RRosternomics
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Mariners SEA

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GM: Hal Keller

Overview

WINDOW → steady
cheap & winning · year 1 in this regime · payroll 0.44× league · TAB +6.4
+6.4TAB — talent above budget8th/26
+2.7WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)12th/26
6.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars19th/26
-6.1dead WAR — sub-replacement drag22nd/26
23%dead money %10th/26
0.457win %20th/26
30.6roster fWAR16th/26
+3surplus $M (value vs cost)1st/26
$4Mpayroll $M26th/26

Roster

CFDave Henderson 126GPhil Bradley 29GJohn Moses 28G
LFPhil Bradley 126GIvan Calderon 33GBarry Bonnell 9G
RFAl Cowens 110GDave Henderson 27GIvan Calderon 22G
SSSpike Owen 117GDomingo Ramos 37GDanny Tartabull 16G
2BJack Perconte 125GHarold Reynolds 61GDomingo Ramos 19G
3BJim Presley 154GDarnell Coles 7GDomingo Ramos 6G
1BAlvin Davis 154GDomingo Ramos 14GKen Phelps 8G
STARTERSMike Moore 5.9WARMatt Young 3.5WARBill Swift 1.9WARJim Beattie 0.6WARBrian Snyder 0.5WAR
CBob Kearney 108GDonnie Scott 74GDave Valle 30G
DHGorman Thomas 132GKen Phelps 22GAl Cowens 4G
BULLPEN★ Ed Nunez 16svEd Vande Berg 0hRoy Thomas 0hBob Long 0hSalome Barojas 0hKarl Best 0hJack Lazorko 0hDave Geisel 0h
CBob Kearney 108 · Donnie Scott 74 · Dave Valle 30
1BAlvin Davis 154 · Domingo Ramos 14 · Ken Phelps 8
2BJack Perconte 125 · Harold Reynolds 61 · Domingo Ramos 19
3BJim Presley 154 · Darnell Coles 7 · Domingo Ramos 6
SSSpike Owen 117 · Domingo Ramos 37 · Danny Tartabull 16
LFPhil Bradley 126 · Ivan Calderon 33 · Barry Bonnell 9
CFDave Henderson 126 · Phil Bradley 29 · John Moses 28
RFAl Cowens 110 · Dave Henderson 27 · Ivan Calderon 22
DHGorman Thomas 132 · Ken Phelps 22 · Al Cowens 4
SPMike Moore 5.9 · Matt Young 3.5 · Bill Swift 1.9 · Jim Beattie 0.6 · Brian Snyder 0.5
BP★ Ed Nunez 16 · Ed Vande Berg 0 · Roy Thomas 0 · Bob Long 0 · Salome Barojas 0 · Karl Best 0 · Jack Lazorko 0 · Dave Geisel 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 Moore 25 arb 355.9 0.2 +1.3
Phil Bradley 26 pre-arb 1594.8 0.1 +1.1
Matt Young 26 pre-arb 373.5 0.2 +0.7
Alvin Davis 24 pre-arb 1553.1 0.2 +0.6
Jim Presley 23 pre-arb 1552.9 0.1 +0.7
Jack Perconte 30 arb 1252.1 0.2 +0.4
Bill Swift 23 – 231.9 – –
Spike Owen 24 pre-arb 1181.7 0.1 +0.3
Ivan Calderon 23 – 671.6 – –
Karl Best 26 – 151.3 – –
Gorman Thomas 34 FA-elig 1351.2 0.7 -0.4
Bob Kearney 28 FA-elig 1081.0 0.2 +0.1
Al Cowens 33 FA-elig 1220.9 0.4 -0.2
Roy Thomas 32 – 400.7 – –
Danny Tartabull 22 – 190.7 – –
Jim Beattie 30 FA-elig 180.6 0.5 -0.3
Ken Phelps 30 arb 610.5 0.2 -0.0
Ed Vande Berg 26 arb 760.5 0.3 -0.2
Brian Snyder 27 – 150.5 – –
Dave Henderson 26 arb 1390.5 0.3 -0.2
Paul Mirabella 31 – 100.3 – –
Darnell Coles 23 – 270.2 – –
Ed Nunez 22 arb 700.1 0.1 -0.1
Frank Wills 26 – 240.1 – –
Jack Lazorko 29 – 150.0 – –
Dave Geisel 30 – 12-0.0 – –
Dave Tobik 32 – 8-0.0 – –
Ricky Nelson 26 – 6-0.0 – –
Jim Lewis 29 – 2-0.1 – –
Al Chambers 24 – 4-0.1 – –
Salome Barojas 28 – 17-0.1 – –
Bill Wilkinson 20 – 2-0.2 – –
Bob Long 30 – 28-0.2 – –
Donnie Scott 23 – 80-0.2 – –
Mike Morgan 25 – 2-0.2 – –
Mike Stanton↔ CHW 32 – 24-0.4 – –
Barry Bonnell 31 FA-elig 48-0.4 0.4 -0.5
Harold Reynolds 24 – 67-0.4 – –
Mark Langston 24 pre-arb 24-0.7 0.2 -0.3
John Moses 27 – 33-0.8 – –
Dave Valle 24 – 31-1.0 – –
Domingo Ramos 27 – 75-1.3 – –

Key additions (new vs 1984)

PlayerfWAR
Mike Moore5.9
Phil Bradley4.8
Matt Young3.5
Alvin Davis3.1
Jim Presley2.9
Jack Perconte2.1

Key subtractions (gone from 1984)

Player1984 fWAR
—

Current & Historical Payroll

1985 payroll
$4.3M

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 (8)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
Gorman Thomas3412.000$690k$339kFREE AGENT
Jim Beattie307.000$470k$575kFREE AGENT
Barry Bonnell318.000$438kFREE AGENT
Al Cowens3311.000$400k$360kFREE AGENT
Bob Kearney286.000$183k$300k$125kFREE AGENT
Paul Mirabella317.000—FREE AGENT
Mike Morgan257.000—$125k$185kFREE AGENT
Domingo Ramos277.000—$85k$80kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (7)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
Ed Vande Berg263.000$315kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Henderson264.000$310kARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Moore253.000$228kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ken Phelps305.000$180kFREE AGENT
Jack Perconte305.000$175kFREE AGENT
Ed Nunez223.000$97kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Moses273.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (27)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
Alvin Davis241.000$225kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Langston241.000$160kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Matt Young262.000$159kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Phil Bradley262.000$125kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Spike Owen242.000$114kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jim Presley231.000$72kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Salome Barojas28–—
Karl Best262.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ivan Calderon231.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Al Chambers24–—
Darnell Coles232.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Geisel30–—
Jack Lazorko291.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jim Lewis29–—
Bob Long30–—
Ricky Nelson26–—
Harold Reynolds242.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Donnie Scott23–—
Brian Snyder27–—
Mike Stanton32–—
Bill Swift230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Danny Tartabull221.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Roy Thomas32–—
Dave Tobik32–—
Dave Valle241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bill Wilkinson200.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Frank Wills262.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

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