RRosternomics
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White Sox CHW

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GM: Roland Hemond

Overview

REBUILD → steady
cheap & losing · year 1 in this regime · payroll 0.98× league · TAB -7.0
-7.0TAB — talent above budget18th/26
+3.3WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)10th/26
6.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars19th/26
-3.8dead WAR — sub-replacement drag9th/26
34%dead money %22nd/26
0.525win %9th/26
27.0roster fWAR19th/26
-3surplus $M (value vs cost)21st/26
$10Mpayroll $M17th/26

Roster

CFDaryl Boston 90GLuis Salazar 68GReid Nichols 34G
LFRudy Law 104GRon Kittle 57GReid Nichols 27G
RFHarold Baines 159GReid Nichols 9GDaryl Boston 4G
SSOzzie Guillen 150GScott Fletcher 44GBryan Little 1G
2BJulio Cruz 87GBryan Little 68GScott Fletcher 38G
3BTim Hulett Sr. 115GScott Fletcher 54GLuis Salazar 39G
1BGreg Walker 151GJoseph DeSa 9GLuis Salazar 6G
STARTERSTom Seaver 3.9WARBritt Burns 3.8WARFloyd Bannister 2.5WARJoel Davis 1.0WARRichard Dotson 0.8WAR
CCarlton Fisk 130GMarc Hill 37GJoel Skinner 21G
DHRon Kittle 51GOscar Gamble 43GCarlton Fisk 28G
BULLPEN★ Bob James 32svJuan Agosto 0hDan Spillner 0hMike Stanton 0hJerry Don Gleaton 0hDave Wehrmeister 0hBob Fallon 0hBruce Tanner 0h
CCarlton Fisk 130 · Marc Hill 37 · Joel Skinner 21
1BGreg Walker 151 · Joseph DeSa 9 · Luis Salazar 6
2BJulio Cruz 87 · Bryan Little 68 · Scott Fletcher 38
3BTim Hulett Sr. 115 · Scott Fletcher 54 · Luis Salazar 39
SSOzzie Guillen 150 · Scott Fletcher 44 · Bryan Little 1
LFRudy Law 104 · Ron Kittle 57 · Reid Nichols 27
CFDaryl Boston 90 · Luis Salazar 68 · Reid Nichols 34
RFHarold Baines 159 · Reid Nichols 9 · Daryl Boston 4
DHRon Kittle 51 · Oscar Gamble 43 · Carlton Fisk 28
SPTom Seaver 3.9 · Britt Burns 3.8 · Floyd Bannister 2.5 · Joel Davis 1.0 · Richard Dotson 0.8
BP★ Bob James 32 · Juan Agosto 0 · Dan Spillner 0 · Mike Stanton 0 · Jerry Don Gleaton 0 · Dave Wehrmeister 0 · Bob Fallon 0 · Bruce Tanner 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
Tom Seaver 40 FA-elig 353.9 1.1 -0.1
Britt Burns 26 FA-elig 363.8 0.7 +0.3
Bob James 26 FA-elig 693.6 0.3 +0.7
Carlton Fisk 37 FA-elig 1533.4 0.7 +0.2
Harold Baines 26 arb 1602.5 0.7 -0.0
Floyd Bannister 30 FA-elig 342.5 0.8 -0.2
Ozzie Guillen 21 pre-arb 1501.6 0.1 +0.4
Joel Davis 20 – 121.0 – –
Greg Walker 25 arb 1631.0 0.2 +0.1
Bryan Little 25 – 730.9 – –
Scott Fletcher 26 arb 1190.8 0.2 +0.1
Rudy Law 28 FA-elig 1250.8 0.6 -0.4
Richard Dotson 26 FA-elig 90.8 0.9 -0.7
Tim Hulett Sr. 25 – 1410.7 – –
Juan Agosto 27 arb 540.7 0.1 +0.0
Joel Skinner 24 – 220.6 – –
Dave Wehrmeister 32 – 230.5 – –
Reid Nichols↔ BOS 26 arb 510.2 0.2 -0.1
Jerry Don Gleaton 27 – 310.2 – –
Dan Spillner 33 FA-elig 530.2 0.4 -0.3
Bruce Tanner 23 – 100.2 – –
Tim Lollar↔ BOS 29 arb 180.2 0.2 -0.2
Jerry Hairston Sr. 33 FA-elig 950.2 0.1 -0.1
Ron Kittle 27 arb 1160.1 0.3 -0.3
Steve Fireovid 28 – 40.1 – –
Al Jones 26 – 50.1 – –
Gene Nelson 24 arb 470.0 0.1 -0.1
Mike Squires 33 – 20.0 – –
Julio Cruz 30 FA-elig 91-0.0 1.2 -1.2
Joseph DeSa 25 – 28-0.0 – –
Mike Stanton↔ SEA 32 – 11-0.1 – –
Ed Correa 19 – 5-0.1 – –
Bill Long 25 – 4-0.1 – –
Mark Gilbert 28 – 7-0.1 – –
John Cangelosi 22 – 5-0.1 – –
Daryl Boston 22 – 95-0.2 – –
Oscar Gamble 35 – 70-0.2 – –
Mark Ryal 25 – 12-0.3 – –
Bob Fallon 25 – 10-0.4 – –
Marc Hill 33 FA-elig 40-0.6 0.2 -0.4
Tom Paciorek↔ NYM 38 FA-elig 46-0.7 0.2 -0.3
Luis Salazar 29 arb 122-0.9 0.3 -0.5

Key additions (new vs 1984)

PlayerfWAR
Tom Seaver3.9
Britt Burns3.8
Bob James3.6
Carlton Fisk3.4
Harold Baines2.5
Floyd Bannister2.5

Key subtractions (gone from 1984)

Player1984 fWAR
—

Current & Historical Payroll

1985 payroll
$9.6M

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 (13)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
Julio Cruz308.000$1.2M$600kFREE AGENT
Tom Seaver4018.000$1.1M$647kFREE AGENT
Richard Dotson266.000$900k$975k$1.1MFREE AGENT$41k
Floyd Bannister308.000$811k$930k$930kFREE AGENT
Britt Burns267.000$728kFREE AGENT
Carlton Fisk3716.000$685k$875k$900k$700k$1.2M$1.8M$1.2M
Rudy Law287.000$565kFREE AGENT
Dan Spillner3311.000$390kFREE AGENT
Bob James267.000$265k$555k$470kFREE AGENT
Marc Hill3312.000$200k$200kFREE AGENT
Tom Paciorek3815.000$167kFREE AGENT
Jerry Hairston Sr.3312.000$150k$157k$150k$122kFREE AGENT
Jerry Don Gleaton276.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (10)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
Harold Baines265.000$675kFREE AGENT
Luis Salazar295.000$325kFREE AGENT
Ron Kittle273.000$300kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tim Lollar295.000$238kFREE AGENT
Greg Walker253.000$195kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Reid Nichols265.000$184kFREE AGENT
Scott Fletcher264.000$165kARB 3FREE AGENT
Juan Agosto274.000$148kARB 3FREE AGENT
Gene Nelson244.000$110kARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Fireovid284.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (19)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
Ozzie Guillen210.000$60kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Daryl Boston221.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Cangelosi220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ed Correa190.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Joel Davis200.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Joseph DeSa25–—
Bob Fallon25–—
Oscar Gamble35–—
Mark Gilbert28–—
Tim Hulett Sr.252.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Al Jones26–—
Bryan Little25–—
Bill Long250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Ryal25–—
Joel Skinner242.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Squires33–—
Mike Stanton32–—
Bruce Tanner23–—
Dave Wehrmeister32–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = White Sox 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.