Dynamo Contract Option Day Updates

Besides AJDG and Dylan Remick (great value even for depth purposes) I am not attached to the Backline.

Is Boni still cheap enough to keep for bench purposes? Clark? Alexander?

Up front...Cubo is still under contract iirc. Hopefully we can dissolve this expensive experiment.
Elis, Quioto and Manotas (21, 26, and 22).
If Cabrera can get this Trident to really click...which I believe he can...its a scary young fast front line. BUT! If we can shed Cubo and add another Dynamic strike/winger I wouldn't be mad either.
From what I've seen from Quioto I really think he would make a great CF vs the Winger role he plays in now.

 

HA!

 

According to Corey Roepken: Dynamo declined contract options on 11 players, including veterans Ricardo Clark, A.J. DeLaGarza, and Tyler Deric.

He tweeted more....

Club in discussion to bring back DeLaGarza

Clark will explore free agency but could return

Deric still suspended so club waiting until resolved

New contracts offered to; Alex, Remick, Willis.

In discussion with Alexander, Beasley, Boniek

Picked up contract options for Kevin Garcia, Leonardo, Malki, Ward, Memo, Senderos, Wenger

USL contracts offered to Callie Brown and Lucatero

Declined purchase of Escalante loan

Sanchez still deciding if he wants to play or retire

No updates on Cabezas or Elis. Club has until 12/31

 

HOUSTON DYNAMO PLAYERS CURRENTLY UNDER CONTRACT

DEFENDERS (5)
No. Player Pos. MLS Exp. Age Ht. Wt. FIFA Nationality
3 Adolfo Machado DF 1 31 6-0 160 Panama
4 Philippe Senderos DF 1 32 6-2 181 Switzerland
16 Kevin Garcia DF 1 26 6-0 185 USA
21 George Malki DF 1 24 5-10 160 USA
22 Leonardo DF 8 29 6-2 185 Brazil
MIDFIELDERS (4)
No. Player Pos. MLS Exp. Age Ht. Wt. FIFA Nationality
5 Juan David Cabezas* MF 1 25 6-0 175 Colombia
18 Memo Rodriguez MF 1 21 5-8 145 USA
25 Tomás Martínez MF 1 22 5-9 145 Argentina
28 Charlie Ward MF 1 22 5-8 168 England
FORWARDS (5)
No. Player Pos. MLS Exp. Age Ht. Wt. FIFA Nationality
9 Erick Torres FW 5 24 5-11 168 Mexico
11 Andrew Wenger MF 6 26 6-0 185 USA
12 Romell Quioto FW 1 25 5-11 170 Honduras
17 Alberth Elis* FW 1 20 6-0 165 Honduras
19 Mauro Manotas FW 3 22 6-0 155 Colombia

*loan guys technically out of loan at end of year but not now

 

"The club picked up contract options on seven players for the 2018 season – DF Kevin Garcia, DF Leonardo, DF George Malki, MF Charlie Ward, MF Memo Rodriguez, DF Philippe Senderos and FW Andrew Wenger.

The club declined contract options on 11 players – DF Jalil Anibaba, GK Calle Brown, MF Ricardo Clark, DF A.J. DeLaGarza, GK Tyler Deric, MF José Escalante, MF Boniek García, MF Joe Holland, DF Taylor Hunter, MF Christian Lucatero and FW Vicente Sánchez.

Five players’ contracts expired following the conclusion of the 2017 season – MF Alex, MF Eric Alexander, DF DaMarcus Beasley, DF Dylan Remick and GK Joe Willis.

Finally, the loans for MF Juan David Cabezas (Deportivo Cali, Colombia) and FW Alberth Elis (CF Monterrey, Mexico) are set to expire on December 31. Houston has until that date to negotiate a full transfer or extend the loan for each player."

https://www.houstondynamo.com/post/2017/12/05/dynamo-announce-roster-moves-season-comes-close

 

GK: Deric for various reasons couldn't stay on the field and Willis sucks. Brown couldn't beat Willis out apparently. Blow it up. Fine.

DF: I approve of Machado back and the declined options and letting Beasley expire. However, I would have retained Remick. Leonardo was subpar and injured and Senderos couldn't even stay healthy enough to see the field. Garcia sucks to the point of incompetence and Malki ACL'd himself (and didn't impress me before that). Particularly on Garcia and Malki I can't believe the average market back or RGV guy wouldn't be better.

MID: I kind of like the retained set -- though I think who knows if Martinez is worth the salary yet and have no idea on Ward as a first teamer. I agree with all the declined options and expirations. Please do not bring back Clark/ Alexander/ Boniek for cheaper. Get some quality in. No real emotion on whether to retain Cabezas. Serviceable but is he really the long term foundation? I kind of doubt it. I don't see him as the level of Clark that you could build around for a decade. But he'd be ok if they did buy him.

FW: I generally agree with the "keep the four headed monster" chorus. If affordable. Not sure they helped "affordable" optioning the rarely used Wenger, whom they largely refuse to use out of spot at places we do need help. That was a decent size salary they didn't need to keep, even if his effort and mouth are honest. Need to get Elis back. I'd hoped Torres was out of deal but he was productive (I can only hope again) and with all the no-options and expirations we will have some mad money.

OVERALL: I like what he did with the offense but he will have to reboot the midfield.

Defensive selections are poor and defense continues to be the soft spot. CB was not dominant enough and he locked us into CB. Wingback depth sucked and he brought some of that back.

Fair amount of pressure on Jordan to do his job well if he cuts this deep. I advocated it but then he has to earn his paycheck. We'll see.

 

One reason I don't like how he handled back is he perpetuated the age and quality issue right up the middle, and there's no way we're going to spend on CB alternatives above entry level with that degree of investment. So he basically recreated centrally the age problem he just struggled across the line with. He can go young on the wings but the marking backs will remain frustrating old farts. I'd hoped for them to push back, with the exception of Machado and Remick, in a younger direction to match our front line. To appear to be building something with 5 or more years in it. This will be the same gnashing of teeth and rending of garments watching to see if they can finish one season again. Or individual games.

 

Nominally he's on indefinite suspension for a domestic. That's Ray Rice. Do we know if he gets off or gets a year in jail? If convicted is he ever allowed back in the league. You don't know if you ever get him back.

If you believe in third or fourth chances, the suspension and its basis probably make him radioactive til resolved. In other words, if he doesn't have a grudge, and the charges end up unfounded, he'll probably be available. He is from here.

There would be a question of purpose on our part and whether it's just this issue or we've made a longer term judgment. If the idea is to start him his combination of recurring legal issues plus the injury thing means he hasn't grabbed the position. Past two years he's shared the job with Willis. They might just say pass on the bigger pattern while hiding behind the current issues and unknown. I know the combination of "can't stay healthy" and "can't stay on the field" soured me. I want an Onstad type who's back there and position settled. I don't want injuries, suspensions, quarterback controversies.

My thing with Willis is he's not a starter either so don't sign him like one, we can do better bench, not a starter, Little concerned him cycling back through over and over no matter how bad he plays is like a Savage or Yates type scenario. I felt like the data showed Deric could have turned the 19th place team into midtable last year. I have no urge to let Willis drag down further seasons. Cut the whole darned keeper corps and start over.

 

Tell Machado have a chat with Penedo.

 

Sign Remick and wait out Delagarza while we shop for younger backs.

Tell Alex to jump in a lake. He had 1 regular season assist after DC and disappeared for the playoffs. Giving a raise to a guy who didn't play much/effectively down the stretch is risk-averse Bruin-Barnes Talk. Take that money and the Alexander and Boniek and Clark money and get us a couple real center mid baller playmakers. Bring back the 2017 team and it will be a sub-title ceiling and like 2015-2016 it will be diminishing returns since people started to figure it out.

 

I think once he clears.... He'll sign again in Houston.
He has his home and family here. He just needs to get rid of that girl.
Maybe GK's really are crazy in the head.

 

Wenger's contract option is likely for same money he made last year or more. So vomit.

Not picking up AJ Delagarza's contract option was a terrible decision (if he ends up anywhere else). I would have tried to put together a three or four year deal for him.

If the plan is to let Beasley test the waters again, I would have signed Remick to an extension six months ago.

Lucatero is another example of the strength of the Dynamo youth pipeline. I don't know what went wrong or why, but he's another talented youngster that doesn't develop in Houston. With Luca, I wouldn't think there is some change in his status that happens this offseason (so it looks like an outright cut), but again - don't know for sure. I don't see how you don't just let him run back to RGV via loan again instead of offering him a deal with RGV directly. It's not like he's making much money at all and you don't exactly fill all your roster spots anyway.

Elis and Cabezas should have been ironed out already. The way you iron it out - you pay the option terms. Either Jordan and Dynamo put together loan deal with too big of a transfer fee b/c they knew it was one and done (b/c they know the FO won't pony up money for a good player and we are going to live and die by one year loan deals forever forward) - or Dynamo ownership is too cheap to pony up a reasonably amount of cash. Elis - you write the check. Cabezas shouldn't have been that much based on his playing time before Houston, but it's not like anyone is kept in the loop on these things.

Holland - oy vey. I would have brought him back next year if you believe the club option story because he is super cheap and showed some flashes before injury. I think they cut him outright but won't say it for some reason? I thought most first round draft picks sign very similar MLS deals with several years at low salaries part of the deal. They cut him because he takes an international roster spot though so it makes sense to give you flexibility, but it doesn't make sense to draft him in the first place if this continues to be about his international roster spot.

 

Yeah, it doesn't make a ton of sense. I like his work rate as a utility lunchpail sub but he's overpaid for the role. They did use him once or twice as a d-mid but not often enough to justify that pay rate, plus we will be signing some mids to go with Martinez. I think he could play back but doesn't. We have 3 signed forwards plus in theory Elis plus he's not even usually the first forward after them off the bench.

I might justify it as a swiss army player if he was really used all over the place including instead of crap bench defenders. But in the playoffs with attrition they ran Anibaba out there. So if we're going specialist -- and I am not horribly against that -- what's his specialty, where does he rank on the depth chart at his cost.

Ditto the talk of Alex coming back. He was not an impactful player in the playoffs and had no production after like mid-July. That he is a player with apparent demand elsewhere should not alter our own calculus. He either has a definite role here or not. That role either merits his salary demands or doesn't. I can either find someone better or not. I'm sure there are Astros players who were strong last spring who disappeared down the stretch, and are probably now fungible. You dance with who gets you there. It doesn't matter if Alex was the '16 MVP or had 10 assists before Gold Cup. This team was hottest at the end of the season and the first three playoff games, and that was not because of Alex. Move on. Let this other team overpay.

 

All depends on our mental state and how he feels treated. Did we not option him because we consider him a big picture problem child or is it just a negotiations/contingency move related to an issue we think might pass. It does make sense that he's from here and has been almost a fixture but have we said No mas. Was it on good terms til the cloud goes? Or was it a bad breakup?

I know I am frustrated that rather than an Onstad it's more flakey. The people who want to play off a Willis as inconsequentially there to hold the clipboard and carry the ball bag at modest salary need a starter who is so dependable that is what actually happens. I think we found out over time some of Onstad's backups weren't so hot, but he rarely gave you the opportunity to stress it. With the exception of one season -- 2015 I think -- Deric's backup is routinely pressed into action. I would understand if they either looked for a veteran upgrade or searched for a more reliable long term solution.

 

I agree that Elis and Cabezas should have been resolved earlier. We either have a definite purchase option price or not, and they are either worth it or not. Whatever I think of Cabezas, he was a routine starter. Both were. You either liked it at the going rate or not.

I realize the Manotas buy-down was probably a cap action but that at least felt decisive.

 

On the bright side, I thought Manotas was on his last year of his contract, but it appears that is not correct as they re-signed him when they secured his full acquisition rights. That is a pretty huge positive from my offseason expectations over the last month.

 

Delagarza is 30, looked slow and beat for pace at times, and just did an ACL. Why commit to that? Beasley is past it. Pass.

I mean, the defense looked mediocre. Got destroyed by Seattle and some others. 40+ GA for the regular season. Old. Does not scream to me, keep same thing. Says, that worked well enough for one decent season, don't double down.

I liked Holland's high energy passing thing but I think Martinez does similar things better, and over time Holland proved a little sloppy with possession and shy on defense. I would like to see time put into the RGV-type younger players but if you're 23-25 you either are ready or not. There's a list of people like Lucatero, K. Garcia, Escalante, been in the organization a few years, not done much. Pass. Clear the deck. Keep looking for someone who does impress. Loyalty is for veteran starters who produce. The kids, they are there for an opportunity and if they don't shine when trotted out, churn, on to the next one. Sounds cold but you only find Camerons by iteratively running through draft picks and HGP until one turns up. We can do a better job scouting and teaching but you shouldn't get 4-5 years to find yourself here. RGV is for getting playing time and showing what you have. When you get here, either play or go.

Part of my concern with the development system is it seems one note and non-responsive to needs. We have needed backs for years. Where are they? Where are some burners who can play wide or up top? What about Pina or the other keepers? Only thing we seem good at making is mediocre, technical, slow-afoot Hispanic midfield players of a type. I am not sure that type is actually a very good MLS template. A Memo or Alex Lopez player has to be willing and able to chase on defense, and a little technical is not very technical. I'd almost rather they put as much energy into players with height, speed, and also technique, players who might have a niche value in MLS. Pass happy NCAA mids who aren't that fast are a dime a dozen in college drafts, sorry. So maybe work on finding and dibs-ing physical specimens instead.