I'm curious if anyone has insight into the process. Let's say a player's contract expires over the summer (in this example, we'll use a guy by the name of John Thorrington). How does John come to MLS? Does his agent contact the head office and shop him? Do one of the teams in the league ask MLS to approach Thorrington about coming here? If he is signed, is he automatically entered into a dispersal lottery? Last year MLS approached Clint Baumstark and offered him a P-40 contract in the middle of the season. He signed, but was never "offered" in a dispersal draft. Instead, they used him to rotate around the league wherever teams had injury issues and were short. Anyway, this year he IS offered in the Super Draft and NO ONE DRAFTS HIM. So, does MLS pay him for not playing? I guess so. My point, what if Thorrington signed up, but none drafted him? Wouldn't a team have to have interest in him BEFORE MLS would sign him? Would MLS circulate a secret memo "hey, does anyone want Thorrington on thier team? He wants to join MLS." and gauge interest before offering a contract? Would they tell him "wait until Jan."? Twellman comes to mind. Was he out of contract in the summer and waited until the following spring?
For the most part if your not on a team, your not getting paid. The exception to this would be having a guarnteed contract. And even there it may depend on the wording. I can only find one reference to Clint Baumstark. And then was when DC United signed him late in the season because Nick Rimando got injured. I couldn't find that he playd for or was allocated to any other teams. What other teams were you talking about? It could be that he had trained with some other teams, but he wasn't on their roster.
Bob, he was with the Metros when Howard was playing for the USMNT and when Tim left for England (before Walker arrived). I believe he also filled in for another team, but I can't recall which one. It seems like a bummer situation. He was recruited to join MLS after the draft. He lost his NCAA eligibility of course. Then, instead of holding a "dispersal draft", the league decided he'd be more helpful as a keeper backup in case of injuries or callups. If you recall, MLS use to have an agreement with the A-League which allow teams to "bring up" a back up keeper in those situations. That agreement expired and was not renewed. Last year the league office recommended before the draft that teams try to find a way to carry 3 keepers on the roster. Some teams did by using either P-40s or developmental contracts. A few teams did not and it was those teams that MLS planned to use Baumstark for. What is interesting to me is the fact that at least DC and the Metros actually trained with him and this year neither one used a low draft pick to retain his services. As a P-40, he wouldn't have counted against the cap or roster. I guess both felt that they needed to use those 6 spots for other players. I'm not sure what's going to happen to him now. MLS has to pay him. Will they "loan" him to an A-League team? Is it possible that we'll see him in next year's draft?
If a guy like Thorrington, an American with an established professional career, wanted to sign with MLS, he would first be offered to teams with unused allocations. If nobody wanted to use an allocation on him, the official process would probably be the same used for Joe-Max Moore, Frankie Hejduk, and Jonny Walker. Call him a potential national-team pool player, and offer him to the teams in reverse order of their record. The league office would certainly check informally with the teams to make sure somebody wanted him before bothering to negotiate a contract. An alternative process would be a discovery pick. In that case the team identifies a player and asks the league to sign him using one of their two annual discovery picks. There are vague rules that determine whether a player is "discoverable" rather than requiring an allocation or going into a lottery draft. The lottery draft is, for the most part, is for the kind of players, who, if they had signed in the offseason, would have been placed in the regular draft. For Baumstark, how do you know the league has to pay him? They might have the right to terminate his contract. Or they could keep him in the same roving backup job he had last year.