Official - 2022 roster moves and signings thread.

Yeah, Vasquez coming back signals to me we haven't landed a DP 10 and don't even have someone lined up for summer. Hope I'm wrong, but he's occupying both the role and the intl slot that player would've likely taken.

I'm not averse to letting Efrain have the keys, either.

 

It appears Rusnak will be a full DP for Seattle. I suspect the Galaxy dropped out when the bidding from Europe upped the price beyond TAM eligibility

The big news in this is that Rusnák will be a "full" Designated Player. I re-confirmed my reporting that they had tried to get him on a TAM-able deal, but suspect that foreign interest made that too tough of a sell.

— Jeremiah Oshan (@JeremiahOshan) January 13, 2022

 

I’m probably in the minority, but I would have taken Rusnak as a DP. Knows the league, puts you good numbers, and fills a position of need.

At this point, I’d even be content if we signed Pavon as a DP for all the same reasons I thought Rusnak was worthy of a DP spot.

 

IMO, the failure to sign Rusnak as a DP is a major failure by the FO. I don't hear to many criticisms of Seattle's FO and they had no problem signing him as a DP (I assume moving Joao Paulo to a TAM slot (as his salary was way under the TAM maximum in 2021).

I do not want to make this personal or adversarial, so I will make this an open question to the board. Now that this shipped has sailed, who do you think the Galaxy can and should sign as their second DP and why?

 

Seattle is making it a habit of signing league vets. I think it’s a smart strategy. Wish we did that. They’ve been excellent in free agency and now this.

 

Rusnak was injured a lot in 2020. Last season he played all 35 games.

 

He did miss both RSL's playoff wins because he got Covid, which may have been why it seemed like he was still often out due to injury.

On the other hand, RSL won in the playoff games against Seattle and SKC when he was out last year and they lost in the championship game against Portland when he was back. So, maybe he wasn't as critical to their success as everyone assumed

 

This is just my opinion but I don’t think Alvarez would be much of a CAM. He has played there a few games and looked underwhelming. I see the appeal - he has the close ball control associated with CAMs and can make pretty accurate “chip passes” to teammates. But I don’t see much else to recommend him for the position. His field vision and awareness is very average. He’s not one who finds through balls like Sacha does. He is one-footed, his work rate is low, and he isn’t strong or quick. Pass.

Overall Alvarez has built his rep on a great cut move to the left and a good left footed shot. And he’s added the occasional sweet chip pass (emphasis on occasional). But those 3 skills comprise about 90% of his skill set, as far as I can tell. Hopefully he will add to his repertoire this season.

As far as CAM I would rather play Sacha there.

 

I saw he played 35 games last season and was incorrectly thinking RSL played one playoff game so just assumed this was 34+1 playoff. Maybe the stat I saw included non-league games.

 

Rusnak played 34 games straight last season without miss. He went back to Slovakia? to play for his team and got the Rona and had to sit out for a couple weeks toward end of season/playoffs.

I think it was the DP status that got him passed Galaxy. I am on the camp that wanted him but for as much TAM as we could muster. I want the DP to be more of an impact player on this team or at least that is my hope. Someone who brings the team together and makes it dangerous and highly competitive as a whole. Don't care about individual flair from him tho that would be nice.

 

You may be right. I felt like he was showing improvement last year. He was often the most positive/creative player on the pitch when he entered the game and his work rate definitely was a step up from prior years. I saw several times where he slipped in passes to onrushing players from the top of the box. In any event, if you're not going to start him, Vasquez, or Kljestan, then your options on the current roster are pretty thin. Raveloson? Jonathan Perez? Aguirre? Sign Jorge Hernandez from G2?

 

What if we didn’t pass on Rusnak but he passed on us? Playing for Seattle who is a legit contender under their coach seems like a better option to me than playing for a team that is being rebuilt year after year.

 

Rusnak was not injured a lot in 2020 (the shortened Covid years). Depending upon which source you use he played in either 16 (MLS Stats) or 17 (TransferMarkt) games. RSL didn't make the playoffs in 2020 (except for the MLS is Back Tournament which may account for the game discrepancy), and played in 22 games per MLS. Rusnak missed a block of 5 games in Oct of 2020 when he was with his national team and 1 game in November (as far as I can tell for the same reason). Otherwise, he pretty much played 90 minutes almost every game.

 

You think the dude and his agent were paying attention to outgoing players?

"Sebastian Lletget left the L.A. Galaxy to join the New England Revolution and said, “I want to be on a team that wins and has the ability to win.” Let that sink in for a minute."

 

“I want to win and be on a team that has the ability to a win” - Joins a team that has never won anything.

Lleget would have stayed if we asked him too.

If Cabral hit his xG numbers from last year he would of had similar stats to Rusnak last year. Doubtful it would happen, but it wouldn’t really be overachieving, it would just be achieving.

If Raheem Edwards can lock down the LB spot and balance out our attack so we don’t exclusively attack through Araujo next year, we might actually be fun to watch.

 

I disagree on his passing and field vision, which I think are both very good. Particularly, I think he actually has a very good through ball. I do think the other critiques are valid, vis-a-vis his athleticism and he's very left-footed -- but he'll also be just 20 this season.

I mean...

S. Kljestan: 5G, 4A in 1394 minutes

E. Alvarez: 2G, 3A in 1253 minutes

Whoscored actually rated them the same on the season. At those numbers, I'd lean on the younger guy, who can build some skills.

 

That is certainly possible, and Seattle's line-up is certainly more attractive to a CAM like Rusnak than the Galaxy's. I was going by the COG podcast where it was implied that the Galaxy had not made an offer because of the quick denial of whatever FO source Josh at COG had contacted.

I would have assumed that the Galaxy could have offered more money (if that was a motivating factor), but perhaps there is some priority or silent auction equivalent to discovery rights to keep MLS teams from entering a bidding against each other for MLS free agents.

 

If no offer was made, that truly shows how behind we are on and off the field. Inexcusable.

 

So you are saying it's Josh's fault. Interesting. Seriously tho, I am very nervous how we are approaching the season as far as improving the team is concerned.

That second part would be called collusion in some circles. Keeping market value down by agreeing to not bid up free agents seeking max pay for their services. I am sure the player's union and some labor attorneys would be very interested in just how that mechanism works if indeed there is something like that.

 

I was thinking that like in a silent auction, the league could ask interested teams to provide their maximum bid for the free agent (this would not necessarily be collusion). The highest bidder would then get first chance to sign the free agent who would be free to decline the offer or negotiate for a higher amount with that team alone. If the player declined the second highest bidder would gain that right again without being limited to their bid amount, but the original bidder would be out of the picture unless the player decided to accept the last contract offered.

 

MLS and the MLSPA developed a free agency system back in 2015 when they settled a potential strike by agreeing to a new CBA. It allows limited eligibility, but also limited % raises for free agents. There's no labor or antitrust law issue with this because (1) it was done as part of a CBA which afford MLS a complete exemption from antitrust laws, and, to a lesser extent, (2) MLS is a single entity organization and all players are employees of the league, not of the teams. When they move from one team to another, it's like getting transferred from a corporation's Salt Lake City division to its Seattle division. Limiting salary increases in that situation is a defense to antitrust, but there's a question of whether MLS is really single entity anymore and it's not clear that it would win in court on that alone if it didn't also have a CBA. It did win in 2001 though when it was litigated prior to the players forming a union.

My guess is that Rusnak was deciding between deals that cut his salary and chose the one that cut it the least. If he was agreeing to an increase, it would be a relatively modest one under the CBA, although I don't know the exact maximum % increase permitted since the long form document of the most recent CBA has not been made public yet.

 

I don't think we're in on Arriola anymore, but since people are so desperate for mention of the Galaxy in any news, I thought I would post it here

Update on D.C. United and USMNT winger Paul Arriola:

I'm told Liga MX's Club America have made multiple bids, while LA Galaxy and other MLS clubs have been in contact with D.C. United.

Arriola, 26, has 89 apps with D.C., where he's a DP and 42 caps with the US national team.

— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) January 14, 2022

 

Twitter is a depressing pool of “we need a signing!” And “our FO sucks.”

hard not to agree!! Might be a good day to just put the phone down and enjoy time with the family.

 

But the weather and beaches are nicer here! Doesn't that count for anything anymore??

I guess we have to find an older, washed up guy from Europe that might value the sunshine and beach more.