
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.