This is actually a good point in showing how close things really are in MLS. I feel like the most a team can manage in this “MTJAG” scale is 7 players. But to get there you have to hit on all but 1 or 2 DPs or U22 players and have a few solid salary cap guys.
Xavier Valdez claimed off of waviers by Nashville. https://bsky.app/profile/speedwaysoccer.com/post/3ld7lisknsk2o
I don’t have a link handy, but Pat went on Glenn’s show a few days ago and said that there are no negotiations
Friday, Dec 20, 2024, 04:41 PM HOUSTON (Dec. 20, 2024) – Houston Dynamo FC selected Wake Forest University defender Bo Cummins with the No. 48 overall pick in the 2025 MLS SuperDraft. Cummins appeared in 64 matches and started 31 in four seasons at Wake Forest. The 21-year-old recorded 11 clean sheets and tallied an assist during his time with the Demon Deacons. Notably, Cummins was instrumental in helping lead Wake Forest to its fourth ACC Championship in program history in 2024, as well as its fifth ACC Atlantic Division title in nine seasons in 2023. The defender was also named to the 2024 ACC All-Tournament Team. Prior to playing collegiate soccer, Cummins was highly regarded as the No. 28 prospect in IMG Academy 150 rankings. He also played MRL (Midwest Regional Leage) soccer with The Nationals Soccer Club and led Michigan International Prep School Varsity Soccer Team to an undefeated season, earning himself MVP honors.
and, just to catch things up: Tuesday, Dec 17, 2024, 02:56 PM HOUSTON (Dec. 17, 2024) – Houston Dynamo FC signed free agent goalkeeper Jimmy Maurer to a two-year contract through the 2026 season, the club announced today. “Jimmy brings valuable experience, along with a hunger to succeed that can inspire and elevate the entire group," Dynamo General Manager, Pat Onstad said. “He’s a proven goalkeeper who has established himself in the league, and we’re excited to have him on board going into the 2025 season. The Dynamo welcomes Jimmy and his wonderful family to the city of Houston.” Maurer joins the Dynamo after spending the last eight seasons with FC Dallas. He joined the team on a one-week loan in 2017 before going on to make 75 appearances in all competitions across eight seasons. In 2024, the Lawrenceville, Georgia native featured in four regular season matches, recording two clean sheets and a season-high seven saves on the road versus the Portland Timbers on Oct. 6. Notably, Maurer earned Team of the Matchday honors for Matchday 31 following a clean sheet and a four save performance during a road draw versus Vancouver Whitecaps, his first match of the 2024 season. Maurer helped FC Dallas reach the postseason five times over the last eight campaigns. Additionally, Maurer assisted the FC Dallas front office as a Player Development Executive during the 2024 season. MLS clubs may choose to designate and employ one player per year in a professional development role. This allows veteran players to gain real-world experiences and skills with their club, including but not limited to coaching, scouting, front office duties and diversity liaison, while continuing their playing career. The goalkeeper started and appeared in 24 MLS regular season games during the 2021 season and made his MLS Cup Playoffs debut for Dallas on Nov. 22, 2020, versus the Timbers. Maurer recorded seven saves in his playoff debut and helped Dallas advance to the Western Conference semifinals by saving a penalty kick in the penalty shootout. Notably, Maurer ended the 2020 year with a 0.84 GAA and an 80.6 save percentage, first among starting goalkeepers. Before arriving to MLS, Maurer spent five seasons with the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League from 2013-17. The goalkeeper became the club’s full-time starter in 2014, earning NASL Best XI honors that season before helping the Cosmos win the NASL title in 2015 and 2016. Additionally, Maurer was the starting goalkeeper for the University of South Carolina from 2007-10 and finished with 28 clean sheets. TRANSACTION: Houston Dynamo FC signed free agent goalkeeper Jimmy Maurer to a two-year contract through the 2026 season
Regarding Bo Cummins, his Wiki page seems a bit out of date. Has been part of both Minnesota United and NY Red Bull youth programs. Interesting to me that the Dynamo don't include that information in their report. (I'm not really suggesting anything by that ... just interesting.) Liberia born. He played for NYRB2 10 times in 2020 in the USL Championship level .. so he would have been 17yo. Wake Forest lists him as Def at 5'10", 160#. (little small for MLS defender) Soccerway.com has him listed as a MF, and say that is how RBU17 team listed him. BTW ... that rather questionable Wiki page includes as a part of his "College Career" two loans. huh?? I'm guessing "loan" is not exactly accurate there, just he found PDL games over the summers.
Now ... for the MUST READ news from Thursday. This report from mlssoccer.com is absolutely must read: https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-publishes-2025-general-allocation-money-gam-available-to-clubs First: Actual step forward in transparency of roster mechanisms by MLS. (slow clap) Including clear statements on how teams can get GAM and how they can use GAM. Second: Houston Dynamo have THE LOWEST amount of available GAM in MLS. So the Dynamo have the least flexibility or resource capacity to improve. This is NOT good news for us.
Finally .. we sold our 1st round draft pick for $75k in GAM today. That transaction is after the GAM report above. New England took a Goal Keeper from San Diego named Donovan Parisian with the pick.
Below is a report from Stephen Goff showing how DCU bought out a contract in 2024, and will buy out Steve Birnbaum's contract in 2025. Here I go again. I'm a broken record on this. The Dynamo's refusal to buy out Ferreira is a damning fact. The Dynamo are claiming that they are now trying to compete, and buying out contracts is now a standard, and oft used, tool within MLS rules. Yet the Dynamo act like we are all stupid and like buying out contracts is not an option. I've said consistently that for me, the jury is out on whether Segal/Onstad/Olsen are actually trying to win, or are they trying to hold spending down but be mid-table thus making the playoffs. This is damning evidence that we could be in a smarter/better Matt Jordan era. And era where "Hold it down" refers to ambition. We must also acknowledge plenty of evidence that goes the other way. I'm rooting/hoping that what we see in the next three months provides more evidence that Dynamo ambition is to be glorious again -- and is more than just "make the playoffs." https://bsky.app/profile/stevengoff.bsky.social/post/3ldqunkfofs27
I hate to admit it, but I think you’re right DJ. My heart fell to my stomach when I went to Pat’s chalk talk and he blatantly badmouthed HH because it didn’t fit their “analytics”. I get it, due to his age HH isn’t going to be a highly-ranked player on the FIFA video game. But was Brian Ching, Ricardo Clark, Brasilian Alex or even Pat Onstad himself all-time greats? No, but they had a specific skill set that complimented other players.
The idea that HH didn't fit their analytics then just means their analytics are flawed. HH took over the team in 2023 and imposed his own game model on the team. I remember Olsen expressing surprise, and was mature enough to accept it and embrace the game model the players wanted to play. I'm kinda filling in blanks around Onstad talk that the biggest issue around HH was that they think he could have taken care of his injury last off season during the off season but choose not to -- then had to miss 1/3 of the season getting it fixed and was never really fit in 2024. If that is the case I kind of understand moving on. But like you, I don't understand any devaluing of HH because of their analytics. Again, that indicts the analytics.
I believe I've posted this before, but I don't buy what Onstad has said. I think Segal was naive and thought he could fill the stadium by signing a Mexican star. It didn't work, so paying $5mil+ per year no longer made sense. Can't say, "we tried pandering and it didn't work", so they go the "analytics" route.
I completely agree. How does having next to nothing in GAM dollars affect the ability to buy players out?
I don't think I understand how "free" and "buy out" work together. Also--General Allocation Money appears to be not so general. Is there any other possibility that the ownership group isn't buying out Ferreira other than they are (enter negative assessment here)? Meaning, if you asked them, what would they say the reason is? What is the steel man argument for their decision to keep him on for so long? I'm guessing they think they can still use him in some sort of trade but I'm at a loss as to why he is still here.
Have to start from the understanding (if you don't have it already) that as a single entity, every player in the league has a contract with Major League Soccer. Contracts are not signed with the individual teams. So, typically if you're waiving a player who has guaranteed money, two things happen: 1) you owe MLS money for the player because the contract continues with MLS, 2) you take a cap hit on the guaranteed money. Once per year, you can waive a player without owing compensation to the league and without taking a cap hit. The contract still exists, MLS is still on the hook, but the team is not on the hook. What happens then is MLS will try and move the player so it isn't eating the cost (at least not all of it). Remember a year or two ago when people were wondering how did Miami manage to have Josef Martinez, who was a DP, along with the 3 DPs they had? Atlanta exercised their free buyout on Martinez. MLS still had to pay for him. Miami offered the most amount of money to take him on board (but low enough to where they could TAM him down to non-DP status. MLS still had to eat some of his salary, but not as much as it would have done had Miami not picked him up.
You follow this stuff better than I do, so I am very hesitant to disagree with you. So the part you wrote that is contrary to my understanding is that the league will eat the cost of paying a guaranteed contract player that has been waived once per year. I understand it that ALL buyout costs are paid by the team. Once per year you can do so without charging it against your salary budget, or in common parlance hitting your salary cap. All buyouts after the first are charged against your salary budget and free up a roster slot, but not salary budget. Bought out DPs remain taking a DP slot (unless it is the one buy-out per year). As you say, the player once off the original team can be picked up by another team through the waiver re-entry process. The below is from the Roster Rules on MLSsoccer.com:
"Free" in this context means buying out the contract takes that contract out of your cap calculations. The owner has to come up with the money. I think the steel man argument is that we still believe Ferreira can help the team and produce. Unless I am overlooking something, the only real impediment is the cost to the owner (along with the black eye the GM takes having to admit his signing is a disaster). But I'm ok with disasters. Every team has them. They are part of the business. Onstad and Mendelsohn have hit far better than they have missed. Two other very salient points: 1. We filled the #9 slot (Ferreira's role with a DP.) In no universe in the multi-verse does that make sense if your first #9 is a DP unless they are not-producing. You cannot find a succesful team in the league that stacks a DP on the bench behind a DP. If a DP is not playing they are not working out. 2. Many, if not most, of the teams in MLS are buying out contracts. Some do it regularly. LAFC. LAG. Miami. A recent report by Stephen Goff lists who DC United bought out in 2024 and reported that Steve Birnbaum will be bought out in 2025. In a league where the ability to improve is defined by your willingness to destroy within your current roster -- the annual buyout is a now oft-used common roster mechanism. This is the most important point to me. I'm all for eating Ferreira's salary budget hit if all the teams in the league are eating their mistakes. But they are not. They buy them out. This expectation is set by the rivals. If your not doing it -- your not trying to beat them.
Huh. Wonder if the rule changed or if I was off all along. Either way, if another team picks up the player then the financial cost is shifted. Unlikely anyone would pick up Ferreira though.