Rapids Announce Roster Moves, Talk About Offseason Plans

Today was the deadline to decide on player options and the Rapids announced their list of players picked up and players released.  Kofi Opare, Sam Raben, and Dillon Serna have been released or had their options declined.  Andre Rawls and Nicolas Mezquida are also out of contract but our finalizing new deals with the team and will be returning.  Tommy Smith has his option declined and had reported earlier he was in negotiations with the team, but today's announcement from the team does not mention any ongoing negotiations with him.  Along with those moves the contract options on Lewis, Shinyashiki, Jackson, Nicholson, Rwatubyaye, and Wynne were picked up.  Everyone else was already under a guaranteed contract for 2020.

None of these moves are that surprising.  As a homegrown player I wasn't expecting Sam Raben to be cut after one season but we've seen the Rapids move on from HG's recently like Ricardo Perez.  The only other real surprised to me was that Shinyashiki's contract was structured in a way that he's on an option year in year 2.  Look for the Rapids to lock him up more long-term this offseason.

For the other players waived today, we kind of saw it coming.  Opare wasn't a factor at all last season.  Dillon Serna leaving hurts, as our first successful homegrown signing and our longest serving player on the 2019 roster you never want a guy like that to go, but its clear he needs a change of environment as he doesn't have a role here.  If Tommy Smith doesn't come back I don't think that would surprise anyone, he did look better once Hudson left but he's too expensive to bring back on his current contract to be a likely backup and if he's not willing to take backup money I can understand that.

These moves leave us with 21 rostered players, 23 if Rawls and Mezquida do return.  As mentioned yesterday we now have 4 internationals under contract for 6 slots, though Mezquida would be a 5th.  That gives up probably 7 roster slots to fill in the offseason, with 1 open international slot.

Padraig Smith talked to MLSSoccer.com today about those offseason plans.  It sounds like he's pretty satisfied with our starting defense after yesterday's moves but he's looking for some veteran depth.  One interesting name out there is Drew Moor, who ended up in a backup role in Toronto this year and has now been released and is a free agent.  If they can make the money work he's be a great utility backup defender for the Rapids, obviously being familiar with being here but also having worked with Fraser in Toronto the last few years.

Beyond that Smith talked about looking at a DP attacking midfielder, and mentioned he's spent the last week in Argentina.  He also wants to sign another winger and a high-level midfielder with MLS experience.  We'll also need a third goalkeeper.  So that's 5 of the 7 signings right there.  It sounds like we've got a plan for the offseason, now lets see how they execute it.