Goal Bassett Returns

The Rapids made it official today, recalling Cole Bassett from his loan to Fortuna Sittard.  Based on the media they posted today he's actually been back for a couple of days at least (sun and minimal snow at the Dick suggests those images were filmed Tuesday or Wednesday).  Things in the Netherlands didn't work out for Bassett at either Feyenoord or Fortuna Sittard.  Both teams seemed to change direction after the decision to bring Bassett in on loan and her wasn't in the new plans.  At the same time, a player has to force a manager to consider him even if that wasn't the plan and that never seemed to happen either.

Colorado posted an interview with Cole today and it sounds like he's all-in on being back here for the 2023 season.  He turns 22 in the middle of the season so he should know that putting up a season or two like his 2021 season for the Rapids will get him another chance to go to Europe, hopefully long-term next time.  Until then he's going to provide the kind of pressure for playing time to other midfielders that was missing in 2022, which is good for the Rapids.

Colorado Has A Jersey Sponsor For 7 Seasons

It leaked over the weekend (and I had heard rumors long before that) but today it became official.  UCHealth will be the Colorado Rapids jersey sponsor through the 2029 season.  UCHealth is short for University of Colorado Health, one of the larger health care systems on the Front Range and based in Aroura.   Terms of the deal were not announced but the TransAmerica deal was reportedly for between $2 and $3 million a year ("coincidentally" about the same amount as Tim Howard's salary) and the base for MLS jersey sponsorships is set around $2 million according to talk, so I expect this is likely in the $3 million range.  Its not massive money, but that's still some good investment for a spot we got $0 for in 2022.

As to the jersey itself the logo looks good and I appreciate it being done in the same blue as the trim on the kit.  So many sponsors are stickers for their colors even if they clash with the shirt, causing an ugly look (any number of the gambling site sponsors in the English leagues for example).  This is a good look, equal to the TransAmerica logo and better than the short-lived Ciao! look.

Some fans are a little disappointed that its a smaller local company without a "big" name, but I think that undersells things a bit.  First of all a 7 year deal is some nice stability in an area the club has had no stability in.  You're likely not going to get that from a major sponsor that isn't going to commit to a smaller club like ours for that long.  Secondly, its not a MLM like Herbalife (Galaxy) or LifeVantage (FSL).  Thirdly, just because its a smaller company doesn't mean it can't be beneficial.  Since they started in MLS Orlando City has been sponsored by Orlando Health, pretty much the area's equivalent to UCHealth.  When Orlando entered MLS in 2015 I, unfortunately, was spending some time in Orlando Health facilities with a sick family member.  The Orlando City SC logo was everywhere.  Big logos on the front of buildings, flyers and promotion materials inside the facilities, etc.  They were proud to be sponsoring the team and wanted to promote it.  Hopefully UCHealth will do the same.

In the end this added money removes one more excuse for the club to not spend money this offseason.  We've got a new multi-million dollar sponsorship, we've got $5+ million a season coming in from the Apple TV deal, and we've still got a couple of million in GAM banked from our deals in the last year or so.  If the Rapids Front Office is doing their job it should be a big offseason.

Bassett Returning?

Before we get tot he Bassett news/rumor I want to mention that, as expected, no Rapids were taken in today's expansion draft.

Now, this report out of the Netherlands via 1908.nl states that the Rapids are likely to exercise their recall option in Cole Bassett's loan this winter.  When the new deal was created between Feyenoord, Fortuna Sittard, and the Rapids to allow Bassett to move to Fortuna Sittard this fall, it included a clause that if he didn't reach a minimum number of minutes/appearances before the end of the year the Rapids would have the right to terminate the loan and bring him home.  This report states that according to sources Colorado is preparing to do just that.

As much as this probably sucks for Cole, it makes a ton of sense for him and the Rapids.  If he's not getting minutes he's losing valuable development time on the bench.  At 21 years old he needs to be playing and not riding the pine.  Colorado has a need in midfield and he knows the system and most of the players so he should be able to slot right back in.  He gave it a full calendar year in the Netherlands with two different teams and couldn't break in as a regular starter.  He still has two years on his Rapids contract.  Time to come back, hit it hard for a MLS season, and hope for another shot in Europe next offseason.

Roster And Expansion Draft News, Finally

With the expansion draft coming tomorrow the Rapids finally released their end-of-year roster news and their protected list for the draft.  Starting with the roster moves:

Options picked up: Barrios, Keita, Larraz, Markanich, Rodriguez, Rubio

Options declined: Beitashour, Edwards, Mayaka

Out of contract: Irwin, Zardes

Loans expired: Esteves, Gutierrez

Everyone else is under contract for 2023.  Colorado is negotiating with Zardes, Edwards, and Beitashour about coming back in 2023 under different terms than their options.  They're also talking to Gutierrez about coming back but that would either be a new loan or paying a transfer fee for him.  The Rapids have until December 1st to decide if they want to exercise their buy option in Esteves loaned, reported to be $1M for 50% of his rights,

Really the only surprise here for me is cutting bait on Mayaka after just two seasons, and being in position to do so.  Normally a Generation Adidas contract is longer than that, and generally the league invests more into those players.  In the 2021 draft Mayaka was seen by most commentators as the "most MLS ready" player in the draft, yet the two players taken in front of him (Daniel Pereira and Calvin Harris) have a combined 79 appearances in 2 years and Mayaka has 0.  I can tell you that the Rapids did not buy the "most ready player" line and when they moved up to third in that draft it was with the belief that Mayaka was going to be selected by Austin or Cincinnati in front of them and they made the move expecting Harris to be available, but they ranked Pereira ranked ahead of Mayaka as well.

This is not to suggest that I think the Rapids are making a mistake moving on from him.  From what little I've seen of the Switchbacks and Rapids 2 the last two years he did not stand out, and the reports from people who followed those teams more closely were that he did not look particularly good playing at that level.  He also requires an international slot, so it makes it hard to keep him as an on-going project if they're not seeing improvement.

Outside of that I think I called the rest of these moves except Barrios, who I wanted to see brought back on a lower contract.  And I still don't want to see us spending $1M on Esteves.

Now that we know who's here and who's not, we can figure out the expansion protected list.  Because of the end of his GA contract Mayaka i not automatically protected, but we obviously won't be prtecting him.  The 12 we did protect:

Yarbrough, Abubakar, Rosenberry, Vallecilla, Acosta, Price, Max, Galvan, Barrios, Lewis, Nicholson, Rubio

Along with our auto-protected players:

Rodrigues, Anderson, Edwards, Keita, Travis, Bassett, Larraz, Priso, Toure, Yapi

That leaves these 10 players available in tomorrow's expansion draft:

Irwin, Beitashour, Esteves, Moor, Markanich, Wilson, Gutierrez, Mayaka, Warner, Zardes

I went 10 for 12 on my expansion draft picks.  I protected Zardes and Markanich over Acosta and Nicholson.  After further thought Acosta probably makes more sense than Zardes because as a free agent the only thing St. Louis can get out of selecting Zardes is a little more freedom to offer him more money, which would be a waste of a pick.  I don't think Acosta is at any risk of being picked but its still more likely than Zardes.

Nicholson over Markanich makes no sense to me though, as Sam looked like a shell of himself this season and I can't imagine St. Louis taking a flyer on him.  Markanich at least has the benefit of being young and showing a few flashes this season.  Honestly though I look at those 10 players and think "there's got to be better options elsewhere".  I predict this will be the seventh straight expansion draft that a Rapid is not picked (Cascio and Mwanga in 2014 were the last ones).

Sad News For Sam Vines

Yesterday Sam Vines posted on his Instagram that he had suffered a broken tibia in practice on Friday and had immediate surgery to repair it.  They inserted 2 screws and the prognosis is for a full recovery, but he'll be out of commission for 3-4 months.

Obviously that means he won't be able to go to the World Cup in Qatar in two weeks.  He had an outside chance to make the roster being announced on Wednesday, though most experts seemed to think he'd be one of the final names left off the list.  Still only Gregg Berhalter and Jedi Robinson really know the extent of his injury and Vines is the best pure LB available to back him up so there was certainly the possibility of him being on the plane.  Now, sadly, Sam will have to turn his focus into challenging Robinson for the next 3.5 years to lock up a sot on the 2026 roster.

Sam Vines was really the only hope for a strong Rapids connection on the U.S. roster, depending on how you think of Kellyn Acosta now (personally I don't really think its a strong connection).  Rapids 2 midfielder Daniel Chacon will be on Costa Rica's roster.  Chacon was signed midseason by Rapids 2 and immediately loaned back to hiss Costa Rican team to allow him to focus on the World Cup, so he has yet to play a game in a Rapids kit.  No other current Rapid or Rapid homegrown is expected to be in Qatar.

If there's any silver lining to the Sam Vines news, any reason for me to buy one of the lousy U.S. kits is now out the window.  Now I'll likely get a Japanese or South Korean alternate kit instead.

Expansion Draft Time

St. Louis is joining MLS next season, which means its time for yet another expansion draft, and yet another set of protected player lists.  So, time for me to take my best swing at who I think we'll protect.

The rules are the same as last year.  Teams can protect 12 players, and their homegrown and Generation Adidas players 25 years old or younger are automatically protected.  Teams can lose at most one player in the 5 picks St. Louis will make, and anyone who lost a player to Charlotte is not part of this expansion draft (Colorado didn't lose anyone).  Teams must protect at least 3 international players unless they have less than 3, then they must protect all but 1 (and auto-protected HG's/GA's don't count).

So for the Rapids, first our auto-protected players:

Seb Anderson, Cole Bassett*, Michael Edwards, Aboubacar Keita, Ollie Larraz, Phillip Mayaka, Ralph Priso, Abe Rodriguez, Yaya Toure, Jackson Travis, Darren Yapi

* - I assume Bassett's homegrown status means he's still automatically protected.  If he's not for some reason he clearly becomes one of our 12 protected players.

So after that group we have to protect 3 internationals, and honestly I only want to protect 3:

Max - As disappointing as he was, it would be stupid to give away a million dollar asset.

Brain Galvan - He's an exciting young player who will hopefully bounce back from his ACL injury

Jack Price - I mean, duh

That leaves us with 9 more slots to fill:

Lalas Abubakar - He may be frustrating at times but he's our best central defender and would be an easy choice for St. Louis if he were unprotected

Michael Barrios - I don't want to pick up his option, but if we could bring him back at a lower number I'd want to have his rights

Jonathan Lewis - Too much potential value to leave unprotected

Anthony Markanich - He's a young player that showed a bit of potential

Keegan Rosenberry - Obviously

Diego Rubio - Duh

William Yarbrough - Another obvious choic

After this group there's two open slots, but not two obvious players I want to protect.  So I'm going to go with these two but only for lack of a better choice:

Gustavo Vallecilla - Just to protect the money we put into getting him

Gyasi Zardes - I've heard that the payment to the Crew if we re-sign him only kicks in (or maybe only kicks in at 100%) if we sign him to a 3 year deal.  I'd consider re-signing him for a 1+1 deal at sum $1M if he'd take it, so we should protect our opportunity to do that if that report is accurate.

With this the unprotected players are:

Bryan Acosta, Steven Beitashour, Lucas Esteves, Felipe Gutierrez, Clint Irwin, Drew Moor, Sam Nicholson, Collen Warner, Danny Wilson

I don't seed anyone in that list St. Louis is likely to select that would hurt us if they were claimed.  Some of them would actually help us if St. Louis picked them up.