RRosternomics
𝕏

Royals KCR

‹ ›

GM: John Schuerholz

Overview

CONTEND → steady
expensive & winning · year 1 in this regime · payroll 1.04× league · TAB +3.2
+3.2TAB — talent above budget10th/26
+8.6WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)7th/26
8.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars9th/26
-5.3dead WAR — sub-replacement drag17th/26
27%dead money %13th/26
0.562win %6th/26
37.9roster fWAR8th/26
-0surplus $M (value vs cost)8th/26
$10Mpayroll $M14th/26

1985: World Series champions · 91–71. Ranks are vs the 26 teams that season.

Roster

CFWillie Wilson 140GOmar Moreno 32GLynn Jones 21G
LFLonnie Smith 147GLynn Jones 58GDarryl Motley 44G
RFDarryl Motley 76GPat Sheridan 69GLynn Jones 32G
SSOnix Concepcion 128GBuddy Biancalana 74GGreg Pryor 13G
2BFrank White 149GGreg Pryor 21GBuddy Biancalana 4G
3BGeorge Brett 152GGreg Pryor 25GDane Iorg 1G
1BSteve Balboni 160GJohn Wathan 6GDane Iorg 2G
STARTERSBret Saberhagen 6.2WARDanny Jackson 4.6WARCharlie Leibrandt 4.1WARBud Black 3.6WARMark Gubicza 2.2WAR
CJim Sundberg 112GJohn Wathan 49GJamie Quirk 17G
DHHal McRae 82GJorge Orta 74GDarryl Motley 5G
BULLPEN★ Dan Quisenberry 37svJoe Beckwith 0hMike Jones 0hMichael LaCoss 0hSteve Farr 0hMark Huismann 0hDennis Leonard 0hTony Ferreira 0h
CJim Sundberg 112 · John Wathan 49 · Jamie Quirk 17
1BSteve Balboni 160 · John Wathan 6 · Dane Iorg 2
2BFrank White 149 · Greg Pryor 21 · Buddy Biancalana 4
3BGeorge Brett 152 · Greg Pryor 25 · Dane Iorg 1
SSOnix Concepcion 128 · Buddy Biancalana 74 · Greg Pryor 13
LFLonnie Smith 147 · Lynn Jones 58 · Darryl Motley 44
CFWillie Wilson 140 · Omar Moreno 32 · Lynn Jones 21
RFDarryl Motley 76 · Pat Sheridan 69 · Lynn Jones 32
DHHal McRae 82 · Jorge Orta 74 · Darryl Motley 5
SPBret Saberhagen 6.2 · Danny Jackson 4.6 · Charlie Leibrandt 4.1 · Bud Black 3.6 · Mark Gubicza 2.2
BP★ Dan Quisenberry 37 · Joe Beckwith 0 · Mike Jones 0 · Michael LaCoss 0 · Steve Farr 0 · Mark Huismann 0 · Dennis Leonard 0 · Tony Ferreira 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
George Brett 32 FA-elig 1558.3 1.0 +1.2
Bret Saberhagen 21 pre-arb 326.2 0.1 +1.5
Danny Jackson 23 pre-arb 324.6 0.1 +1.1
Charlie Leibrandt 28 FA-elig 334.1 0.2 +0.8
Bud Black 28 arb 333.6 0.5 +0.5
Dan Quisenberry 32 FA-elig 842.7 1.0 -0.3
Mark Gubicza 22 pre-arb 292.2 0.1 +0.5
Willie Wilson 29 FA-elig 1412.0 0.8 -0.3
Frank White 34 FA-elig 1492.0 0.5 -0.0
Jim Sundberg 34 FA-elig 1151.2 0.6 -0.3
Steve Balboni 28 arb 1601.2 0.2 +0.1
Lonnie Smith↔ STL 29 FA-elig 1201.1 0.6 -0.3
Joe Beckwith 30 FA-elig 490.9 0.4 -0.1
John Wathan 35 FA-elig 600.9 0.4 -0.2
Hal McRae 39 FA-elig 1120.8 0.8 -0.6
Steve Farr 28 – 160.6 – –
Mark Huismann 27 – 90.3 – –
Jamie Quirk 30 – 190.3 – –
Pat Sheridan 27 arb 780.1 0.2 -0.1
Tony Ferreira 22 – 20.1 – –
Dennis Leonard 34 FA-elig 20.0 0.9 -0.9
Michael LaCoss 29 – 210.0 – –
Jim Scranton 25 – 60.0 – –
Omar Moreno↔ NYY 32 – 24-0.1 – –
Larry Gura↔ CHC 37 – 3-0.2 – –
Buddy Biancalana 25 – 81-0.2 – –
Dane Iorg 35 FA-elig 64-0.3 0.2 -0.3
Mike Jones 25 arb 33-0.3 0.1 -0.2
Jorge Orta 34 FA-elig 110-0.4 0.5 -0.5
Darryl Motley 25 arb 123-0.6 0.2 -0.3
Greg Pryor 35 FA-elig 63-0.6 0.3 -0.5
Onix Concepcion 27 arb 131-0.8 0.2 -0.4
Dave Leeper 25 – 15-0.9 – –
Lynn Jones 32 FA-elig 110-0.9 0.2 -0.4

Key additions (new vs 1984)

PlayerfWAR
George Brett8.3
Bret Saberhagen6.2
Danny Jackson4.6
Charlie Leibrandt4.1
Bud Black3.6
Dan Quisenberry2.7

Key subtractions (gone from 1984)

Player1984 fWAR
—

Current & Historical Payroll

1985 payroll
$10.2M

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 (18)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
George Brett3212.000$1.0M$1.5M$2.1M$2.3M$2.0M$2.3M$3.1M
Dan Quisenberry326.000$975k$925k$1.3M$973kFREE AGENT
Dennis Leonard3411.000$871k$883kFREE AGENT
Willie Wilson299.000$844k$1.2M$1.4M$1.4M$2.1M$800kFREE AGENT
Hal McRae3917.000$800k$650k$110kFREE AGENT
Jim Sundberg3411.000$608k$653kFREE AGENT
Lonnie Smith297.000$600k$1.0M$500kFREE AGENT
Frank White3412.000$545k$485k$875k$825k$1.0M$1.1MFREE AGENT
Jorge Orta3413.000$450k$450k$125kFREE AGENT
John Wathan359.000$425kFREE AGENT
Joe Beckwith306.000$358kFREE AGENT
Greg Pryor359.000$317k$294kFREE AGENT
Dane Iorg358.000$242kFREE AGENT
Charlie Leibrandt286.000$225k$770k$850k$1.2M$1.2MFREE AGENT
Lynn Jones326.000$202k$185kFREE AGENT
Michael LaCoss297.000—FREE AGENT
Omar Moreno3210.000—FREE AGENT
Jamie Quirk3010.000—$150k$200k$335kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (7)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
Bud Black284.000$465kARB 3FREE AGENT
Onix Concepcion275.000$250kFREE AGENT
Steve Balboni284.000$205kARB 3FREE AGENT
Pat Sheridan274.000$175kARB 3FREE AGENT
Darryl Motley254.000$156kARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Jones255.000$100kFREE AGENT
Buddy Biancalana253.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (9)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
Bret Saberhagen211.000$150kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Gubicza221.000$115kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Danny Jackson232.000$95kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Farr281.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tony Ferreira22–—
Larry Gura37–—
Mark Huismann272.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Leeper25–—
Jim Scranton25–—

Graphs

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