People on the TSS discord were speculating where Espinoza would fit in, and I didn’t realize we had let his contract expire. Guess the action figure was a good-bye kick out the front door. So strange. I’m thinking maybe Bruce has a little bit of dementia invading his brain…After all, he’s my age!
They already got their green card so if and when they retire in 3-5 years, they can always come back. That is what most retired players do.
MLS free agency big board: The best players available for 2026 From the Athletic: " The Top 10 MF Cristian Espinoza (San Jose Earthquakes) For a long time, Espinoza has been one of the best under-the-radar players in MLS. Playing in San Jose for an Earthquakes team that qualified for the postseason the same number of times as they finished dead last in the league (two) meant he didn’t play many high-profile games. Now, Espinoza is one of the belles of the ball for free agency. A player of his age (30) and quality is rarely available as a free agent in MLS. Around half the league has clear interest in Espinoza. The number he can be offered by another club is unclear. San Jose made an offer to keep him, The Athletic previously reported. Per MLS regulations, other MLS clubs can offer Espinoza up to 90% of that offer (if it was more than his 2025 salary, which is very likely). A hard-working, creative winger, Espinoza is San Jose’s all-time assists leader. He routinely is near the top of chances-created charts in MLS, and he led the league in key passes this year. Espinoza has had at least eight assists in every season (including the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign) and has missed only nine of a possible 227 regular season games, with his durability another factor working in his favor. He would improve a lot of MLS teams." There you have it - he's considered THE top UFA in MLS. How stupid are we? On the other side of the ledger - I'd snatch up Dane St. Clair in a Minneapolis Minute! Martinez and MAK are briefly mentioned as well.
"Per MLS regulations, other MLS clubs can offer Espinoza up to 90% of that offer (if it was more than his 2025 salary, which is very likely)." I haven't found a resource to back up this claim that other clubs can only offer "up to 90%" of the Quakes offer. That would be a bad deal for free agent players. They'd be stuck at their "bona fide" offering clubs unless they'd rather take a 10% pay cut to play somewhere else. What I've seen is that if the Quakes make a "bona fide offer" (whatever that is, exactly) to the player, we have the opportunity to match another club's offer. Documentation on free agency rules that I've found looks pretty sketchy. I imagine this is one of the key issues in the CBA. Absolutely. He's great. But there will be *many* interested teams. He's gonna get paid. Last year he made $650k or something. Someone may even offer him a DP contract. He's still fairly young too, at 28 yo.
I thought that looked sketchy when I read the article as well. I do not believe that is correct - there must be examples of other players picked up at a price higher than what was offered by their team when they were UFAs. Anything else would put the lie to the "U" in UFA...
I think other teams have to offer *at least* 90% of the bona fide offer. I think. If we lose Cristian, I’m going to be pissed! Oh wait … I’m already pissed. This team sucks monkey butt. Why do I still care? Go Quakesfans!!
Well that sucks if true. Especially going to one of our cross town rivals. But hey, I can't blame him, after all he's been through with our lousy team he most likely wants to win something before his career is over. Can't hate any professional player in any sport trying to be the best or play in the best team possible. Hopefully it's just a bad rumor though.
I'm not blaming him in anyway but there is an old European saying.. "All smoke and no cigar"! Espinoza has been here 7 years and won nothing. Time to move on. It's best for both parties.
I don't know, if I want to "win something" what I'd do is keep my best players, certainly my top few, and then get more good players. The ol' "get rid of you best players and then replace them with worse players" doesn't work for me.
Maybe, but the Quakes shouldn't be operating to maximize Espinoza trophy winning potential with some other team - that's not why I pay for tickets. They're the San Jose Earthquakes, not the "Cristian Espinoza MLS Trophy Maximization Earthquakes". They should be operating to try to put the best team possible on the field.
Correct. But if year after year the maximizing doesn't come to fruition then as a player with an expiration date you move on. It's on the Quake's not on the player. In all the yrs Espinoza has played for us and put up great numbers they've never built a team around him. It's got to be frustrating. And I agree Jazzy, the San Jose Earthquakes should be operating for a championship but I think no one's told the FO how it actually works unfortunately. I think we as fans would do a better job for free as opposed to these "professionals" earning a fat paycheck just to lay an egg season after season.
If Espinoza wants out, that's fine. I wouldn't begrudge him that. But it's not the Quakes' job to make him happy and we certainly shouldn't let him go for free. It's unbelievably dumb. As I said I buy tickets to see the best team possible, not to donate to the "Make Espinoza Happy Foundation".
Maybe Arena has someone else in mind who can come in and take his place. He was good but it’s not like he is a superstar. Anyway, he’s gone so moving on…
Arena praised him profusely, said he was the Quakes best player not just on game day but *every day*, meaning every day in training. He worked the hardest, and was the best. He never missed a game and he was a great team leader. And then on top of all that we are letting him go for free when we didn't have to. This is unconscionable. It's a firing offense for Arena. Leitch is already fired, and we don't know why we didn't extend Espinoza, but Bruce is sporting director and the buck stops with him. Bruce out.