RRosternomics
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Nationals WSN

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GM: Bill Stoneman

Overview

WINDOW ↗ rising
cheap & winning · year 4 in this regime · payroll 0.8× league · TAB +3.7
+3.7TAB — talent above budget10th/26
+1.9WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)12th/26
7.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars11th/26
-3.8dead WAR — sub-replacement drag10th/26
29%dead money %10th/26
0.500win %16th/26
35.2roster fWAR13th/26
+1surplus $M (value vs cost)9th/26
$9Mpayroll $M20th/26

Roster

CFDave Martinez 114GOtis Nixon 61GTracy Jones 9G
LFTim Raines Sr. 108GTracy Jones 29GOtis Nixon 25G
RFHubie Brooks 149GTracy Jones 38GDave Martinez 24G
SSLuis Rivera 116GTom Foley 32GRex Hudler 27G
2BTom Foley 89GRex Hudler 41GJohnny Paredes 28G
3BTim Wallach 153GGraig Nettles 12GTom Foley 9G
1BAndres Galarraga 156GWallace Johnson 13GGraig Nettles 5G
STARTERSBryn Smith 3.1WARDennis Martinez 2.6WARPascual Perez 2.5WARBrian Holman 1.7WARJohn Dopson 1.1WAR
CNelson Santovenia 86GMike Fitzgerald 47GDave Engle 9G
BULLPEN★ Tim Burke 18svAndy McGaffigan 0hJeff Parrett 0hJoe Hesketh 0hMike Smith 0hRandy Johnson 0hTim Barrett 0hRich Sauveur 0h
CNelson Santovenia 86 · Mike Fitzgerald 47 · Dave Engle 9
1BAndres Galarraga 156 · Wallace Johnson 13 · Graig Nettles 5
2BTom Foley 89 · Rex Hudler 41 · Johnny Paredes 28
3BTim Wallach 153 · Graig Nettles 12 · Tom Foley 9
SSLuis Rivera 116 · Tom Foley 32 · Rex Hudler 27
LFTim Raines Sr. 108 · Tracy Jones 29 · Otis Nixon 25
CFDave Martinez 114 · Otis Nixon 61 · Tracy Jones 9
RFHubie Brooks 149 · Tracy Jones 38 · Dave Martinez 24
SPBryn Smith 3.1 · Dennis Martinez 2.6 · Pascual Perez 2.5 · Brian Holman 1.7 · John Dopson 1.1
BP★ Tim Burke 18 · Andy McGaffigan 0 · Jeff Parrett 0 · Joe Hesketh 0 · Mike Smith 0 · Randy Johnson 0 · Tim Barrett 0 · Rich Sauveur 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.

1988 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Andres Galarraga 27 arb 1575.6 0.2 +1.5
Tim Raines Sr. 28 FA-elig 1093.3 1.7 -0.6
Hubie Brooks 31 FA-elig 1513.2 0.8 +0.2
Bryn Smith 32 FA-elig 323.1 0.5 +0.4
Tim Wallach 30 FA-elig 1593.1 0.8 +0.1
Dennis Martinez 34 FA-elig 342.6 0.7 +0.1
Pascual Perez 31 FA-elig 412.5 0.1 +0.7
Nelson Santovenia 26 pre-arb 921.9 0.1 +0.5
Brian Holman 23 – 201.7 – –
Tom Foley 28 arb 1271.7 0.2 +0.3
Otis Nixon 29 arb 901.6 0.1 +0.4
Joe Hesketh 29 arb 601.2 0.2 +0.2
John Dopson 24 arb 261.1 0.1 +0.3
Rex Hudler 27 arb 771.0 0.1 +0.3
Dave Martinez↔ CHC 23 pre-arb 630.9 0.1 +0.2
Mitch Webster↔ CHC 29 arb 810.8 0.3 -0.0
Andy McGaffigan 31 FA-elig 630.8 0.5 -0.3
Tracy Jones↔ CIN 27 pre-arb 530.7 0.1 +0.1
Wallace Johnson 31 FA-elig 860.6 0.1 +0.1
Mike Fitzgerald 27 arb 630.5 0.3 -0.2
Randy Johnson 24 – 40.4 – –
Jeff Huson 23 – 200.3 – –
Floyd Youmans 24 arb 140.2 0.2 -0.1
Luis Rivera 24 pre-arb 1230.2 0.1 -0.0
Tom O'Malley 27 – 140.1 – –
Dave Engle 31 FA-elig 340.0 0.1 -0.1
Mike Smith 27 – 5-0.0 – –
Casey Candaele↔ HOU 27 pre-arb 36-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Wilfredo Tejada 25 – 8-0.1 – –
Tim Barrett 27 – 4-0.1 – –
Rich Sauveur 24 – 4-0.1 – –
Johnny Paredes 25 – 35-0.2 – –
Jeff Reed↔ CIN 25 arb 43-0.2 0.0 -0.1
Herm Winningham↔ CIN 26 arb 47-0.2 0.1 -0.1
Randy St. Claire↔ CIN 27 arb 6-0.2 0.0 -0.1
Bob McClure↔ NYM 36 FA-elig 19-0.2 0.3 -0.4
Tim Burke 29 arb 61-0.3 0.6 -0.7
Jeff Parrett 26 pre-arb 61-0.5 0.1 -0.2
Graig Nettles 43 FA-elig 80-0.6 0.2 -0.4
Neal Heaton 28 FA-elig 32-1.0 0.6 -0.9

Key additions (new vs 1987)

PlayerfWAR
Brian Holman1.7
Otis Nixon1.6
John Dopson1.1
Rex Hudler1.0
Dave Martinez0.9
Tracy Jones0.7

Key subtractions (gone from 1987)

Player1987 fWAR
Bob Sebra3.4
Vance Law1.3
Reid Nichols0.8
Jay Tibbs0.6
Razor Shines0.0
Ubaldo Heredia-0.1

Current & Historical Payroll

1988 payroll
$9.4M

What the front office was committed to as of 1988, 1988–1994. 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 (13)

PlayerAgeSvc1988198919901991199219931994
Tim Raines Sr.289.000$1.7M$2.1M$2.1MFREE AGENT
Tim Wallach308.000$850k$950k$1.2MFREE AGENT$1.9M
Hubie Brooks318.000$850k$950kFREE AGENT
Dennis Martinez3412.000$735k$735k$1.4M$3.3M$3.3M$2.8MFREE AGENT
Neal Heaton286.000$625kFREE AGENT
Bryn Smith327.000$525k$550kFREE AGENT
Andy McGaffigan317.000$500k$632kFREE AGENT
Bob McClure3613.000$288kFREE AGENT
Graig Nettles4321.000$200kFREE AGENT
Dave Engle317.000$150kFREE AGENT
Wallace Johnson317.000$100k$177k$295kFREE AGENT
Pascual Perez318.000$70k$850kFREE AGENT
Tom O'Malley276.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (13)

PlayerAgeSvc1988198919901991199219931994
Tim Burke293.000$625kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Fitzgerald275.000$335kFREE AGENT
Mitch Webster295.000$295kFREE AGENT
Tom Foley285.000$250kFREE AGENT
Andres Galarraga273.000$240kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Joe Hesketh294.000$191kARB 3FREE AGENT
Floyd Youmans243.000$160kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Herm Winningham264.000$66kARB 3FREE AGENT
Rex Hudler274.000$65kARB 3FREE AGENT
John Dopson243.000$62kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Otis Nixon295.000$62kFREE AGENT
Jeff Reed254.000$42kARB 3FREE AGENT
Randy St. Claire274.000$38kARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (14)

PlayerAgeSvc1988198919901991199219931994
Tracy Jones272.000$93kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Parrett262.000$90kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Luis Rivera242.000$70kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Casey Candaele272.000$69kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Nelson Santovenia261.000$62kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Martinez232.000$62kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tim Barrett27–—
Brian Holman230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Huson230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Randy Johnson240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Johnny Paredes250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rich Sauveur24–—
Mike Smith27–—
Wilfredo Tejada25–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Nationals 1988; 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.