As Expected, Busy Day For The Rapids

In the short 4 hour trade window this morning the Rapids made two trades, then released their protected list for the expansion draft.

The first move was acquiring Michael Harrington from Portland for allocation money.  Harrington is a 28 year old right back who can play on the left as well.  He spent 6 seasons in KC averaging about 25 appearances a season before moving to Portland for the last two years, making 58 appearances.  Harrington made 125K in Portland last season.

I think this was a solid move by the Rapids.  Getting a steady MLS right back fills in for the out of contract Wynne at a lower cost and frees Klute up to focus on the left side.  We have no idea how much allocation money it cost us but given our hit (Jose Mari, more on that later) and miss (Zat Knight, again more later) track record with internationals its probably good we stuck with a known quantity.

The second move today was sending Joe Nasco and our third round pick in next month's draft to New England for international strikers Dimitry Imbongo (Congo) and Geoffry Castillion (Netherlands) and New England's 2nd round pick next month.

This was clearly a salary dump for NE as Castillion was signed to a 329K contract in August and made 1 appearance for the club.  Imbongo has been in New England for two years, scoring 4 goals in 32 appearances and tying a MLS record with 3 red cards in one season (2013).  He made 123K last year.  This also gives the Revs flexibility in their international count for their protected list.

I don't know what to think about this trade.  I like the swap of draft picks for Nasco, considering he had no future here.  Imbongo might be a decent pick-up if he can cool his hot head.  Castillion looks like an anchor at that salary though.  The good news is that both Imbongo and Castillion (as well as Nasco) had their 2014 options declined so we're not tied to them at their current salaries.

After all of that the Rapids released their expansion draft list:

Protected Homegrown Players: Armstrong, Calvert, O'Neill, Serna
Protected Generation Adidas Player: Hairston
Protected Players: Brown, Harrington, Irwin, Klute, Knight, LaBrocca, Moor, Powers, Sanchez, Torres, Watts

That leaves the following players unprotected and available for NYCFC or Orlando to select on Wednesday:
Agbossomounde, Alvarez, Berner, Buddle, Burch, Cascio, Castillion, Eloundou, Hill, Imbongo, Jose Mari, Mullan, Mwanga, Neeskens, Piermayr, Van De Casteele, Wynne

The big surprise is seeing Jose Mari unprotected but today's announcement also included the information that he's looking to go back to Spain in this offseason.  Other than that there are no real surprises, but I don't fully agree.  IMO I'd swap out Knight, LaBrocca, and Watts for Cascio, Eloundou, and Neeskens.  Knight didn't show enough for his cost in his four appearances.  If LaBrocca is important enough for us to protect we're not a good MLS team and need to get better.  Watts was just bad last season and while young, I'd rather risk him being taken than one of the other three.

Labrocca is the only player not under contract we protected while Berner, Burch, Cascio, Eloundou, and Neeskens are under contract for next season but unprotected.

Tomorrow should be quiet as the trade window is closed until after Wednesday's expansion draft.  If the Rapids do have somebody selected they'll be able to protect 1 more player.  My list would be Eloundou, then Cascio.  At most they can lose two players on Wednesday.