The Official 2023/2024 Off Season Thread

Maybe he didn't want his option picked up. He's in Greece and posting a lot of pictures with AEK and Almayda.

 

They tried to get rid of him last year, but wound up re-upping for a completely insulting pay cut of something like 60%, not that far from senior roster minimum. And then he was on the bench every game and played over half of them in various roles. I guess Luchi doesn't rate him, but he sure seemed to like to use him in games for various tactical reasons at the end of games.

 

I did see one photo that I think he posted on IG (and tweeted by Favian Renkel). I haven't see any others, but it did look like it was in Greece, with AEK stuff on the walls, etc. Don't know the date the photo was taken either. Who knows, he may just be on vacation or something...

 

he can sub in and do a job at pretty much every position aside from striker and CDM. most utility guys can only play a couple positions. he's better than the vast majority of cheap MLS utility guys at the utility role. he has better technical skills than most defensive utility players and better defensive skills than most attacking utility players.

 

So all those players with options declined, means that the Quakes can just renegotiate for a lower salary?
I'm really surprised they didn't want to keep Trauco, or that he's too expensive.

 

Yeah, from the article on Quales roster moves:

"For select players who are either out of contract or had their options declined, conversations about returning to the Earthquakes in 2024 are still ongoing."

I think pretty much every year there are some "option declined" players who are re-signed. Last year I think Judson and TT and possibly others. Year before I think Marie.

 

I wonder if they will re-sign Nathan, or if he will go back to Brazil.

 

Oh, i liked Nathan. A chaos agent.
I just feel bad if they dump someone who is still coming off a major injury.

 

Quite possible that they re-sign him for less dinero.

 

Well, hopefully this means goodbye Montiero and Mensah. Kind of bummed about Trauco..I liked watching his savvy skill level...just too bad his lack of speed, and higher salary put him in a bind.

Baldi? really?....time for Tommy to find something outside of soccer to focus on...or be a Quakes lifer off the field in some capacity. He's done....In just about every instance we saw Tommy, I would have preferred to see Skahan...and Yes Jazz, we actually saw Skahan fill in at fullback and he was better than Tommy.

Looks like we're cutting a lot of guys who shouldn't have been signed in the first place...stop gaps. Maybe someday we'll actually have to wring our hands over players we're letting go...who am I kidding...haha.

But mainly, if nothing else, I want Montiero and his momentum killing OCD drag backs gone...

 

7 PM tonight Sunday December 3. Main topic is recent roster moves:

 

It’s possible but I don’t think TT is “done”. Maybe he’ll play in USL but I don’t think he will hang ‘em up. I didn’t see his playing really diminish at all last year. He was generally good when he had minutes. I don’t know what relevance Skahan has to TT. Very different players, and if Skahan ever played fullback it was for about 2 minutes, so claims that he’s better than anyone at that position seem a little dubious. Not sure what that “yes, Jazz” strawman is about. I don’t think I ever said anything about Skahan as a fullback. I’m sure he’d be fine there but not the best use of him.

 

Retire? He's 28? Unless he is just done with the whole rehab thing and the effort to get back into playing shape, or there are other things he wants to do with his life, that would seem odd. He'd been documenting his rehab a bit on instagram with motivational and religious kinds of captions and messages, even using the David and Goliath biblical story as inspiration.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CyQv70jLnxv/?hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/p/CyqqIAgr1Eq/?hl=en

Nathan's contract was about $750k. Most likely they want to bring him back at a lower number. Wouldn't be surprised at all if he's back with the team next year.

 

I think Nathan’s a good guy and a motivator. Hope to see him back in some capacity.

 

Yeah, if it were me, depending on what I'm seeing from him in his rehab / training, I'd try to re-sign him at say $4-500k. He can be a starter or veteran depth. I'd give Munie a shot at the starting spot but you've got Nathan there to hedge your bets and to provide depth. You've also got that Brazilian connection between Daniel, Rodrigues, and him. BTW, are we the only team in the world that only signs Brazilian defenders rather than Brazilian attackers? It's kind of like going to a great sushi place but ordering teriyaki chicken instead.

 

I agree with that amount for a player that has been out for an entire year it doesn't make sense to keep him at such a high salary. The only thing that has always concerned me is that Nathan is a bit too risky of a player to have next to Rodrigues I would much prefer to have someone that is more of an anchor that can stay back and let Rodrigues go forward and play with more freedom.

I think it is pretty funny how many Brazilian defensive players we have had in recent years. Though you do make a good point we haven't had any attackers. According to the QE spreadsheet with all of the declined options so far we only have 3 international slots used so with those free slots, 1 DP slot, and 2 U22 slots there is a lot of room to work with. Maybe there is an old Costa prospect sheet they can dig up.

 

Yeah it’s not great to have two risk takers back there but 1) at some point you’ve gotta be able to coach your players against tendency. If Luchi can’t affect these guys with coaching than he shouldn’t be coach. And 2) I think Munie should be given a shot at the starting spot. I think he’s ready and he’s good enough. At that point Nathan becomes veteran depth and rotational starter.

The only thing I worry about with Nathan is has he lost a step after injury. He wasn’t the fastest guy pre-injury and also he goes into a fair amount of tackles. Will he be a hair late on those tackles. Also, there's something about Nathan's build that just seems to make him susceptible to injury. He's tall and lanky and has somewhat spindly legs for a soccer player. I worry sometimes that his legs are just not going to hold up.

 

Listened to part of this this morning, and came away a little depressed. Even with all of those roster cuts, Colin Etnire estimates that within the cap - GAM + TAM + salary roster max we have between $3-4M to spend to stay under the cap. And since amortized transfer fees need to be paid on top of that, and Gruezo's transfer was estimated to be around $3M, about $1 mil of that $3-4M goes to that. I don't think he figured that into the "already accounted for $". So now we're down to $2-3M for the whole rest of roster, with like 8 senior roster spots open??

I don't think we've come to terms with how bad that Gruezo deal was. We're not only paying our highest (or 2nd highest) guaranteed salary to Gruezo (around $1.6M), he's also costing us about another $1M per year in amortized transfer fees. So around $2.6M a year and a DP slot for a d-mid who has been no more than serviceable? Ouch, that really sets us back - a disastrous deal.

One other thing I didn't know is that Monteiro is not eligible for free agency (not enough years in the league I guess). So I guess he'd go into the re-entry draft. Probably not consequential to the Quakes but they may have a little more negotiating leverage for him if they were interested (and they may not be). There was only one Aftershock guy who expressed an interest in bringing him back at a lower salary. They asked each one who they'd bring back of the guys not renewed and 2 said Trauco, one said Nathan, and Colin said Monteiro (if you can get him for a low TAM salary, like $700k).

One good thing is that we have 2 U22 roster spots open. We really really have to take advantage of those to try to get some good young players that won't cost us much on the cap. No more wasting it on players like Ayo Akinola. We may have to pay transfer fees on them but those don't count against the cap. Then it becomes a question of "Fish bucks".

 

It's setting up to be another craptastic Quakes offseason in terms of acquisitions. Can't wait to see the warm bodies we sign during the offseason...