RRosternomics
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Reds CIN

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GM: Bill Bergesch

Overview

WINDOW → steady
cheap & winning · year 1 in this regime · payroll 0.9× league · TAB +2.5
+2.5TAB — talent above budget12th/26
+8.9WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)6th/26
8.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars9th/26
-2.1dead WAR — sub-replacement drag4th/26
31%dead money %16th/26
0.553win %8th/26
35.2roster fWAR12th/26
-0surplus $M (value vs cost)9th/26
$9Mpayroll $M21st/26

Roster

CFEddie Milner 135GGary Redus 37GEric Davis 28G
LFGary Redus 63GNick Esasky 54GMax Venable 31G
RFDave Parker 159GEric Davis 5GMax Venable 3G
SSDave Concepcion 151GTom Runnells 11G
2BRon Oester 149GTom Foley 18GWayne Krenchicki 3G
3BBuddy Bell 150GNick Esasky 62GWayne Krenchicki 52G
1BPete Rose 110GTony Perez 50GNick Esasky 12G
STARTERSTom Browning 3.4WARMario Soto 2.8WARAndy McGaffigan 2.4WARJay Tibbs 2.2WARRon Robinson 1.1WAR
CBo Diaz 75GDave Vangorder 70GAlan Knicely 46G
BULLPEN★ Ted Power 27svJohn Franco 0hTom Hume 0hBob Buchanan 0hCarl Willis 0hRob Murphy 0hMike Smith 0h
CBo Diaz 75 · Dave Vangorder 70 · Alan Knicely 46
1BPete Rose 110 · Tony Perez 50 · Nick Esasky 12
2BRon Oester 149 · Tom Foley 18 · Wayne Krenchicki 3
3BBuddy Bell 150 · Nick Esasky 62 · Wayne Krenchicki 52
SSDave Concepcion 151 · Tom Runnells 11
LFGary Redus 63 · Nick Esasky 54 · Max Venable 31
CFEddie Milner 135 · Gary Redus 37 · Eric Davis 28
RFDave Parker 159 · Eric Davis 5 · Max Venable 3
SPTom Browning 3.4 · Mario Soto 2.8 · Andy McGaffigan 2.4 · Jay Tibbs 2.2 · Ron Robinson 1.1
BP★ Ted Power 27 · John Franco 0 · Tom Hume 0 · Bob Buchanan 0 · Carl Willis 0 · Rob Murphy 0 · Mike Smith 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
Dave Parker 34 FA-elig 1605.4 1.0 +0.4
Ron Oester 29 FA-elig 1523.5 0.6 +0.3
Tom Browning 25 pre-arb 393.4 0.1 +0.8
Mario Soto 28 FA-elig 372.8 1.1 -0.3
Andy McGaffigan 28 arb 152.4 0.1 +0.5
Eddie Milner 30 arb 1452.4 0.3 +0.3
Jay Tibbs 23 pre-arb 362.2 0.1 +0.5
Nick Esasky 25 – 1252.1 – –
Gary Redus 28 arb 1012.0 0.2 +0.3
Tony Perez 43 FA-elig 721.5 0.2 +0.2
Ron Robinson 23 – 331.1 – –
John Franco 24 pre-arb 671.1 0.1 +0.2
Wayne Krenchicki 30 FA-elig 901.1 0.2 +0.0
Eric Davis 23 – 561.1 – –
Frank Pastore 27 FA-elig 170.9 0.3 -0.1
Dave Concepcion 37 FA-elig 1550.9 0.9 -0.7
Pete Rose 44 FA-elig 1190.8 0.4 -0.1
Bo Diaz↔ PHI 32 FA-elig 510.8 0.4 -0.2
Max Venable 28 FA-elig 770.6 0.2 -0.0
Ted Power 30 arb 640.5 0.3 -0.1
John Stuper 28 arb 330.4 0.2 -0.2
Cesar Cedeno↔ STL 34 FA-elig 830.2 0.4 -0.4
Joe Price 28 arb 260.1 0.4 -0.4
Paul O'Neill 22 – 50.0 – –
Buddy Bell↔ TEX 33 FA-elig 670.0 0.3 -0.3
Alan Knicely↔ PHI 30 FA-elig 480.0 0.1 -0.0
Wade Rowdon 24 – 50.0 – –
Dann Bilardello 26 – 42-0.1 – –
Rob Murphy 25 – 2-0.1 – –
Tom Hume 32 FA-elig 56-0.1 0.8 -0.9
Dave Vangorder 28 arb 73-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Mike Smith 24 – 2-0.2 – –
Tom Foley↔ PHI 25 pre-arb 43-0.2 0.1 -0.1
Carl Willis 24 – 11-0.2 – –
Tom Runnells 30 – 28-0.2 – –
Duane Walker↔ TEX 28 arb 37-0.2 0.1 -0.1
Bob Buchanan 24 – 14-0.6 – –

Key additions (new vs 1984)

PlayerfWAR
Dave Parker5.4
Ron Oester3.5
Tom Browning3.4
Mario Soto2.8
Andy McGaffigan2.4
Eddie Milner2.4

Key subtractions (gone from 1984)

Player1984 fWAR
—

Current & Historical Payroll

1985 payroll
$8.8M

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
Mario Soto288.000$1.1M$1.1M$1.2M$1.2MFREE AGENT
Dave Parker3412.000$970k$1.1M$1.1MFREE AGENT
Dave Concepcion3715.000$920k$920k$320k$370kFREE AGENT
Tom Hume328.000$833kFREE AGENT$96k
Ron Oester297.000$550k$650k$750k$290k$650k$650kFREE AGENT
Cesar Cedeno3415.000$421kFREE AGENT
Bo Diaz328.000$411k$775k$825k$850k$900kFREE AGENT
Pete Rose4422.000$359k$1.0MFREE AGENT
Frank Pastore276.000$350kFREE AGENT
Buddy Bell3313.000$333k$870k$870k$616kFREE AGENT
Wayne Krenchicki306.000$250kFREE AGENT
Tony Perez4321.000$225k$275kFREE AGENT
Max Venable286.000$155k$225kFREE AGENT
Alan Knicely306.000$52kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (8)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
Joe Price285.000$410kFREE AGENT
Eddie Milner305.000$300kFREE AGENT
Ted Power304.000$255kARB 3FREE AGENT
John Stuper283.000$250kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Gary Redus283.000$228kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Andy McGaffigan284.000$110kARB 3FREE AGENT
Duane Walker283.000$76kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Vangorder283.000$60kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (15)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
John Franco241.000$75kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tom Browning251.000$60kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jay Tibbs231.000$60kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tom Foley252.000$57kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dann Bilardello262.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bob Buchanan24–—
Eric Davis231.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Nick Esasky252.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rob Murphy250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Paul O'Neill220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ron Robinson231.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Wade Rowdon241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tom Runnells30–—
Mike Smith24–—
Carl Willis241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

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