2020 Player Evaluation

 Lets go through the annual roster break down and see who should stay and who should go:

Goalkeepers:

Keep: Abe Rodriguez - I mean, obviously.  He probably needs another year in the Springs but he is the future

Buy: William Yarbrough - The Denver Post reported the Rapids are already working on this, but he's solid and should be the starter going into 2021

Replace: Clint Irwin and Andre Rawls - Irwin will probably want to go somewhere he can compete for minutes, here he'll be a backup.  Rawls is in the same boat.  If one of them wants to stay as Yarbrough's backup and we don't want to invest time/money in anyone better that's fine, but we don't need both of them

Defenders:

Keep: Lalas Abubakar, Seb Anderson, Keegan Rosenberry, Auston Trusty, Sam Vines - These should be fairly obvious.  Three regular starters, a homegrown, and a young player we invested a lot in

Pick-up option: Jeremy Kelly - Good rookie season, still cheap

Re-sign: Drew Moor - Its really up to Drew if he wants to keep playing, but if he does we should give him a contract.  Veteran experience and loyalty to an all-time team great

Replace: Steven Beitashour, Danny Wilson, Deklan Wynne - Two guys who got 0 playing time in 2020 and one guy who's overpaid and takes an international slot.  We can do better

Coach's Decision: Kortne Ford, Abdul Rwatubaye - For Ford he's 2 years from being a MLS player and I doubt he still has MLS level skill at this point, but if the coaches think he can contribute then bring him back.  Rwatubaye is an unknown to me

Midfielders:

Keep: Kellyn Acosta, Cole 'Goal' Bassett, Braian Galvan, Younes Namli, Jack Price, Will Vint - Five guys who were big contributors or showed flashes of being a big contributor, and a homegrown player.  Easy choices

Sell/Trade: Nicolas Mezquida - A solid squad player but if we can get value for him and free up his international slot, that might be the best move

Replace: Collen Warner - We can do better, in fact DM may be a place we want to invest

Forwards:

Keep: Nicolas Benezet, Jonathan Lewis - Obviously we keep Lewis.  I'm not thrilled with Benezet's availability this season but he has obvious quality. Given his contract situation I think we give him another year

Pick-up option: Andre Shinyashiki - Also obviously

Sell/Trade: Diego Rubio - He's not the number 9 we need and I expect the club to invest on a major player to play the 1 in the 5-4-1.  Rubio has value, we should cash that in

Replace: Niki Jackson - Too many better options on this team

Coach's Decision: Matt Hundley - As a homegrown he's probably going to stick around, but I have no idea

So 7 players that should be allowed to walk away, and another 2 we should try to move for value.  3 more that are unknowns to me.  12 is actually a higher number than I expected going into the offseason.  I think I'm likely being too harsh on some players (like Jackson and Rawls).  I doubt we see that many players replaced.