Disappearing Players?

All the players you've listed are players whose contracts with MLS expired at the end of 2002. In some cases, 2002 was the last year of their contract, while for others, MLS chose not to exercise their option for 2003.

What I've been wondering is what happens to a player who will end up at a new team if/when he re-signs with MLS?

For instance, suppose New England isn't interested in having Carlos Llamosa on their team at $100k/yr but, say, DC United is. If MLS can re-sign Llamosa at $100k/yr, do they then orchestrate a "trade" of Llamosa to DC, or can DC sign him without NE receiving any compensation?

 

I'm curious about this as well. We know there is no free agency in MLS so I assume they operate on something like the old MLB 'reserve clause' system where even out of contract players are tied to their last team, hence LA trading for APC. In the rest of the world LA should've been able to sign him on a free transfer, but here even though his contract with MLS expired (apparently) LA had to trade for him to secure his rights when/if he re-signs.

At some point though those rights to a player have to expire. Say Mathis decides to leave on a free when his contract expires at the end of this season and goes somewhere in Europe. The Metros won't have waived his rights at that point, and presumably will be trying all season to get him to sign an extension. Should they still have the rights to him when he returns at the end of his career (a la Stewart and maybe Reyna etc..)? Under MLB's reserve clause the answer would be yes, but I can't see the rest of the league accepting that a player who has been out of the league for such a period of time should go back to his own club. Rather I think MLS will want to go the same route they did with Stewart and look to teams with allocations and then inverse order of finish.

Of course all of this would be much clearer if MLS made contract information public and let us know what happens to the rights to out of contract players.

 

I read somewhere on mlsnet.com that if a player goes overseas his previous MLS team retains his rights. As for the Llamosa scenario, I would think that at some point in time the Revs would have t waive his rights, or be close enough to the cap that they can't sign him. In either case, he should go into some kind of waiver draft. If we don't want him back and DC does I wouldn't expect to see any compensation.

 

The new and updated roster will probably be ready for the pre-season. Be patient

 

Stoichkov-DC (unfortunate hes not very good)
John Harkes- possible DC (i pray not)

 

Matt Jordan is having a couple trials in Europe. He has planned for a couple years now to try his luck there when his contract ran out. There is still a chance he might return to MLS, as the Burn are not against having him back. The Burn are prepared to go with DJ Countess if necessary.

Jorge Rodriguez is also out of contract. He just won a championship with FAS in El Salvador. The Burn held an option year on his contract but it was not at terms they liked. Zarco is not a starter anymore but wants to keep starter money. They Burn's official stance is that they would like to bring Zarco back, but only at a number they can fit under the cap... Which means Zarco won't be back.

You can keep up with all Burn roster movement here... http://www.3rddegree.net/season/dance.htm

 

I think what pdolan is asking is a rhetorical question.

We all know about Jordan in Portugal, Cannon in France, etc.

But there haven't been any announced waivers other than Cloutier. So how are all these players all of a sudden gone from the rosters?

Balboa, Paule and Williams gone from the Metros? That's new info, but yet, we've had no announcement of such.

 

Exactly. Because MLS doesn't release any contract info we don't know that these players are out of contract and won't be back. MLS did announce that Cloutier was waived. For the others all we as fans knew was that a bunch of players were on our roster one day and gone the next, and rumours about trials overseas or possible trades.

 

Since these players are not listed on MLS rosters, I think we can be 99% sure that they are (or were recently) out of contract.

Now as to whether they'll be back, that's a different story.

Henderson is showing up on today's Rapids roster at mlsnet.com so apparently he re-signed over the weekend.

Alexi Lalas and Marcelo Balboa are likely to return to MLS this year, but probably at lower salaries.

Dante Washington may or may not return. Zarco Rodriguez is unlikely to return. And so on, and so on.

 

I completely agree. Them being out of contract is certainly the most plausible reason for their disappearances from the rosters. My point is that it would have been nice to know that Llamosa, Rooney, APC etc... were going to be out of contract at the end of the year in advance. Knowing that would make the offseason much more interesting and give us as fans a better idea of what's happening and why.

 

If that were true, then why is it that when Martin Machon went on a one year loan to a team in Mexico he returned into the draft pool rather than to L.A.?

 

Punishment for the Galaxy carrying Andrew Shue on the league's payroll for a year?

 

I'm not familiar with the situation. LA could have waived his rights, or they could have had him on a temporary basis, or they could have changed or forgotten to enforce the rules. I'm pretty sure that I read about the teams retaining the player's rights recently, possible about the SJ players flying the coop.

 

It would have to be a new rule, otherwise there wouldn't be a question about where Joe Max Moore will go.

 

Daniv was waived today.

 

I don't think so. JMM was sold to Everton so his rights in theory would've transfered as well. Afterall if MLS sells a player they are voluntarily letting them out of the league. Now that he is returning his rights in MLS should be available to whichever team can secure them (at least in theory). Of course he is the first player MLS has sold who has since come back so we can't be sure. However, if a player leaves on a free transfer (Cannon, Barrett, Razov?) MLS did not voluntarily let them go. Afterall I'm sure that the various clubs and MLS make every effort to resign their star players. Some may just want to go abroad, others may feel they were lowballed by the league, whatever the reason MLS realizes no benefit from their departure. Therefore, perhaps as a favor to the team losing the player, MLS allows them to hold onto those rights within MLS for some indeterminate period.

Otherwise MLS would have free agency, players out of contract would be able to sign with whichever team they wanted. Obviously that is not the case. Perhaps single entity complicates this, since all players sign with the league rather than with a team. I'd love to see MLS help clarify this (and so much more).

 

Didn't New England receive an allocation back when Joe-Max went to Everton?

If so, then the Revs presumably should have to use an allocation to get him back.

If, however, the Revs did not receive an allocation when Moore went to England, then they should still have the rights to him and would not need to use an allocation.

 

It could work that way too. I'm pretty sure the Revs got an allocation for losing JMM. But allocations are such a mysterious process that I'd hate to have to depend on them for much. According to MLS allocations are awarded by something called the League Competition Committee based on players lost and team record. The 'you suck' allocations are pretty straightforward but there aren't any public guidlines for the ones as compenstaion for players lost.

In any event JMM to the Revs seems like a done deal. As you say if the Revs still own his MLS rights there is no problem in that. However, if they no longer own his MLS rights (for whatever reason) there will be a huge problem. According to the system Gazidis laid out prior to Stewart signing w/DCU Col should have first crack at him (only remaining allocation) then the other eight teams in MLS who finished worse than NE (including Col again), then finally NE. Rumor has it that he has told MLS he will sign for a lower amount if he goes to NE and for the max if he goes anywhere else. Doesn't seem right but MLS will probably bend things enough to get the deal done. It'll be intersting to see how they justify it after the fact.

 

The Boston Globe reports Carlos Llamosa has signed with Colombia's Athletico Nacional.

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/028/sports/Offense_should_be_maximal+.shtml