RRosternomics
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Braves ATL

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GM: John Mullen

Overview

FORCED-SPEND → steady
expensive & losing · year 1 in this regime · payroll 1.43× league · TAB -23.8
-23.8TAB — talent above budget26th/26
-20.6WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)25th/26
3.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars23rd/26
-5.6dead WAR — sub-replacement drag19th/26
50%dead money %25th/26
0.407win %22nd/26
14.9roster fWAR25th/26
-11surplus $M (value vs cost)26th/26
$14Mpayroll $M1st/26

Roster

CFDale Murphy 161GAlbert Hall 6GMilt Thompson 5G
LFTerry Harper 129GBrad Komminsk 28GMilt Thompson 23G
RFClaudell Washington 99GBrad Komminsk 63GMilt Thompson 27G
SSRafael Ramirez 133GPaul Zuvella 33GAndres Thomas 11G
2BGlenn Hubbard 140GPaul Zuvella 42GKen Oberkfell 16G
3BKen Oberkfell 117GBob Horner 40GPaul Runge 28G
1BBob Horner 87GGerald Perry 55GChris Chambliss 39G
STARTERSRick Mahler 2.7WARZane Smith 1.8WARSteve Bedrosian 1.2WARJoe Johnson 0.5WARPascual Perez 0.2WAR
CRick Cerone 90GBruce Benedict 70GLarry Owen 25G
BULLPEN★ Bruce Sutter 23svRick Camp 0hJeff Dedmon 0hGene Garber 0hTerry Forster 0hDave Schuler 0h
CRick Cerone 90 · Bruce Benedict 70 · Larry Owen 25
1BBob Horner 87 · Gerald Perry 55 · Chris Chambliss 39
2BGlenn Hubbard 140 · Paul Zuvella 42 · Ken Oberkfell 16
3BKen Oberkfell 117 · Bob Horner 40 · Paul Runge 28
SSRafael Ramirez 133 · Paul Zuvella 33 · Andres Thomas 11
LFTerry Harper 129 · Brad Komminsk 28 · Milt Thompson 23
CFDale Murphy 161 · Albert Hall 6 · Milt Thompson 5
RFClaudell Washington 99 · Brad Komminsk 63 · Milt Thompson 27
SPRick Mahler 2.7 · Zane Smith 1.8 · Steve Bedrosian 1.2 · Joe Johnson 0.5 · Pascual Perez 0.2
BP★ Bruce Sutter 23 · Rick Camp 0 · Jeff Dedmon 0 · Gene Garber 0 · Terry Forster 0 · Dave Schuler 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.

1985 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Dale Murphy 29 FA-elig 1624.6 1.6 -0.4
Rick Mahler 31 FA-elig 392.7 0.4 +0.3
Glenn Hubbard 27 FA-elig 1422.3 0.5 +0.2
Ken Oberkfell 29 FA-elig 1341.9 0.6 -0.1
Zane Smith 24 – 431.8 – –
Bob Horner 27 FA-elig 1301.8 1.5 -1.0
Steve Bedrosian 27 arb 371.2 0.6 -0.2
Gene Garber 37 FA-elig 590.8 0.8 -0.6
Terry Harper 29 arb 1380.7 0.2 -0.1
Milt Thompson 26 – 730.6 – –
Claudell Washington 30 FA-elig 1220.6 0.8 -0.6
Joe Johnson 23 – 150.5 – –
Brad Komminsk 24 – 1060.4 – –
Pascual Perez 28 arb 220.2 0.5 -0.4
Chris Chambliss 36 FA-elig 1010.0 0.8 -0.8
John Rabb 25 – 3-0.0 – –
Paul Runge 27 – 50-0.1 – –
Len Barker 29 FA-elig 20-0.1 0.9 -0.9
Rick Camp 32 FA-elig 66-0.1 0.6 -0.7
Larry Owen 30 – 26-0.1 – –
Andres Thomas 21 – 15-0.1 – –
Dave Schuler 31 – 9-0.2 – –
Rick Cerone 31 FA-elig 96-0.2 0.6 -0.7
Jeff Dedmon 25 pre-arb 60-0.3 0.1 -0.2
Craig McMurtry 25 pre-arb 17-0.3 0.3 -0.4
Bruce Benedict 29 FA-elig 70-0.3 0.5 -0.6
Terry Forster 33 FA-elig 46-0.4 0.5 -0.6
Albert Hall 27 – 54-0.4 – –
Paul Zuvella 26 – 81-0.4 – –
Steve Shields 26 – 23-0.4 – –
Rafael Ramirez 27 arb 138-0.5 0.8 -0.9
Bruce Sutter 32 FA-elig 58-0.7 1.4 -1.5
Gerald Perry 24 pre-arb 110-0.9 0.1 -0.3

Key additions (new vs 1984)

PlayerfWAR
Dale Murphy4.6
Rick Mahler2.7
Glenn Hubbard2.3
Ken Oberkfell1.9
Zane Smith1.8
Bob Horner1.8

Key subtractions (gone from 1984)

Player1984 fWAR
—

Current & Historical Payroll

1985 payroll
$14.0M

What the front office was committed to as of 1985, 1985–1991. 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)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
Dale Murphy299.000$1.6M$1.8M$1.9M$2.0M$2.0M$1.3MFREE AGENT
Bob Horner277.000$1.5M$1.8MFREE AGENT
Bruce Sutter329.000$1.4M$1.7MFREE AGENT$1.7M
Len Barker299.000$870kFREE AGENT
Chris Chambliss3614.000$800k$769kFREE AGENT
Claudell Washington3011.000$800k$431kFREE AGENT
Gene Garber3716.000$772k$787k$622kFREE AGENT
Rick Camp329.000$633kFREE AGENT
Rick Cerone3110.000$625kFREE AGENT
Ken Oberkfell298.000$617k$825k$725k$621kFREE AGENT
Bruce Benedict297.000$545k$565k$615k$665k$395kFREE AGENT
Terry Forster3314.000$483kFREE AGENT
Glenn Hubbard277.000$455k$505k$555kFREE AGENT
Rick Mahler316.000$408k$688k$695k$738kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (9)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
Rafael Ramirez275.000$750kFREE AGENT
Steve Bedrosian274.000$550kARB 3FREE AGENT
Pascual Perez285.000$450kFREE AGENT
Terry Harper295.000$250kFREE AGENT
Albert Hall274.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Larry Owen304.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Rabb253.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Paul Runge274.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Paul Zuvella263.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (10)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
Craig McMurtry252.000$275kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Dedmon252.000$150kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Gerald Perry242.000$120kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Joe Johnson230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brad Komminsk242.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Schuler31–—
Steve Shields260.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Zane Smith241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Andres Thomas210.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Milt Thompson261.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Braves 1985; 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.