RRosternomics
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Rangers TEX

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GM: Douglas Melvin

Overview

CONTEND ↗ rising
expensive & winning · year 2 in this regime · payroll 1.6× league · TAB +4.6
+4.6TAB — talent above budget10th/30
+7.0WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)10th/30
9.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars5th/30
-1.4dead WAR — sub-replacement drag1st/30
19%dead money %4th/30
0.586win %8th/30
44.7roster fWAR8th/30
-22surplus $M (value vs cost)24th/30
$78Mpayroll $M2nd/30

1999: made playoffs · 95–67. Ranks are vs the 30 teams that season.

Roster

CFTom Goodwin 107GRoberto Kelly 37GRuben Mateo 31G
LFRusty Greer 145GRoberto Kelly 18GMark McLemore 4G
RFJuan Gonzalez 131GRoberto Kelly 37GMark McLemore 7G
SSRoyce Clayton 133GJon Shave 24GKelly Dransfeldt 16G
2BMark McLemore 135GLuis Alicea 37GJon Shave 1G
3BTodd Zeile 155GLuis Alicea 10GJon Shave 6G
1BLee Stevens 133GRafael Palmeiro 28GJon Shave 9G
STARTERSAaron Sele 4.8WAREsteban Loaiza 2.5WARJohn Burkett 2.3WARRick Helling 1.2WARMike Morgan 0.5WAR
CIvan Rodriguez 141GGregg Zaun 37G
DHRafael Palmeiro 128GJuan Gonzalez 14GLee Stevens 8G
BULLPEN★ John Wetteland 43svJeff Zimmerman 24hMike Venafro 19hTim Crabtree 15hMike Munoz 9hDanny Patterson 4hEric Gunderson 1hDan Kolb 0h
CIvan Rodriguez 141 · Gregg Zaun 37
1BLee Stevens 133 · Rafael Palmeiro 28 · Jon Shave 9
2BMark McLemore 135 · Luis Alicea 37 · Jon Shave 1
3BTodd Zeile 155 · Luis Alicea 10 · Jon Shave 6
SSRoyce Clayton 133 · Jon Shave 24 · Kelly Dransfeldt 16
LFRusty Greer 145 · Roberto Kelly 18 · Mark McLemore 4
CFTom Goodwin 107 · Roberto Kelly 37 · Ruben Mateo 31
RFJuan Gonzalez 131 · Roberto Kelly 37 · Mark McLemore 7
DHRafael Palmeiro 128 · Juan Gonzalez 14 · Lee Stevens 8
SPAaron Sele 4.8 · Esteban Loaiza 2.5 · John Burkett 2.3 · Rick Helling 1.2 · Mike Morgan 0.5
BP★ John Wetteland 43 · Jeff Zimmerman 24 · Mike Venafro 19 · Tim Crabtree 15 · Mike Munoz 9 · Danny Patterson 4 · Eric Gunderson 1 · Dan Kolb 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.

1999 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Ivan Rodriguez 27 FA-elig 1446.8 8.9 -0.4
Rafael Palmeiro 34 FA-elig 1585.4 8.8 -2.0
Aaron Sele 29 FA-elig 334.8 5.5 +0.6
Juan Gonzalez 29 FA-elig 1443.6 8.5 -3.9
Royce Clayton 29 FA-elig 1332.8 4.5 -1.0
Esteban Loaiza 27 arb 302.5 1.5 +1.6
Todd Zeile 33 FA-elig 1562.5 3.2 -0.1
Rusty Greer 30 arb 1472.4 3.3 -0.3
John Burkett 34 FA-elig 302.3 4.0 -1.1
Mark McLemore 34 FA-elig 1441.6 2.4 -0.4
Jeff Zimmerman 26 pre-arb 651.6 0.2 +1.8
Tim Crabtree 29 arb 681.4 0.7 +1.2
Lee Stevens 31 FA-elig 1461.3 2.1 -0.5
John Wetteland 32 FA-elig 621.2 6.3 -4.8
Rick Helling 28 arb 351.2 2.2 -0.7
Mike Venafro 25 pre-arb 650.9 0.2 +1.0
Danny Patterson 28 arb 530.6 0.3 +0.5
Matt Perisho 24 – 40.6 – –
Mike Morgan 39 FA-elig 340.5 0.9 -0.3
Mike Munoz 33 FA-elig 560.4 0.5 +0.1
Gregg Zaun 28 arb 430.4 0.5 +0.0
Jeff Fassero↔ SEA 36 FA-elig 70.3 0.9 -0.6
Jon Shave 31 FA-elig 430.2 0.2 +0.1
Ruben Mateo 21 pre-arb 320.2 0.2 +0.0
Dan Kolb 24 pre-arb 160.1 0.2 -0.0
Eric Gunderson 33 FA-elig 110.1 0.5 -0.3
Scott Sheldon 30 – 20.1 – –
Ryan Glynn 24 – 130.1 – –
Jonathan Johnson 24 – 10.0 – –
Scarborough Green 25 pre-arb 180.0 0.2 -0.2
Mike Simms 32 FA-elig 40.0 0.6 -0.6
Luis Alicea 33 FA-elig 68-0.1 0.8 -0.9
Mark Clark 31 FA-elig 15-0.1 4.0 -4.1
Doug Davis 23 – 2-0.2 – –
Roberto Kelly 34 FA-elig 87-0.2 2.2 -2.5
Corey Lee 24 – 1-0.2 – –
Tom Goodwin 30 FA-elig 109-0.2 3.2 -3.5
Kelly Dransfeldt 24 – 16-0.4 – –

Key additions (new vs 1998)

PlayerfWAR
Rafael Palmeiro5.4
Jeff Zimmerman1.6
Mike Venafro0.9
Mike Morgan0.5
Mike Munoz0.4
Gregg Zaun0.4

Key subtractions (gone from 1998)

Player1998 fWAR
Will Clark2.8
Todd Stottlemyre1.3
Darren Oliver1.0
Bill Haselman0.4
Xavier Hernandez0.3
Scott Bailes0.3

Current & Historical Payroll

1999 payroll
$77.7M

What the front office was committed to as of 1999, 1999–2005. 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 (20)

PlayerAgeSvc1999200020012002200320042005
Ivan Rodriguez278.000$8.9M$8.6M$8.2M$9.6MFREE AGENT
Rafael Palmeiro3413.000$8.8M$8.6M$9.0M$8.7M$9.0MFREE AGENT
Juan Gonzalez2910.000$8.5MFREE AGENT$11.0M$13.0M
John Wetteland3210.000$6.3M$6.5MFREE AGENT
Aaron Sele296.000$5.5MFREE AGENT
Royce Clayton298.000$4.5M$4.5MFREE AGENT
John Burkett3412.000$4.0MFREE AGENT
Mark Clark318.000$4.0M$5.0MFREE AGENT
Tom Goodwin308.000$3.2MFREE AGENT
Todd Zeile3310.000$3.2MFREE AGENT
Mark McLemore3413.000$2.4MFREE AGENT
Roberto Kelly3412.000$2.2MFREE AGENT
Lee Stevens319.000$2.1MFREE AGENT
Jeff Fassero368.000$949kFREE AGENT
Mike Morgan3921.000$900kFREE AGENT
Luis Alicea3311.000$825k$750kFREE AGENT
Mike Simms329.000$625kFREE AGENT
Mike Munoz3310.000$450k$750kFREE AGENT
Eric Gunderson339.000$450kFREE AGENT
Jon Shave316.000$200kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (6)

PlayerAgeSvc1999200020012002200320042005
Rusty Greer305.000$3.3MFREE AGENT
Rick Helling285.000$2.2MFREE AGENT
Esteban Loaiza274.000$1.5MARB 3FREE AGENT
Tim Crabtree294.000$670kARB 3FREE AGENT
Gregg Zaun284.000$450kARB 3FREE AGENT
Danny Patterson283.000$290kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (12)

PlayerAgeSvc1999200020012002200320042005
Scarborough Green252.000$200kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dan Kolb240.000$200kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ruben Mateo210.000$200kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Venafro250.000$200kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Zimmerman260.000$200kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Matt Perisho242.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Scott Sheldon302.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Doug Davis230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kelly Dransfeldt24–—
Ryan Glynn240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jonathan Johnson241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Corey Lee24–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Rangers 1999; 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.