Well, the time is here. Off-season. Stadium construction. Expansion draft protected lists. Superdrafts. New signings. Trades. Updated roster rules, salary cap, and a new CBA. I took Accam out since he is traded to Nashville. And I moved Crognale up to Supplemental as he has aged out of HG/Reserve. I have tried to put players where I think they will fit on the roster next year, IF they are retained. As you can see, we are over on Senior and Supplemental, which makes sense given the season ending injuries to Valenzuela & Pipa & the loans of Abubakar & Cadden. Still unsure on some stuff regarding the expansion draft. Are loaned players eligible for selection (Lalas & Cadden)? Do any of our players have a no-trade clause (and thus we must protect them)? Again, under the new CBA, we could have all kinds of different rules. More roster spots, more international spots, higher caps, etc. But working off last year's rules for now. A. Rules & Regs (2019) Link: https://www.mlssoccer.com/league/official-rules/mls-roster-rules-and-regulations B. General Stuff: 1. Salary Cap = $4,240,000 (2019) A) On Budget: Only Senior Roster Spots count against the Cap B) Players on Season Ending Injury list also count vs. the Cap, though one replacement player may be off cap under certain circumstances. C) Up to 20 Senior Roster spots. 18 must be filled. Min budget charge is made if spots 19 & 20 are not filled. D) Max budget charge is $530,000. Allocation $$ and DP rules can reduce a player's budget charge below their listed salary number. E) Off-Budget: Supplemental (21-24) and Reserve (25-30) Rosters do not count towards the salary cap. II. Estimated Roster Compositions 1. Senior Roster: 21/18-20 Players: A) 20 Player max on Senior Roster, subject to Season Ending Injury List, Disabled List, and Loan exceptions. B) Generally, this is the highest 20 paid players, though HG players and GA players can be on other rosters. Rank, Player, Pos, Age,DOB, HT, WT, Nat, Desig(s), Base $$/Guar $$ 1, Zardes, F, 28, 9/2/91, 6'1", 187, USA, DP, $1,421,667/$1,471,667 2. Higuain, M, 34, 10/25/84, 5'8", 165, Argentina, GC: $1.1 mil/$1.1 mil 3. Mensah, D, 29, 7/13/90, 6'2", 183, Ghana, GC: $800,004/$894,004 4. Santos, M, 31, 4/22/88, 5'6", 139, Portugal, DP, Int#1: $817,560/$864,560 5. Trapp, M, 26, 1/15/93, 5'8", 150, USA, $549,996/$593,746 6. Mokhtar, M, 28, 8/29/91, 5'9", 159, Morocco, Int#2, $459,996/$533,845. 7. de Lima (Artur), M, 23, 3/11/96, 5'11", 154, Brazil, GC: $360,000/$411,633 8. Afful, D, 33, 7/24/86, 5'6", 135, Ghana, GC: $288,100/$363,800 9. Room, GK, 30, 2/6/89, 6'3", 179, Curacao & Netherlands, Int#3, $300k/$354,694. 10. Diaz, M, 20, 12/6/98, 5'11", 159, Costa Rica, Int#4, YDP, $300k/$333,900. 11. Valenzuela, D, 21, 8/13/98, 5'6", 145, Argentina, GC, Int: $290,000/$321,300 12. Guzman, M, 29, 2/18/80, 5'9", 172, Costa Rica, GC, $300,000/$320,000. 13. J. Williams, D, 31, 4/18/88, 6'2", 185, USA: $215,000/$215,000 14. Jimenez, D/M, 30, 11/3/88, 5'9", 145, USA: $200,000/$200,000 15. W. Francis, D, 29, 9/20/90, 5'9", 160, Costa Rica, GC, $160,000/$199,167 16. Clark, M, 36, 2/10/83, 5'10", 165, USA, $160,000/$160,000 17. Cadden, M/D, 23, 9/19/96, 6'0", 168, Scotland, INT, $???/$??? 18. Abubakar, D, 24, 12/25/94, 6'0", 180, Ghana, GC, $135,000/$144,398 19. Hamilton, F, 23, 3/17/96, 6'0", 185, Canada, HGI, $124,992/$137,659 20. Sosa, M, 23, 6/20/96, 5'7", 165, Venezuela, Int#5: $100,000/$120,200 ----------- 21. R. Williams, F, 25, 8/15/94, 5'11", 170, Jamaica, GC, $78,650/$78,650 --------------------------------------------------- 2. Supplemental Roster: 5 of 4 Players (21-24) A) Up to 4 players. Do not count vs. salary cap. Subject to SE Injury Replacement, Disabled List, and Loan exceptions. B) May include Senior Minimum Budget Players ($70,250), Generation Adidas players (who may earn more), and Homegrown Players (who may earn more). Rank, Player, Pos, Age,DOB, HT, WT, Nat, Desig(s), Base $$/Guar $$ 21. JJ Williams, F, 21, 1/4/98, 6'3", 200, USA, GA, $95,000/$149,750 22. Opoku, M/F, 23, 8/1/96, 5'7", 140, USA/Ghana, GA, $85,000/$106,000 23. Crognale, D, 25, 8/27/94, 6'5", 205, USA, HG, $104,504/$104,504 24. Kempin, GK, 26, 4/8/93, 6'1", 175, USA: $71,664/$71,664. ------------ 25. Maloney, D, 24, 5/18/95, 5'6", 145, USA: $70,250/$70,250 --------------- 3. Reserve Roster (25-28) A) Players must be either earning the Reserve Minimum Salary ($56,250) or be Homegrown Players earning more via the HG Subsidy. B) Players must be 24 or younger during the League YEAR. As determined by Year of birth, not date (I am not sure what this means exactly, is someone who turns 25 during the season eligible or not?). C) Senior Min Players & GA Players cannot occupy these spots. Rank, Player, Pos, Age,DOB, HT, WT, Nat, Desig(s), Base $$/Guar $$ 25. Argudo, M, 23, 12/13/95, 5'9", 150, USA: $57,225/$57,225 26. Lundgaard, GK, 24, 9/25/95, 6'5", 205, USA: $57,225,$57,225 27. Open 28. Open ----------------------------------------- 4. HomeGrown Reserve Roster (29-30) A) Must be Homegrown Players. B) Same Budget & Age rules as Reserve Roster 25-28 players. Rank, Player, Pos, Age,DOB, HT, WT, Nat, Desig(s), Base $$/Guar $$ 29. Keita, D, 19, 4/6/00, 6'2, 180, USA, HG, $90,000/$110,000 30. Open --------------- 7. Designated Players: 3 of 3 Zardes, Santos, Diaz (Young DP) --------------------------- 8. International Roster Spots: 6 (or 7) of 8. Santos, Valenzuela, Diaz, Room, Mokhtar, Sosa. Unsure if Cadden counts yet. ------------ 9. Green Card Holders = 9. Higuain, Mensah, Afful, Abubakar, W. Francis, de Lima (Artur), Guzman, Accam, R. Williams. ------------------------------------------------------- Any corrections, comments, etc are always welcome.
Expansion draft musings: https://www.mlssoccer.com/media-resources/2019-expansion-draft-rules 1) Can protect 12 2) Can only lose 1 player 3) GA players (Opoku, JJ Williams) & HGs (Keita, Crognale) cannot be selected & therefore do not need to be protected if 25 & under. 4) Players with a no-trade clause must be protected. 5) Clubs with 4+ INT players MUST protect at least 3 INT players. 6) If a team selects a player from a team's reserve/supplemental roster, they must offer them a senior roster spot. 7) Expiring contracts/FAs still must be protected. 8) Draft is on 11/19. 9) Lists due 11/14. 10) No idea if Abubakar & Cadden can be selected or not. 11) No idea if we have anyone with a no-trade clause.
Do not know how far into the weeds on salary cap & GAM & TAM we want to go. Since it is relevant to roster discussion, I will mention some stuff here. I will also note that I really am not sure how some of this stuff works in practice, and MLS does not go into too much detail. And it is all subject to change next season. Nor do I know if base or guaranteed salary is used for the cap charge. Best guesses as always. 1. Cap stuff A. 2019 Cap = $4,240,000. B. Max Budget charge = $530,000 C. Young DP Midseason = $150,000 D. Crew 2019 total base salary for 20 SR players (not pro-rated), includes Pipa & Valenzuela = $9,035,969. Without those two = $7,645,969. E. Crew total guaranteed $$ for 20 (including Pipa & Valenzuela) = $9,811,745. Without those two = $8,390,445. F. Base salaries + DP/YDP budget charges & using 500k for bought down players = $5,931,738 (2020, n/i Cadden, Zardes/Santos as DPs, Diaz YDP; Pipa, Mensah, Trapp bought down to 500k). Even with $900k of buy downs, we are still $1.6 million over. The rest of that difference has to come from: additional buy downs, pro-rated salaries of mid-season acquisitions (or prior club paying some salary), or goofs by me. This also leads us to GAM/TAM, but I have not the energy now.
Accam received a green card four years ago: https://www.chicago-fire.com/post/2015/10/02/david-accam-and-adailton-receive-us-green-cards
Lalas Abubakar would have to be protected he is our player. It would not be Colorado’s issue unless we made a deal before the expansion protected list deadline which I think we can not do. Cadden however is on loan outside of the country so maybe that changes things but one would think he should be protected or would otherwise be available for one of the expansion teams to select
I thought DP players automatically had to be protected ??? I hope your right and we don’t have too protect Higuaín. Otherwise maybe he can retire and help us out . But this list is according to the rules listed. Protect list Zardes Mensah Santos Trapp Mokhtar Artur Afful Room Diaz Valenzuela Abubakar Cadden
No, DP's are treated just like any other player. The only players a team MUST protect are players with no trade clauses (who are usually the DPs). Good catch on Accam's Green card.
Salary questions based off your salaries listed / DP list : 7. Designated Players: 3 of 3 Zardes, Santos, Diaz (Young DP) Zardes is for sure a DP Santos will likely be bought down with TAM but also depends how much we agree to pay him on his new contract and what the new threshold for a DP player Díaz - I thought him and Valenzuela would not be considered a young DP anymore ( how does that work ? Trapp- wouldn’t he also need a lil TAM to keep him under DP salary ? If that threshold does increase he would not need TAM but he is just slightly over currently
Removed Accam from the Green Card list. Also, I saw that Cadden's salary on the player's site was 56k, which would put him on the reserve roster. No idea if that will be the case next year or not, but as it is the latest salary info we have, I have put him on the reserve roster. With Cadden on reserve, we now have 20 on Senior Roster but appear to be over on Supplemental due to Crognale's ageing off reserve/HG. A. Rules & Regs (2019) Link: https://www.mlssoccer.com/league/official-rules/mls-roster-rules-and-regulations B. General Stuff: 1. Salary Cap = $4,240,000 (2019) A) On Budget: Only Senior Roster Spots count against the Cap B) Players on Season Ending Injury list also count vs. the Cap, though one replacement player may be off cap under certain circumstances. C) Up to 20 Senior Roster spots. 18 must be filled. Min budget charge is made if spots 19 & 20 are not filled. D) Max budget charge is $530,000. Allocation $$ and DP rules can reduce a player's budget charge below their listed salary number. E) Off-Budget: Supplemental (21-24) and Reserve (25-30) Rosters do not count towards the salary cap. II. Estimated Roster Compositions 1. Senior Roster: 21/18-20 Players: A) 20 Player max on Senior Roster, subject to Season Ending Injury List, Disabled List, and Loan exceptions. B) Generally, this is the highest 20 paid players, though HG players and GA players can be on other rosters. Rank, Player, Pos, Age,DOB, HT, WT, Nat, Desig(s), Base $$/Guar $$ 1, Zardes, F, 28, 9/2/91, 6'1", 187, USA, DP, $1,421,667/$1,471,667 2. Higuain, M, 34, 10/25/84, 5'8", 165, Argentina, GC: $1.1 mil/$1.1 mil 3. Mensah, D, 29, 7/13/90, 6'2", 183, Ghana, GC: $800,004/$894,004 4. Santos, M, 31, 4/22/88, 5'6", 139, Portugal, DP, Int#1: $817,560/$864,560 5. Trapp, M, 26, 1/15/93, 5'8", 150, USA, $549,996/$593,746 6. Mokhtar, M, 28, 8/29/91, 5'9", 159, Morocco, Int#2, $459,996/$533,845. 7. de Lima (Artur), M, 23, 3/11/96, 5'11", 154, Brazil, GC: $360,000/$411,633 8. Afful, D, 33, 7/24/86, 5'6", 135, Ghana, GC, $288,100/$363,800 9. Room, GK, 30, 2/6/89, 6'3", 179, Curacao & Netherlands, Int#3, $300k/$354,694. 10. Diaz, M, 20, 12/6/98, 5'11", 159, Costa Rica, Int#4, YDP, $300k/$333,900. 11. Valenzuela, D, 21, 8/13/98, 5'6", 145, Argentina, GC, Int#5: $290,000/$321,300 12. Guzman, M, 29, 2/18/80, 5'9", 172, Costa Rica, GC, $300,000/$320,000. 13. J. Williams, D, 31, 4/18/88, 6'2", 185, USA: $215,000/$215,000 14. Jimenez, D/M, 30, 11/3/88, 5'9", 145, USA: $200,000/$200,000 15. W. Francis, D, 29, 9/20/90, 5'9", 160, Costa Rica, GC, $160,000/$199,167 16. Clark, M, 36, 2/10/83, 5'10", 165, USA, $160,000/$160,000 17. Abubakar, D, 24, 12/25/94, 6'0", 180, Ghana, GC, $135,000/$144,398 18. Hamilton, F, 23, 3/17/96, 6'0", 185, Canada, HGI, $124,992/$137,659 19. Sosa, M, 23, 6/20/96, 5'7", 165, Venezuela, Int#6: $100,000/$120,200 20. R. Williams, F, 25, 8/15/94, 5'11", 170, Jamaica, GC, $78,650/$78,650 --------------------------------------------------- 2. Supplemental Roster: 5 of 4 Players (21-24) A) Up to 4 players. Do not count vs. salary cap. Subject to SE Injury Replacement, Disabled List, and Loan exceptions. B) May include Senior Minimum Budget Players ($70,250), Generation Adidas players (who may earn more), and Homegrown Players (who may earn more). Rank, Player, Pos, Age,DOB, HT, WT, Nat, Desig(s), Base $$/Guar $$ 21. JJ Williams, F, 21, 1/4/98, 6'3", 200, USA, GA, $95,000/$149,750 22. Opoku, M/F, 23, 8/1/96, 5'7", 140, USA/Ghana, GA, $85,000/$106,000 23. Crognale, D, 25, 8/27/94, 6'5", 205, USA, HG, $104,504/$104,504 24. Kempin, GK, 26, 4/8/93, 6'1", 175, USA: $71,664/$71,664. ------------ 25. Maloney, D, 24, 5/18/95, 5'6", 145, USA: $70,250/$70,250 --------------- 3. Reserve Roster (25-28) A) Players must be either earning the Reserve Minimum Salary ($56,250) or be Homegrown Players earning more via the HG Subsidy. B) Players must be 24 or younger during the League YEAR. As determined by Year of birth, not date (I am not sure what this means exactly, is someone who turns 25 during the season eligible or not?). C) Senior Min Players & GA Players cannot occupy these spots. Rank, Player, Pos, Age,DOB, HT, WT, Nat, Desig(s), Base $$/Guar $$ 25. Argudo, M, 23, 12/13/95, 5'9", 150, USA: $57,225/$57,225 26. Lundgaard, GK, 24, 9/25/95, 6'5", 205, USA: $57,225,$57,225 27. Cadden, D/M, 23, 9/19/96, 6'0", 168, Scotland, Int#7, $56,250/$56,250 28. Open ----------------------------------------- 4. HomeGrown Reserve Roster (29-30) A) Must be Homegrown Players. B) Same Budget & Age rules as Reserve Roster 25-28 players. Rank, Player, Pos, Age,DOB, HT, WT, Nat, Desig(s), Base $$/Guar $$ 29. Keita, D, 19, 4/6/00, 6'2, 180, USA, HG, $90,000/$110,000 30. Open --------------- 7. Designated Players: 3 of 3 Zardes, Santos, Diaz (Young DP, may not count next year). --------------------------- 8. International Roster Spots: 7 of 8. Santos, Valenzuela, Diaz, Room, Mokhtar, Sosa, Cadden. ------------ 9. Green Card Holders = 8. Higuain, Mensah, Afful, Abubakar, W. Francis, de Lima (Artur), Guzman, R. Williams. ------------------------------------------------------- Any corrections, comments, etc are always welcome.
In terms of Diaz/Valenzuela, Young DP in my view is just a roster designation teams can use to save a bit cap space if they have an open DP slot. Diaz makes $300k but YDP of age 20 only counts $150k (I think) on the cap sheet. A bit of room for the club. As for next year, it depends. If we end up with an open DP spot after various buy downs & player movements, I am sure we'd use that designation again to save some cap room. If not, then not. His salary is below DP threshold, so he does not need to be a DP for roster purposes. But for now, he is YDP. You can buy down salaries with TAM or GAM (the rule actually says budget charge, which is not really the same thing). The TAM provision states that if you buy down a player's budget charge so that they are no longer a DP, you have to simultaneously sign a DP of equal or greater cost than the player you bought down. In the GAM section, there is no mention of this simultaneous upgrade requirement, nor a specific mention of un-DPing a player, though it does specifically talk of buying down a DPs salary charge (and limit how much a player's salary charge can be reduced). Nor does the rule talk about subsequent years. If you buy down a player to un-DP them (Pipa, Mensah, Trapp?) in one year with GAM/TAM, does DP status reappear the next year unless bought down again? Is ANOTHER simultaneous upgrade required? If you re-sign/acquire a player with TAM/GAM, and they make more than DP money, are they a DP or not? Do they have to be double TAM/GAM'ed to ne bought down under DP level? Like I said, I have no idea how the GAM/TAM stuff applies to real transactions and it seems to me either way the rule is interpreted leads to absurd results.
I believe Diaz is a DP because we paid a million dollar transfer fee for him. Once upon a time transfer fees were amortized over the course of a contract but I believe they are applied now in the year they are paid. So if we didn't have the YDP slot for him, he would have cost 1.3 mil last year but because of the availability of the slot, he only counted 150K vs the salary budget.
While this certainly makes sense and explains why a player is a YDP one year and not the next (cannot be true if the transfer fee is averaged out over the length of the contract), it is not what the rule says. It says Salary Budget Charge, and thus DP status, is determined by averaging out "all amounts payable" over the guaranteed term of the contract (option years not included). If done this way, the cap number would be constant over the contract term. Thus it would be impossible for a player to have DP level salary one year & not the next (unless the DP threshold moves above his salary). The same result (at a lower salary level) would occur if MLS excluded the transfer fee from "all amounts payable." So either there is some provision we do not see that allows this (you can use TAM/GAM to cover transfer fees), Valenzuela was bought down last year, or MLS just does not follow their own rules.
or the rules posted on their site aren't current. I got the bit about transfer fees counting in the year they are paid from Jason Maxwell, a Rapids fan close to their front office. He got it from the Rapids. They had a similar question about a player and that was the explanation given.
Well you can also front load a contract heavier to strategically take advantage and still pay the overall salary the player desired
Diaz doesn't make more than a DP salary but he counts as a DP because of the transfer fee. The question is whether that will also be the case in 2020. My view is that he won't take a DP spot even without having his salary charge bought down.
I don't read the rule that way. Here's the full quote: You're assuming that "amounts payable" includes the transfer fee, and I don't think that's necessarily correct. At least that's not how I interpret it. To me, the rule means that if a player's contract is for 250K in year 1 + a 1 million fee, 500K in year 2, and 750K in year 3, the roster budget hit would be: - $1.5 million in year one (DP) - $500K in years two and three (just below DP)
I’d imagine payable is meant in the accounting sense i.e. if the transfer fee is paid in installments then future payments will count when made.
GEEZUS this make my head hurt! Can we just a damn salary cap and that's it? It's turned into one giant m'fing shell game....which is not surprising give MLS structure.
Your math appears terrible. If the transfer fee is excluded from amounts payable, it cannot impact the cap number, at all. Because it is excluded. How do you get the fee included but not averaged out? Show some support for that in the rule. PoD's explanation makes sense. But to me, when you post the rules for the season and do not follow them, that is nit a "current" issue, it is a not following the rules issue. But whatever, we'll see. In either case, Diaz will likely not be a DP next year.
Actually, that's pretty much what the players want in the new CBA. Drop all the TAM/GAM etc. crapola, just allow each team a salary budget. Period.