RRosternomics
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Nationals WSN

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GM: Murray Cook

Overview

WINDOW ↗ rising
cheap & winning · year 3 in this regime · payroll 0.69× league · TAB +5.0
+5.0TAB — talent above budget8th/26
+13.8WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)3rd/26
9.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars5th/26
-4.9dead WAR — sub-replacement drag21st/26
28%dead money %10th/26
0.562win %5th/26
34.8roster fWAR13th/26
+3surplus $M (value vs cost)5th/26
$8Mpayroll $M22nd/26

Roster

CFHerm Winningham 131GReid Nichols 50GCasey Candaele 45G
LFTim Raines Sr. 139GAlonzo Powell 10GDave Engle 9G
RFMitch Webster 153GCasey Candaele 16GReid Nichols 5G
SSHubie Brooks 109GTom Foley 49GCasey Candaele 25G
2BVance Law 106GCasey Candaele 68GTom Foley 39G
3BTim Wallach 150GVance Law 22GTom Foley 9G
1BAndres Galarraga 146GVance Law 18GWallace Johnson 9G
STARTERSBob Sebra 3.4WARNeal Heaton 2.6WARBryn Smith 2.5WARDennis Martinez 2.5WARPascual Perez 1.6WAR
CMike Fitzgerald 104GJeff Reed 74GJohn Stefero 17G
BULLPEN★ Tim Burke 18svAndy McGaffigan 0hBob McClure 0hJeff Parrett 0hRandy St. Claire 0hJoe Hesketh 0hBill Campbell 0hCurt Brown 0h
CMike Fitzgerald 104 · Jeff Reed 74 · John Stefero 17
1BAndres Galarraga 146 · Vance Law 18 · Wallace Johnson 9
2BVance Law 106 · Casey Candaele 68 · Tom Foley 39
3BTim Wallach 150 · Vance Law 22 · Tom Foley 9
SSHubie Brooks 109 · Tom Foley 49 · Casey Candaele 25
LFTim Raines Sr. 139 · Alonzo Powell 10 · Dave Engle 9
CFHerm Winningham 131 · Reid Nichols 50 · Casey Candaele 45
RFMitch Webster 153 · Casey Candaele 16 · Reid Nichols 5
SPBob Sebra 3.4 · Neal Heaton 2.6 · Bryn Smith 2.5 · Dennis Martinez 2.5 · Pascual Perez 1.6
BP★ Tim Burke 18 · Andy McGaffigan 0 · Bob McClure 0 · Jeff Parrett 0 · Randy St. Claire 0 · Joe Hesketh 0 · Bill Campbell 0 · Curt Brown 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.

1987 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Tim Raines Sr. 27 FA-elig 1396.7 1.7 +0.3
Tim Wallach 29 FA-elig 1534.1 0.8 +0.4
Bob Sebra 25 pre-arb 363.4 0.1 +0.9
Mitch Webster 28 arb 1563.0 0.2 +0.7
Neal Heaton 27 arb 322.6 0.4 +0.4
Dennis Martinez 33 FA-elig 222.5 0.2 +0.6
Bryn Smith 31 FA-elig 262.5 0.5 +0.3
Andres Galarraga 26 pre-arb 1472.4 0.1 +0.6
Tim Burke 28 pre-arb 552.1 0.2 +0.4
Andy McGaffigan 30 FA-elig 691.9 0.3 +0.2
Floyd Youmans 23 pre-arb 231.6 0.1 +0.4
Pascual Perez 30 FA-elig 121.6 0.1 +0.4
Vance Law 30 FA-elig 1331.3 0.5 -0.2
Casey Candaele 26 pre-arb 1380.8 0.1 +0.2
Reid Nichols 28 FA-elig 770.8 0.1 +0.2
Tom Foley 27 arb 1060.7 0.2 -0.0
Jay Tibbs 25 – 190.6 – –
Hubie Brooks 30 FA-elig 1120.4 0.8 -0.7
Joe Hesketh 28 arb 180.2 0.1 -0.1
Dave Engle 30 FA-elig 590.2 0.1 -0.1
Randy St. Claire 26 – 440.1 – –
Razor Shines 30 – 60.0 – –
Jeff Parrett 25 pre-arb 45-0.0 0.1 -0.1
Nelson Santovenia 25 – 2-0.0 – –
Ubaldo Heredia 31 – 2-0.1 – –
Tom Romano 28 – 7-0.1 – –
Wallace Johnson 30 FA-elig 75-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Bill Campbell 38 – 7-0.1 – –
Jeff Fischer 23 – 4-0.1 – –
Charlie Lea 30 – 1-0.1 – –
Curt Brown 27 – 5-0.1 – –
Jack Daugherty 26 – 11-0.2 – –
Lary Sorensen 31 – 23-0.2 – –
Nelson Norman 29 – 1-0.2 – –
Herm Winningham 25 arb 137-0.3 0.1 -0.2
Luis Rivera 23 – 18-0.3 – –
Bob McClure 35 FA-elig 52-0.4 0.6 -0.7
Alonzo Powell 22 – 14-0.4 – –
John Stefero 27 – 18-0.5 – –
Mike Fitzgerald 26 arb 107-0.8 0.2 -0.5
Jeff Reed 24 arb 75-1.0 0.1 -0.4

Key additions (new vs 1986)

PlayerfWAR
Neal Heaton2.6
Pascual Perez1.6
Reid Nichols0.8
Dave Engle0.2
Razor Shines0.0
Nelson Santovenia-0.0

Key subtractions (gone from 1986)

Player1986 fWAR
Andre Dawson2.4
Dan Schatzeder0.8
Sergio Valdez0.3
Bob Owchinko0.3
Bert Roberge0.1
Jeff Reardon0.0

Current & Historical Payroll

1987 payroll
$7.5M

What the front office was committed to as of 1987, 1987–1993. 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 (15)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Tim Raines Sr.278.000$1.7M$1.7M$2.1M$2.1MFREE AGENT
Tim Wallach297.000$765k$850k$950k$1.2MFREE AGENT$1.9M
Hubie Brooks307.000$765k$850k$950kFREE AGENT
Bob McClure3512.000$550k$288kFREE AGENT
Vance Law307.000$525kFREE AGENT
Bryn Smith316.000$467k$525k$550kFREE AGENT
Andy McGaffigan306.000$292k$500k$632kFREE AGENT
Dennis Martinez3311.000$162k$735k$735k$1.4M$3.3M$3.3M$2.8M
Dave Engle306.000$145k$150kFREE AGENT
Pascual Perez307.000$75k$70k$850kFREE AGENT
Reid Nichols287.000$62kFREE AGENT
Wallace Johnson306.000$62k$100k$177k$295kFREE AGENT
Bill Campbell3814.000—FREE AGENT
Charlie Lea307.000—FREE AGENT
Lary Sorensen3110.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (10)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Neal Heaton275.000$400kFREE AGENT
Tom Foley274.000$250kARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Fitzgerald264.000$210kARB 3FREE AGENT
Mitch Webster284.000$210kARB 3FREE AGENT
Joe Hesketh283.000$150kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Herm Winningham253.000$82kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Reed243.000$72kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Randy St. Claire263.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Stefero274.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jay Tibbs253.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (16)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Tim Burke282.000$210kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Floyd Youmans232.000$92kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Andres Galarraga262.000$90kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Casey Candaele261.000$62kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Parrett251.000$62kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bob Sebra252.000$62kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Curt Brown27–—
Jack Daugherty260.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Fischer23–—
Ubaldo Heredia31–—
Nelson Norman29–—
Alonzo Powell22–—
Luis Rivera231.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tom Romano28–—
Nelson Santovenia250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Razor Shines30–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Nationals 1987; 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.