Year-End Roster Moves

After a month of quiet nothing from the Front Office we got the list of year-end roster moves today:

Out of Contract and Released: Yannick Boli, Andrew Dykstra

Options Declined and Released: Giles Barnes, Caleb Calvert, Kip Colvey, Mike da Fonte, Sam Hamilton, Enzo Martinez, Jack McBean, Ricardo Perez

Options Picked Up: Kellyn Acosta, Dillon Serna, Deklan Wynne

Everyone else is under guaranteed contract for 2019.

No real surprises on here and no real complaints.  Calvert and Perez as homegrown players being released are not shocking but a little unexpected.

Just because a player has their option declined doesn't mean they won't be back, it just means that the Rapids didn't want to pick them up ad the agreed on salary.  I wouldn't be surprised if Martinez, for example, gets a new offer and re-signs.

I know this is kind of minor, but I think the Andrew Dykstra signing really encapsulates the failure of the 2018 roster building process.  We traded a 2nd round pick to KC for him.  We signed him for over $100K.  Then we sent him to Charlotte all season and other than a couple of times when MacMath or Howard wasn't available and he had to be the backup on the bench he never put on a Rapids jersey.  Now we've released him.

Why couldn't we have signed a 22 year old rookie at minimum salary to do the same thing?  Yeah, the 2nd round pick next year and the $50K difference in salary really doesn't mean much, but at the same time a team likes the Rapids needs to maximize its roster everywhere it can to compete with the big spenders.  If we aren't doing the small things right are we surprised we aren't doing the big things right, like signing Boli, Mason, and Aigner?