Rosternomics
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Rangers TEX

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GM: Douglas Melvin (since 1995)

1998 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+1.9
WAB — wins above budget
+7.4
TAB — roster Talent above budget
88–74 (0.543)
record · made playoffs
-7M
surplus $M (value/$)
45.5
roster fWAR
$57.2M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Ivan Rodriguez 26 FA-elig 145 6.4 6.7 +0.2
Juan Gonzalez 28 FA-elig 154 4.9 7.8 -2.5
Aaron Sele 28 arb 33 4.7 2.9 +2.3
John Burkett 33 FA-elig 32 4.0 4.0 +0.4
Rick Helling 27 arb 33 3.5 0.2 +3.5
Rusty Greer 29 arb 155 3.2 1.0 +2.5
Will Clark 34 FA-elig 149 2.8 5.8 -2.8
John Wetteland 31 FA-elig 63 2.0 5.8 -3.6
Tom Goodwin 29 FA-elig 154 1.7 2.4 -0.6
Mark McLemore 33 FA-elig 126 1.6 2.3 -0.5
Mike Simms 31 FA-elig 86 1.6 0.3 +1.4
Luis Alicea 32 FA-elig 101 1.5 0.8 +0.9
Roberto Kelly 33 FA-elig 75 1.5 1.6 +0.0
Todd Stottlemyre↔ STL 33 FA-elig 10 1.3 1.5 -0.1
Tim Crabtree 28 arb 64 1.2 0.3 +1.0
Darren Oliver↔ STL 27 arb 19 1.0 1.9 -0.8
Royce Clayton↔ STL 28 FA-elig 52 0.8 1.3 -0.4
Todd Zeile↔ LAD 32 FA-elig 52 0.8 1.1 -0.2
Lee Stevens 30 FA-elig 120 0.7 1.2 -0.5
Esteban Loaiza↔ PIT 26 arb 14 0.6 0.2 +0.5
Bill Haselman 32 FA-elig 40 0.4 0.6 -0.2
Xavier Hernandez 32 FA-elig 46 0.3 1.0 -0.6
Scott Bailes 36 FA-elig 46 0.3 0.2 +0.1
Milt Cuyler 29 – 7 0.2 – –
Kevin Elster 33 FA-elig 84 0.2 1.5 -1.3
Tony Fossas↔ CHC 40 FA-elig 10 0.1 0.2 -0.0
Al Levine 30 pre-arb 30 0.1 0.2 -0.0
Chris Tremie 28 – 2 0.0 – –
Jonathan Johnson 23 – 1 0.0 – –
Domingo Cedeno 29 arb 61 0.0 0.5 -0.5
Greg Cadaret↔ ANA 36 FA-elig 11 0.0 0.1 -0.1
Julio Santana↔ TBR 24 pre-arb 3 -0.0 0.0 -0.0
Rob Sasser 23 – 1 -0.0 – –
Roger Pavlik 30 FA-elig 5 -0.0 1.6 -1.6
Fernando Tatis↔ STL 23 pre-arb 95 -0.1 0.1 -0.2
Bobby Witt↔ STL 34 FA-elig 15 -0.3 1.5 -1.8
Eric Gunderson 32 FA-elig 68 -0.3 0.5 -0.8
Todd Van Poppel↔ PIT 26 FA-elig 4 -0.3 0.1 -0.4
Scott Sheldon 29 – 7 -0.3 – –
Matt Perisho 23 – 2 -0.3 – –
Warren Newson 33 – 10 -0.3 – –
Danny Patterson 27 pre-arb 56 -0.4 0.2 -0.6

42 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 35 of them (83%). 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.