RRosternomics
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Blue Jays TOR

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GM: JP Ricciardi

Overview

WINDOW → steady
cheap & winning · year 1 in this regime · payroll 0.64× league · TAB +4.4
+4.4TAB — talent above budget11th/30
+3.9WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)11th/30
6.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars23rd/30
-2.4dead WAR — sub-replacement drag2nd/30
28%dead money %10th/30
0.494win %17th/30
33.1roster fWAR16th/30
+16surplus $M (value vs cost)5th/30
$46Mpayroll $M24th/30

Roster

CFVernon Wells 155GReed Johnson 9GAlex Rios 5G
LFReed Johnson 118GFrank Catalanotto 111GGabe Gross 19G
RFAlex Rios 138GReed Johnson 35GGabe Gross 20G
SSRuss Adams 132GAaron Hill 16GFrank Menechino 1G
2BOrlando Hudson 130GFrank Menechino 26GAaron Hill 22G
3BCorey Koskie 76GShea Hillenbrand 54GAaron Hill 35G
1BEric Hinske 100GShea Hillenbrand 67G
STARTERSRoy Halladay 3.7WARJosh Towers 3.6WARGustavo Chacín 2.8WARDave Bush 1.2WARScott Downs 1.0WAR
CGregg Zaun 132GKen Huckaby 35GGuillermo Quiroz 10G
DHEric Hinske 42GAaron Hill 34GShea Hillenbrand 33G
BULLPEN★ Miguel Batista 31svScott Schoeneweis 21hJason Frasor 15hVinnie Chulk 13hJustin Speier 11hPete Walker 4hBrandon League 1hShaun Marcum 0h
CGregg Zaun 132 · Ken Huckaby 35 · Guillermo Quiroz 10
1BEric Hinske 100 · Shea Hillenbrand 67
2BOrlando Hudson 130 · Frank Menechino 26 · Aaron Hill 22
3BCorey Koskie 76 · Shea Hillenbrand 54 · Aaron Hill 35
SSRuss Adams 132 · Aaron Hill 16 · Frank Menechino 1
LFReed Johnson 118 · Frank Catalanotto 111 · Gabe Gross 19
CFVernon Wells 155 · Reed Johnson 9 · Alex Rios 5
RFAlex Rios 138 · Reed Johnson 35 · Gabe Gross 20
DHEric Hinske 42 · Aaron Hill 34 · Shea Hillenbrand 33
SPRoy Halladay 3.7 · Josh Towers 3.6 · Gustavo Chacín 2.8 · Dave Bush 1.2 · Scott Downs 1.0
BP★ Miguel Batista 31 · Scott Schoeneweis 21 · Jason Frasor 15 · Vinnie Chulk 13 · Justin Speier 11 · Pete Walker 4 · Brandon League 1 · Shaun Marcum 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.

2005 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Roy Halladay 28 FA-elig 193.7 10.5 -3.4
Josh Towers 28 arb 333.6 0.4 +6.4
Vernon Wells 26 FA-elig 1563.1 3.1 +2.8
Gustavo Chacin 24 pre-arb 342.8 0.3 +5.0
Orlando Hudson 27 arb 1312.5 0.4 +4.4
Shea Hillenbrand 29 arb 1522.1 3.9 +0.1
Gregg Zaun 34 FA-elig 1332.0 0.9 +2.8
Frank Catalanotto 31 FA-elig 1301.9 2.7 +0.9
Corey Koskie 32 FA-elig 971.7 3.5 -0.2
Aaron Hill 23 – 1051.4 – –
Reed Johnson 28 pre-arb 1421.4 0.3 +2.3
Dave Bush 25 pre-arb 251.2 0.3 +2.0
Eric Hinske 27 arb 1471.1 3.1 -1.0
Scott Downs 29 – 261.0 0.3 +1.6
Scott Schoeneweis 31 FA-elig 800.9 2.5 -0.9
Alex Rios 24 pre-arb 1460.9 0.3 +1.3
John McDonald↔ DET 30 FA-elig 370.8 0.2 +1.4
Russ Adams 24 pre-arb 1390.7 0.3 +1.0
Jason Frasor 27 pre-arb 670.6 0.3 +0.7
Miguel Batista 34 FA-elig 710.5 4.8 -3.8
Justin Speier 31 FA-elig 650.4 1.9 -1.1
Ted Lilly 29 FA-elig 250.4 3.1 -2.3
Frank Menechino 34 FA-elig 700.4 0.7 +0.1
John-Ford Griffin 25 – 70.1 – –
Shaun Marcum 23 – 50.1 – –
Pete Walker 36 FA-elig 410.1 0.4 -0.3
Vinnie Chulk 26 pre-arb 620.1 0.3 -0.2
Dustin McGowan 23 – 130.0 0.3 -0.2
Andy Dominique 29 – 2-0.0 – –
Gabe Gross 25 pre-arb 40-0.1 0.3 -0.5
Guillermo Quiroz 23 – 12-0.2 – –
Greg Myers 39 FA-elig 6-0.2 0.7 -1.1
Matt Whiteside 37 – 2-0.2 – –
Ken Huckaby 34 – 35-0.2 – –
Justin Miller 27 – 1-0.4 – –
Chad Gaudin 22 – 5-0.4 – –
Brandon League 22 pre-arb 20-0.7 0.3 -1.7

Key additions (new vs 2004)

PlayerfWAR
Shea Hillenbrand2.1
Corey Koskie1.7
Aaron Hill1.4
Scott Downs1.0
Scott Schoeneweis0.9
John McDonald0.8

Key subtractions (gone from 2004)

Player2004 fWAR
Carlos Delgado2.4
Kerry Ligtenberg0.5
Terry Adams0.4
Chris Gomez0.3
Jason Kershner0.1
Valerio De Los Santos0.1

Current & Historical Payroll

2005 payroll
$46.2M

What the front office was committed to as of 2005, 2005–2011. 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 (14)

PlayerAgeSvc2005200620072008200920102011
Roy Halladay287.000$10.5M$12.8M$12.8M$10.0M$14.2MFREE AGENT
Miguel Batista3413.000$4.8MFREE AGENT
Corey Koskie327.000$3.5MFREE AGENT
Ted Lilly296.000$3.1M$4.0MFREE AGENT
Vernon Wells266.000$3.1M$4.5M$8.8M$3.7M$4.7M$15.7MFREE AGENT
Frank Catalanotto318.000$2.7M$2.7MFREE AGENT
Scott Schoeneweis316.000$2.5M$2.1MFREE AGENT
Justin Speier317.000$1.9M$2.2MFREE AGENT
Gregg Zaun3410.000$950k$1.0M$3.5M$3.8MFREE AGENT
Greg Myers3918.000$700kFREE AGENT
Frank Menechino346.000$650kFREE AGENT
Pete Walker3610.000$400k$650kFREE AGENT
John McDonald306.000$218k$500k$750k$1.9M$1.9M$1.5M$1.2M
Matt Whiteside3713.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (7)

PlayerAgeSvc2005200620072008200920102011
Shea Hillenbrand294.000$3.9MARB 3FREE AGENT
Eric Hinske273.000$3.1MARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Orlando Hudson273.000$365kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Josh Towers284.000$358kARB 3FREE AGENT
Scott Downs295.000$316kFREE AGENT
Justin Miller273.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ken Huckaby344.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (16)

PlayerAgeSvc2005200620072008200920102011
Reed Johnson282.000$342kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jason Frasor271.000$332kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Alex Rios241.000$331kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Bush251.000$327kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Vinnie Chulk262.000$326kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dustin McGowan230.000$316kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Gustavo Chacin241.000$316kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brandon League221.000$316kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Russ Adams241.000$316kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Gabe Gross251.000$300kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Andy Dominique29–—
John-Ford Griffin25–—
Guillermo Quiroz231.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chad Gaudin222.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Aaron Hill230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Shaun Marcum230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Blue Jays 2005; 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.