Well, as I’ve not written since Andy’s departure, I thought it might be good to touch on that — but it’s hard to, isn’t it? His career and his attitude basically speak for themselves, and I don’t think anybody doubts how important he’s been to this club. If we can put together a testimonial for him, all the better. Nobody deserves it more — and hey, maybe we can even get Jason to kit up for it!
The unassuming midfielder and Real Salt Lake original, our second player picked, probably had a year left in him at the top level — but rather than continuing on the pitch, he’ll be sticking with the club off it. Were it not for a salary cap, we might have been able to keep him on the roster — but when you’re in a restrictive system, there are hard decisions that have to be made.
While this was undoubtedly a hard decision for all involved, the outcome isn’t as bad as it could have been: Andy gets to continue making a somewhat respectable salary, we get to keep a club icon, and we free up some major cap space for what will be an inevitably changed squad from the last few years.
Let’s take a look at the departures we’ve already seen, as well as some that could be impending.
Definite Out:
GK: Tim Melia
DF: Robbie Russell, Blake Wagner, Rauwshan McKenzie
MF: Andy Williams, Collen Warner, Jean Alexandre, Arturo Alvarez, Nelson Gonzalez
In discussions:
MF: Ned Grabavoy, Yordany Alvarez
FW: Fabian Espindola, Cody Arnoux, Paulo Jr.
Definitely Stay:
GK: Rimando, Reynish
DF: Olave, Borchers, Schuler, Beltran, Wingert
MF: Beckerman, Johnson, Gil, Morales
FW: Saborio, Agorsor
Homegrown Players: Muniz (MF), Toia (FW)
It’s clear that we’re going to see a vastly changed squad. We’ve got nine players definitely off the books, 15 players definitely on the books, and five players who may or may not end up with us next season. At best, we’ll have 20 players remaining, and I’m relatively certain not all of those five question-mark players will stay. The two homegrown players are listed but do not count against the salary cap.
Let’s also take a look at the salary cap hits for these players. These numbers come from the September 2011 report, but it’s worth remembering that some were due mandatory raises, and we know some of them increased by a minimum of five percent. As those numbers are a bit shaky, I’ll just offer the existing numbers and apply a general markup of five percent to the whole lot of them.
OUT: Melia ($42k) / McKenzie ($42k), Russell ($128k), Wagner (Unknown, but an assumption of $42k is reasonable) / Alexandre ($42k), A. Alvarez ($192k), Gonzalez ($42k), Warner ($42k), Williams ($99k)
So, off the books now, we have somewhere in the range of $671,000, which, with a five percent increase, takes us to around $700,000. Again, keep in mind that these numbers are tentative.
MAYBE: Y. Alvarez (Unknown, but an assumption of $42k is reasonable), Grabavoy ($118k) / Arnoux ($42k), Espindola ($75k), Paulo Jr. ($42k)
This leaves us with a swing of approximately $319,000, with an increase to $335,000.
DEFINITE: Reynish ($50k), Rimando ($150k) / Beltran ($100k), Borchers ($160k), Olave ($125k), Schuler ($32k), Wingert ($135k) / Beckerman ($220k), Gil ($90k / No cap hit, Generation Adidas), Johnson ($225k), Morales ($400k) / Agorsor ($32k), Saborio ($250k)
This leaves us with $1,969,000 on the books, with an increase to $2,067,000.
So, where does that leave us? That’s an excellent question. The salary cap is increasing, but I don’t know that the number is official yet. At any rate, it does sound like it’s increasing less than the average player salary is increasing, so there’s a bit of a problem there. We also know that some of these players didn’t actually hit the cap, as they weren’t in the first 20 slots. Further, we also know that there may be allocation money involved, but we have absolutely no clue (unless you’re reading this and are a part of the club at a high level, in which case, welcome!) how much we’ve got and what we use it for.
So, I suppose we know very little, really. It does seem we’ve got around $600k–$800k in cap room left after the definite retentions, depending on the salary cap for 2012. It’s a big ol’ puzzle, isn’t it?
We also know that we’ve had at least one international player depart, and we’ve got a grand total of six slots (and now I hear the collective “Oh, dammit, Ellinger!”) — those definite international returns are Javier Morales and Alvaro Saborio. (Note: This once said Jamison Olave, but he does have a green card, so he doesn't count as an international player.) The potential returns taking up international slots are Fabian Espindola, Paulo Jr., and perhaps Yordany Alvarez, though that one’s unconfirmed. (Note: It seems that Yordany did get his green card.) Leaving an international slot open is Nelson Gonzalez.
If all three players return, we’ll likely have two open slots — but again, I’m not sure all three will. I’d certainly like them to return, certainly.
I suppose what this really shows us is that we’ll have some room to maneuver and bring in players, but we don’t know how much room yet. We also know that Garth Lagerwey is off in Asia and Jason Kreis is off in Europe, and both of them are busy scouting players. They’ve also done their share of scouting in South and Central America.
If they can find either American players plying their trade overseas who would be interested in chopping their salary to play for us (or, perhaps they’re hardly making anything anyway), or young aspiring international players looking to get their names out there, we’ll certainly see changes.
And we’ve still got the MLS SuperDraft and Supplemental Draft (er, the ‘Draft’ as it perhaps should be known) to come, and I’ve got no clue what prospects there are there.
Right, so I’ll briefly go over what positions we’ll need reinforcements in, and then I suppose I’ll let you contemplate what will be a very busy off-season for us.
GK: We will need a third keeper — an injury to either Reynish or Rimando and we’d be left without a goalkeeper on the bench.
DF: We will need one or two fullbacks, preferably ones that can play on either side (we can dream, can’t we? But they can’t all be Tony Beltrans) and likely a reserve center back. An injury to one of the Borlave and we’d be left without a center back on the bench. Again, untenable.
MF: We will need … a bunch of players. If Ned Grabavoy leaves, and I really hope he doesn’t do that, we’ll need another sure starter in the box-to-box role on the right. If he does return, we’ll need a slew of capable backups for those roles. If Kyle Beckerman’s backup, Yordany Alvarez, returns, we won’t necessarily need another backup defensive midfielder. We also retain Luis Gil, who will be a capable backup to Javier Morales, but he can also play in the other roles.
FW: If we retain Espindola, we’ll only need to worry about the players in reserve, and if we retain all of the players we’ve got on the books currently, I’m not sure we will really need to bring in another player. I’d be surprised if we kept both Arnoux and Paulo Jr., though, as both will certainly be looking for playing time. If we lose Espindola, we’ll need to bring in a quality striker unless a player like Agorsor can make the step-up to the big-time very, very quickly.
‘Til next time, folks. Come on you Claret and Cobalt!
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