RRosternomics
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Mets NYM

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GM: Frank Cashen

Overview

CONTEND → steady
expensive & winning · year 1 in this regime · payroll 1.08× league · TAB +9.9
+9.9TAB — talent above budget6th/26
+15.1WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)3rd/26
8.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars9th/26
-4.0dead WAR — sub-replacement drag11th/26
20%dead money %6th/26
0.605win %3rd/26
45.1roster fWAR5th/26
-0surplus $M (value vs cost)10th/26
$11Mpayroll $M9th/26

Roster

CFMookie Wilson 83GLenny Dykstra 74GDarryl Strawberry 27G
LFGeorge Foster 123GDanny Heep 45GTom Paciorek 27G
RFDarryl Strawberry 100GJohn Christensen 31GDanny Heep 31G
SSRafael Santana 153GLarry Bowa 75GRon Gardenhire 13G
2BWally Backman 140GKelvin Chapman 48GRon Gardenhire 5G
3BHoward Johnson 113GRay Knight 73GRon Gardenhire 2G
1BKeith Hernandez 157GTom Paciorek 14GGary Carter 6G
STARTERSDwight Gooden 9.7WARSid Fernandez 3.4WARRon Darling 2.5WARRick Aguilera 2.4WAREd Lynch 1.6WAR
CGary Carter 143GRonn Reynolds 25GClint Hurdle 17G
BULLPEN★ Jesse Orosco 17svRoger McDowell 0hDoug Sisk 0hTom Gorman 0hTerry Leach 0hCalvin Schiraldi 0hWes Gardner 0hJoe Sambito 0h
CGary Carter 143 · Ronn Reynolds 25 · Clint Hurdle 17
1BKeith Hernandez 157 · Tom Paciorek 14 · Gary Carter 6
2BWally Backman 140 · Kelvin Chapman 48 · Ron Gardenhire 5
3BHoward Johnson 113 · Ray Knight 73 · Ron Gardenhire 2
SSRafael Santana 153 · Larry Bowa 75 · Ron Gardenhire 13
LFGeorge Foster 123 · Danny Heep 45 · Tom Paciorek 27
CFMookie Wilson 83 · Lenny Dykstra 74 · Darryl Strawberry 27
RFDarryl Strawberry 100 · John Christensen 31 · Danny Heep 31
SPDwight Gooden 9.7 · Sid Fernandez 3.4 · Ron Darling 2.5 · Rick Aguilera 2.4 · Ed Lynch 1.6
BP★ Jesse Orosco 17 · Roger McDowell 0 · Doug Sisk 0 · Tom Gorman 0 · Terry Leach 0 · Calvin Schiraldi 0 · Wes Gardner 0 · Joe Sambito 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
Dwight Gooden 20 pre-arb 359.7 0.5 +2.1
Gary Carter 31 FA-elig 1496.7 2.0 -0.3
Keith Hernandez 31 FA-elig 1585.0 1.1 +0.2
Darryl Strawberry 23 pre-arb 1114.8 0.5 +0.7
Sid Fernandez 22 – 263.4 – –
Ron Darling 24 pre-arb 422.5 0.2 +0.4
Rick Aguilera 23 – 222.4 – –
Mookie Wilson 29 arb 932.3 0.6 +0.0
Wally Backman 25 arb 1451.8 0.2 +0.3
George Foster 36 FA-elig 1291.7 1.9 -1.5
Ed Lynch 29 arb 311.6 0.3 +0.1
Lenny Dykstra 22 – 831.5 – –
Jesse Orosco 28 FA-elig 541.1 0.7 -0.4
Roger McDowell 24 pre-arb 621.0 0.1 +0.2
Danny Heep 27 FA-elig 951.0 0.3 -0.0
Terry Leach 31 – 220.8 – –
Howard Johnson 24 arb 1260.6 0.1 +0.0
Bill Latham 24 – 70.4 – –
Rusty Staub 41 FA-elig 540.3 0.3 -0.2
Bruce Berenyi 30 arb 30.2 0.3 -0.3
Randy Niemann 29 – 40.1 – –
Ronn Reynolds 26 – 280.1 – –
Randy Myers 22 – 10.0 – –
Tom Paciorek↔ CHW 38 FA-elig 460.0 0.2 -0.2
Ron Gardenhire 27 arb 260.0 0.1 -0.1
Billy Beane 23 – 8-0.0 – –
Wes Gardner 24 – 9-0.0 – –
Rafael Santana 27 pre-arb 154-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Calvin Schiraldi 23 – 10-0.1 – –
Joe Sambito 33 – 8-0.2 – –
Larry Bowa↔ CHC 39 FA-elig 14-0.3 0.1 -0.2
John Christensen 24 – 51-0.3 – –
Clint Hurdle 27 – 43-0.3 – –
Terry Blocker 25 – 18-0.3 – –
Tom Gorman 27 arb 34-0.4 0.1 -0.3
Ray Knight 32 FA-elig 90-0.5 0.6 -0.7
Doug Sisk 27 arb 42-0.6 0.3 -0.4
Kelvin Chapman 29 – 62-0.9 – –

Key additions (new vs 1984)

PlayerfWAR
Dwight Gooden9.7
Gary Carter6.7
Keith Hernandez5.0
Darryl Strawberry4.8
Sid Fernandez3.4
Ron Darling2.5

Key subtractions (gone from 1984)

Player1984 fWAR
—

Current & Historical Payroll

1985 payroll
$10.6M

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 (12)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
Gary Carter3111.000$2.0M$2.2M$2.1M$2.2M$2.2MFREE AGENT
George Foster3616.000$1.9M$2.3MFREE AGENT
Keith Hernandez3111.000$1.1M$1.6M$1.8M$1.9M$2.0MFREE AGENT
Jesse Orosco286.000$650k$825k$925kFREE AGENT
Ray Knight3211.000$560k$645kFREE AGENT
Rusty Staub4122.000$300kFREE AGENT
Danny Heep276.000$260k$350kFREE AGENT
Tom Paciorek3815.000$167kFREE AGENT
Larry Bowa3915.000$85kFREE AGENT
Clint Hurdle278.000—FREE AGENT
Randy Niemann296.000—$83kFREE AGENT
Joe Sambito339.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (10)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
Mookie Wilson295.000$592kFREE AGENT
Ed Lynch295.000$330kFREE AGENT
Bruce Berenyi305.000$325kFREE AGENT
Doug Sisk273.000$275kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Wally Backman255.000$200kFREE AGENT
Tom Gorman274.000$150kARB 3FREE AGENT
Howard Johnson243.000$115kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ron Gardenhire274.000$100kARB 3FREE AGENT
Terry Leach314.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ronn Reynolds263.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (16)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
Darryl Strawberry232.000$517kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dwight Gooden201.000$450kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ron Darling242.000$230kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rafael Santana272.000$125kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Roger McDowell240.000$60kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rick Aguilera230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Billy Beane231.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Terry Blocker250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kelvin Chapman29–—
John Christensen241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Lenny Dykstra220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Sid Fernandez222.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Wes Gardner241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bill Latham24–—
Randy Myers220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Calvin Schiraldi231.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

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