I would tend to agree, but I've been assuming all along that they believe Schulte will be leaving and they see Hagen as his successor as the starter. I don't love this theory but it's all I can come up with.
We used to keep 4 on the roster, with a guy for practice. Logan Ketterer and such. But with the 2nd team, don't really need it.
This has been my expectation, pretty much since he signed. Whether Shulte is sold this winter or in the summer or a year and a half from now, I think they see Hagan as his replacement.
I'm not anywhere near as sold as a lot of people here are on the idea of Patrick Schulte leaving for greener pastures right now this minute. The guy's a solid up-and-coming keeper who's already had looks with the Nats, but he's got some growing to do still. He's shaky on crosses and doesn't always cover his angles as well as he could. I could argue that he also makes the occasional mistake with the ball at his feet, but I won't, because I would venture a guess that keepers who play in systems like Nancy's just have more opportunities to screw up. I think if Schulte leaves anytime soon, he's either going to a second division team somewhere or he's rotting on somebody's bench. He's not there yet.
Or we could just keep him, point out what happened to the last keeper who left us early in his career, and entice him to stick it out over here. Keepers from MLS usually don't have a problem getting onto the USMNT if they are good. But if they go overseas, they can end up benched or loaned out to a league that is about MLS quality anyway.
I’m in favor of keeping Schulte but we needed a back up. If you get rid of Hagen you need another true back up …. Not Bush or Romero who are 3rd string kinda guys
From that article: "He was awarded a professional contract for his success this season and I believe it turns into a homegrown deal in 2025." Oh, he believes something might happen. That's just bullshit. MSLNP contracts are with the club. MLS contracts are with the league. There's no contractual alchemy that somehow makes an MLSNP contract convert to an MLS contract. I suppose the team may talk to a MLSNP player about a future MLS contract. They can even come to terms. Have it all lined up so that, at some point, the player signs a new MLS contract and becomes part of the senior team. But it's an entirely new contract, and it would make zero sense to somehow commit themselves to signing a player to a first team pro contact at the time that they signed the player to a MLSNP contract, even if there were a way of doing so. I can see that the Crew told Presthus that he's one of their seven Affiliate Priority Players, since teams can only claim the rights to up to seven players on the MLSNP team. They may have told him it's their intention to offer him a first team contract. They may have even come to terms with him. But a MLSNP contract being structured to "convert" to an MLS contract doesn't make much sense. Not to mention, many/most MLSNP players don't develop in MLSNP to the extent hoped for and never make it onto an MLS roster.
I don't think there's any convincing you, but this is how it works. Chairez is the best in the game. Here are some other examples. https://bsky.app/profile/josernunez91.bsky.social/post/3lbuao275r22k Here's it in an official press release https://www.atlutd.com/2/news/atlanta-united-2-signs-ashton-gordon A guy like presthus who committed to Maryland wasn't going to sign a second team deal that destroys his eligibility without some commitment beyond the second team deal.