2013 Off-Season Discussion Thread

For Corrales and Ike, I hope it's more like "not at your current salary" than a flat "no". For Gjertsen and Ward, I think it's just a "sorry, no" because I don't think their salaries were all that high anyway, and they were not able to contribute at all last year. Stephenson might also be in the "not at your current salary" camp but the gap between current salary and the level that they value him at this point may be too great for a deal to be made. Of course, he may not have a lot of options at this point.

 

Agreed for all of them. Ike can still be a solid contributor in this league, but his upside is not as big as we had initially hoped...

Corrales. If he retires, I'm fine with it. If he comes back at a lesser salary and is a backup, I'm fine with it.

Stephenson contributed to the success early in the season, but did almost nothing in the last part of the season. Frankly, I don't see him as a fit with the team and would prefer to go another direction with his salary.

 

According to Elliot Almond on twitter, Doyle says Corrales will be back with the Quakes next year but the other 4 will go into the re-entry draft. If nobody drafts them in the first phase (which requires paying them basically their current salary), then the Quakes can negotiate a new deal with any of these guys. Or, the players can choose to go into the second phase of the re-entry draft, hoping that another team will pay them more than the Quakes would. It's hard to see Ward or Gjertsen getting taken in the draft, but I could see teams taking either Khari or Ike in the second phase, hoping to sign them to a much lower deal.

Or, the Quakes could work out some kind of trade deal like they did last year with Convey. That trade happened after the players who were eligible for the re-entry draft were announced, but before the draft happened. Of course, with how poorly Convey worked out for KC, maybe other teams will be more wary of taking players the Quakes don't want!

 

This is really good. It shows the coaches do understand their value and it give me a warm fuzzy that someone as talented as Ike or Ramiro is deemed expendable. This team should be even more talented next year.

 

I'm OK with Corrales coming back if it's in a limited, low paid, mostly ceremonial role. He just doesn't have it any more.

I hope that we do try to re-sign Ike, but at much lower pay.

The others can all go.

GO QUAKES!!!

- Mark

 

yeah no real surprises here. I could see TFC biting on Ike in the re-entry draft. He'd certainly start right away there no questions asked. And yes i think Corrales will be back at a lower rate......something tells me he wants to stick around til the stadium opens a-la Ching in Houston. Im fine with that as a bench guy and locker room guy, so long as hes not really considered a starter thats okay. I would like Ike back, but i think Toronto are going to snag him at current salary.

If Ike is snatched up, and he likely will be, we should be looking for one free agent and one of our draft picks addressing the other central defense spot to give competition for Hernendez

 

So since the Quakes announced the 5 players who did not have their options exercised, I assume that means that all other options have been exercised. If so, that means that guys like Ring, Ballouchy, Alexandre and Zayner all have been signed for next year. I call these guys out specifically because they all meet the requirements for getting guaranteed contracts, so once the team signs them their salaries are guaranteed for 2013. As a reminder, the rules are that any player who is at least 24 years old and has at least 3 years of MLS service has his contract guaranteed when it's signed.

So if this assumption is true, then at this point the Quakes have 21 players who are likely under contract for next year, and 3 others that seem likely to be back but have yet to sign new contracts:

GK: Busch*, Bingham, Newton
D: Hernandez*, Bernardez, Morrow*, Zayner*
M: Baca, Cronin*, Chavez*, Salinas*, Alexandre*, Ring*, Hustedt, Ballouchy*, Garza
F: Wondo*, Lenhart*, Gordon*, Tracy, Pizarro

Hopefully back, but contract not signed yet: Beitashour*, Dawkins, Corrales*

I've asterisked the guys that would have guaranteed contracts, which addes up to 15 if you include Beitashour and Corrales.

 

i'm surprised JMA wasn't cut. i guess he's cheap. i was not at all impressed with his few games this year. Ring is a much better CDM in my opinion. JMA seems redundant... he doesn't seem like he can play CB or CAM or second striker like people said when we first got him.

I was hoping Ike wouldn't graduate from GA but Elliott Almond just confirmed it in the Merc so I totally understand that decision. I could definitely see him turning into a great player if he stays clear of injuries and gets some more playing time. But we really don't have room to commit those kind of resources to a still developing player right now. We are in one of those windows where we want to win NOW, not develop young guys for next year, and it's hard to see Ike fitting into that picture at a 180k cap hit.

 

I agree on Alexandre and Ring being fairly redundant, and the fact that neither of them got any real playing time this year would have indicated one or both would be gone. But the fact that they are signed for the minimum salary and they both have some MLS experience is probably what makes the team want them back. As you said, this is now a team that is more about "winning now" than developing a lot of young players, and with the CCL games next summer/fall, they will want experienced backups who can play either in MLS or CCL games to give other guys rest.

Of course, one or both of Ring may not be signed or may be on the table as trade bait, I'm just making a best guess based on what has been announced so far.

 

Feel bad for Ike. His rookie year it looked like he was a future USMNT guy for sure -- maybe somebody who would be headed to a big European club at some point. All he needed was time to develop. The time he's lost with injuries seems to have really hamstrung his progress. Unfortunate.

 

Surely Corrales is ripe for one of those Josh Wolff-style minimum vet salary/assistant coach roles.

 

Hadn't we all been calling this? Later Ike!

For now, for his experience, I'd go with Jon Busch although I believe Jason Hernandez has been there longer.

 

Not so fast, falvo fav. No one is going to pay his $180k or whatever GA inflated salary. Wouldn't be surprised to see him back with the Quaked at a significantly reduced salary.

 

Would he play and/or settle for a 2009 Wondo like salary of $47k? I doubt it and I doubt he would want to take a huge pay cut.

 

I'm guessing JHernandez, I'm pretty sure he was captain before.

 

I would argue that point a bit, Baca is still our weakest link and finding a quality player to start in his place is paramount. He would make an admirable substitute however.

 

Saw a bunch of free agents and college players out there yesterday scrimmaging 10 v 10 . Some good some looked like crap.

 

YES! THANK YOU GOD!

 

Maybe we'll win some coin flips now!

 

Jesus lives... Thank You.

 

And Busch will not need to start the game facing the sun any more.