RRosternomics
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Cardinals STL

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GM: Joe McDonald

Overview

CONTEND → steady
expensive & winning · year 1 in this regime · payroll 1.07× league · TAB +16.4
+16.4TAB — talent above budget1st/26
+18.2WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)1st/26
11.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars1st/26
-1.7dead WAR — sub-replacement drag2nd/26
22%dead money %8th/26
0.623win %1st/26
51.5roster fWAR1st/26
+3surplus $M (value vs cost)2nd/26
$10Mpayroll $M11th/26

1985: won pennant · 101–61. Ranks are vs the 26 teams that season.

Roster

CFWillie McGee 146GVince Coleman 17GAndy Van Slyke 10G
LFVince Coleman 138GCesar Cedeno 47GTito Landrum 10G
RFAndy Van Slyke 133GTito Landrum 67GJack Clark 12G
SSOzzie Smith 158GIvan De Jesus Sr. 13G
2BTom Herr 158GTom Lawless 11G
3BTerry Pendleton 149GIvan De Jesus Sr. 20GTom Lawless 13G
1BJack Clark 120GCesar Cedeno 58GMike Jorgensen 49G
STARTERSJohn Tudor 6.6WARDanny Cox 3.3WARJoaquin Andujar 2.9WARBob Forsch 1.0WARKurt Kepshire -0.1WAR
CTom Nieto 95GDarrell Porter 82GRandy Hunt 13G
BULLPEN★ Jeff Lahti 19svKen Dayley 0hBill Campbell 0hRicky Horton 0hDoug Bair 0hTodd Worrell 0hJoe Boever 0hAndy Hassler 0h
CTom Nieto 95 · Darrell Porter 82 · Randy Hunt 13
1BJack Clark 120 · Cesar Cedeno 58 · Mike Jorgensen 49
2BTom Herr 158 · Tom Lawless 11
3BTerry Pendleton 149 · Ivan De Jesus Sr. 20 · Tom Lawless 13
SSOzzie Smith 158 · Ivan De Jesus Sr. 13
LFVince Coleman 138 · Cesar Cedeno 47 · Tito Landrum 10
CFWillie McGee 146 · Vince Coleman 17 · Andy Van Slyke 10
RFAndy Van Slyke 133 · Tito Landrum 67 · Jack Clark 12
SPJohn Tudor 6.6 · Danny Cox 3.3 · Joaquin Andujar 2.9 · Bob Forsch 1.0 · Kurt Kepshire -0.1
BP★ Jeff Lahti 19 · Ken Dayley 0 · Bill Campbell 0 · Ricky Horton 0 · Doug Bair 0 · Todd Worrell 0 · Joe Boever 0 · Andy Hassler 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
Willie McGee 26 arb 1527.1 0.5 +1.4
John Tudor 31 FA-elig 376.6 0.5 +1.3
Ozzie Smith 30 FA-elig 1585.6 1.4 +0.0
Tom Herr 29 FA-elig 1595.1 0.6 +0.8
Andy Van Slyke 24 pre-arb 1463.4 0.2 +0.7
Danny Cox 25 pre-arb 353.3 0.1 +0.8
Joaquin Andujar 32 FA-elig 382.9 1.0 -0.3
Jack Clark 29 FA-elig 1262.9 1.6 -0.8
Vince Coleman 23 pre-arb 1512.6 0.1 +0.6
Ken Dayley 26 arb 572.1 0.1 +0.4
Darrell Porter 33 FA-elig 842.1 0.7 -0.2
Terry Pendleton 24 pre-arb 1492.0 0.1 +0.4
Cesar Cedeno↔ CIN 34 FA-elig 281.4 0.1 +0.2
Tito Landrum 30 arb 851.2 0.2 +0.1
Bob Forsch 35 FA-elig 341.0 0.6 -0.3
Ricky Horton 25 pre-arb 490.7 0.1 +0.1
Jeff Lahti 28 arb 520.6 0.2 -0.1
Lonnie Smith↔ KCR 29 FA-elig 280.4 0.1 -0.0
Curt Ford 24 – 110.4 – –
Bill Campbell 36 FA-elig 500.3 0.5 -0.4
Pat Perry 26 – 60.2 – –
Matt Keough 29 – 40.2 – –
Tom Lawless 28 – 470.2 – –
Steve Braun 37 FA-elig 640.2 0.2 -0.1
Todd Worrell 25 – 170.2 – –
Mike Jorgensen 36 FA-elig 720.1 0.2 -0.2
Andy Hassler 33 – 100.1 – –
Joe Boever 24 – 130.1 – –
Michael LaValliere 24 – 12-0.0 – –
Doug Bair↔ DET 35 – 2-0.0 – –
Brian Harper 25 FA-elig 43-0.0 0.1 -0.1
Art Howe 38 – 4-0.1 – –
Kurt Kepshire 25 pre-arb 32-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Randy Hunt 25 – 14-0.2 – –
Ivan De Jesus Sr. 32 FA-elig 59-0.3 0.7 -0.8
Tom Nieto 24 – 95-0.4 – –
Neil Allen↔ NYY 27 FA-elig 23-0.6 0.4 -0.6

Key additions (new vs 1984)

PlayerfWAR
Willie McGee7.1
John Tudor6.6
Ozzie Smith5.6
Tom Herr5.1
Andy Van Slyke3.4
Danny Cox3.3

Key subtractions (gone from 1984)

Player1984 fWAR
—

Current & Historical Payroll

1985 payroll
$10.5M

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 (17)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
Jack Clark2910.000$1.6M$1.3M$1.3MFREE AGENT
Ozzie Smith307.000$1.4M$1.9M$1.9M$2.3M$2.2M$2.0M$2.2M
Joaquin Andujar329.000$1.0MFREE AGENT
Darrell Porter3314.000$740kFREE AGENT
Ivan De Jesus Sr.3211.000$700kFREE AGENT
Bob Forsch3511.000$583k$527k$750k$335kFREE AGENT
Tom Herr296.000$560k$750k$925k$745kFREE AGENT
Bill Campbell3612.000$458kFREE AGENT
John Tudor316.000$458k$1.0M$1.1M$791kFREE AGENT$350k
Neil Allen276.000$431kFREE AGENT
Mike Jorgensen3617.000$200kFREE AGENT
Steve Braun3714.000$160kFREE AGENT
Cesar Cedeno3415.000$142kFREE AGENT
Lonnie Smith297.000$140kFREE AGENT
Brian Harper256.000$135kFREE AGENT
Doug Bair359.000—FREE AGENT
Matt Keough298.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (5)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
Willie McGee263.000$475kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Lahti283.000$250kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tito Landrum305.000$209kFREE AGENT
Ken Dayley263.000$150kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tom Lawless283.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (15)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
Andy Van Slyke242.000$170kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Terry Pendleton241.000$112kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ricky Horton251.000$110kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Danny Cox252.000$110kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kurt Kepshire251.000$100kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Vince Coleman230.000$60kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Joe Boever240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Curt Ford240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Andy Hassler33–—
Art Howe38–—
Randy Hunt250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Michael LaValliere241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tom Nieto241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Pat Perry260.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Todd Worrell250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

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