Options on Lopez, Vagenas, and O'Brien declined

Yesterday Colorado chose not to pick up the options of Claudio Lopez, Ciaran O'Brien, and newly-acquired Pete Vagenas. None of these are a real surprise. O'Brien never saw the field under Gary Smith. Lopez always seemed like an odd pickup given the lack of playing time this year. Passback Pete was obviously just an excuse to unload a couple of internationals before the expansion draft.

Without boring you with all the details, what happens next is on Monday there will be a draft of all the players who's options weren't picked up or who are out of contract. Teams drafting players will be required to pick up the player's options at their current price. If the player is not selected, their current team has a week to negotiate a new lower salary before there's a second draft for teams to claim negotiating rights with the player. As the MLS champs the Rapids will have the 16th pick in both drafts, right before the two expansion teams.

Ciaran O'Brien has already tweeted that he's left Denver, so it seems he's been told that even if he's not selected the Rapids aren't interested in bringing him back at a lower number. If the Rapids could sign Lopez as a bench player for a lower number, it might be worth it. His veteran leadership and experience would be helpful for some of of our younger players. i don't know what the salary cap rules are for a player/coach, but Colorado might want to look into that. Vagenas is really surplus to our needs and probably should jut be let go.