RRosternomics
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Athletics OAK

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GM: Sandy Alderson

Overview

REBUILD → steady
cheap & losing · year 1 in this regime · payroll 0.93× league · TAB -4.9
-4.9TAB — talent above budget17th/26
-4.0WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)18th/26
8.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars9th/26
-5.5dead WAR — sub-replacement drag18th/26
32%dead money %19th/26
0.475win %17th/26
28.5roster fWAR18th/26
-2surplus $M (value vs cost)17th/26
$9Mpayroll $M18th/26

Roster

CFDwayne Murphy 150GMike Davis 31GJosé Canseco 1G
LFDave Collins 91GSteve Henderson 47GDusty Baker Jr. 32G
RFMike Davis 138GMike Heath 24GJosé Canseco 16G
SSAlfredo Griffin 162GMike Gallego 21GRob Picciolo 9G
2BDonnie Hill 122GMike Gallego 42GTony Phillips 25G
3BCarney Lansford 96GSteve Kiefer 34GTony Phillips 32G
1BBruce Bochte 128GDusty Baker Jr. 58GRob Picciolo 13G
STARTERSChris Codiroli 2.5WARJose Rijo 1.3WARBill Krueger 0.9WARTim Birtsas 0.1WARTommy John 0.1WAR
CMike Heath 112GMickey Tettleton 76GCharlie O'Brien 16G
DHDave Kingman 149GDusty Baker Jr. 12GSteve Henderson 1G
BULLPEN★ Jay Howell 29svKeith Atherton 0hSteve Ontiveros 0hRick Langford 0hSteve Mura 0hTim Conroy 0hJeff Kaiser 0hTom Tellmann 0h
CMike Heath 112 · Mickey Tettleton 76 · Charlie O'Brien 16
1BBruce Bochte 128 · Dusty Baker Jr. 58 · Rob Picciolo 13
2BDonnie Hill 122 · Mike Gallego 42 · Tony Phillips 25
3BCarney Lansford 96 · Steve Kiefer 34 · Tony Phillips 32
SSAlfredo Griffin 162 · Mike Gallego 21 · Rob Picciolo 9
LFDave Collins 91 · Steve Henderson 47 · Dusty Baker Jr. 32
CFDwayne Murphy 150 · Mike Davis 31 · José Canseco 1
RFMike Davis 138 · Mike Heath 24 · José Canseco 16
DHDave Kingman 149 · Dusty Baker Jr. 12 · Steve Henderson 1
SPChris Codiroli 2.5 · Jose Rijo 1.3 · Bill Krueger 0.9 · Tim Birtsas 0.1 · Tommy John 0.1
BP★ Jay Howell 29 · Keith Atherton 0 · Steve Ontiveros 0 · Rick Langford 0 · Steve Mura 0 · Tim Conroy 0 · Jeff Kaiser 0 · Tom Tellmann 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
Mike Davis 26 arb 1544.9 0.3 +1.0
Dwayne Murphy 30 FA-elig 1523.0 0.8 -0.1
Don Sutton↔ ANA 40 FA-elig 292.8 0.6 +0.1
Mike Heath 30 FA-elig 1382.6 0.4 +0.3
Bruce Bochte 34 FA-elig 1372.6 0.3 +0.3
Chris Codiroli 27 arb 372.5 0.1 +0.5
Jay Howell 29 arb 632.3 0.3 +0.3
Dusty Baker Jr. 36 FA-elig 1112.2 0.6 -0.0
Tony Phillips 26 arb 421.6 0.2 +0.2
Donnie Hill 24 – 1231.3 – –
Jose Rijo 20 – 121.3 – –
Steve Ontiveros 24 – 391.0 – –
Bill Krueger 27 – 320.9 – –
Dave Collins 32 FA-elig 1120.9 0.7 -0.5
Mickey Tettleton 24 – 780.8 – –
Alfredo Griffin 27 FA-elig 1620.7 0.6 -0.4
Dave Kingman 36 FA-elig 1580.7 1.1 -0.9
Jose Canseco 20 – 290.6 – –
Mike Gallego 24 – 760.5 – –
Charlie O'Brien 25 – 160.2 – –
Steve Mura 30 – 230.2 – –
Steve Henderson 32 FA-elig 850.2 0.1 -0.1
Carney Lansford 28 FA-elig 980.1 0.9 -0.9
Tommy John↔ ANA 42 FA-elig 110.1 0.3 -0.3
Tim Birtsas 24 pre-arb 290.1 0.1 -0.0
Rick Langford 33 FA-elig 23-0.0 0.6 -0.6
Steve McCatty 31 FA-elig 30-0.2 0.5 -0.6
Tom Tellmann 31 FA-elig 11-0.2 0.2 -0.3
Dan Meyer 32 – 14-0.2 – –
Tim Conroy 25 – 16-0.3 – –
Rob Picciolo 32 FA-elig 71-0.4 0.1 -0.2
Keith Atherton 26 pre-arb 56-0.4 0.1 -0.2
Steve Kiefer 24 – 40-0.8 – –
Jeff Kaiser 24 – 15-0.8 – –
Mike Warren 24 – 16-1.0 – –
Curt Young 25 – 19-1.2 – –

Key additions (new vs 1984)

PlayerfWAR
Mike Davis4.9
Dwayne Murphy3.0
Don Sutton2.8
Mike Heath2.6
Bruce Bochte2.6
Chris Codiroli2.5

Key subtractions (gone from 1984)

Player1984 fWAR
—

Current & Historical Payroll

1985 payroll
$9.1M

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 (16)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
Dave Kingman3614.000$1.1M$730kFREE AGENT
Carney Lansford287.000$900k$1.2M$1.3M$1.3M$1.4M$1.3M$1.3M
Dwayne Murphy307.000$846k$900k$759kFREE AGENT
Dave Collins3210.000$700kFREE AGENT
Don Sutton4019.000$640kFREE AGENT
Alfredo Griffin279.000$610k$578k$608kFREE AGENT
Rick Langford339.000$608k$500kFREE AGENT
Dusty Baker Jr.3617.000$575k$475kFREE AGENT
Steve McCatty318.000$520kFREE AGENT
Mike Heath307.000$425kFREE AGENT
Bruce Bochte3411.000$350k$572kFREE AGENT
Tommy John4222.000$287kFREE AGENT
Tom Tellmann316.000$208kFREE AGENT
Steve Henderson328.000$150k$200k$75kFREE AGENT
Rob Picciolo328.000$100kFREE AGENT
Tim Conroy257.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (4)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
Mike Davis265.000$305kFREE AGENT
Jay Howell295.000$262kFREE AGENT
Tony Phillips263.000$220kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris Codiroli273.000$142kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (16)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
Keith Atherton262.000$107kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tim Birtsas240.000$60kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jose Canseco200.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Gallego240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Donnie Hill242.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Kaiser240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Kiefer241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bill Krueger272.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dan Meyer32–—
Steve Mura30–—
Charlie O'Brien250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Ontiveros240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jose Rijo201.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mickey Tettleton241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Warren24–—
Curt Young252.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

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