Trades and Draft Picks

The Rapids added 3 players today, 2 from the draft and 1 through a trade, and traded away a draft pick as well.

They started the day trading with Cincinnati for forward Calvin Harris.  They sent FCC $100K GAM this year and another $100K next year, plus up to $175K in conditional GAM based on performance.  Cinci also retains a percentage of any transfer fee if the Rapids sell him.  Harris was drafted #2, right in front of Mayaka, in the 2021 draft.  Its always been a rumor that the Rapids were targeting Harris or #1 pick Pereira when they traded up to #3 in that draft, as Mayaka was widely expected to go #1.  They've now got Harris, just 2 years later.  In that time Harris hasn't done much, but maybe a change of scenery will help.  He has one year left on his Generation Adidas deal, and he does require a international slot at the moment, though he's "close" to his green card so if that gets done in the next two months he wouldn't need one when the season starts.

Then at the draft this afternoon Colorado took central defender Moise Bombito out of the University of New Hampshire with the #3 overall pick.  Bombito is a Canadian citizen but will not require an international slot as he came through an accredited Canadian academy.  Tall and good in the air, he'll compete with our other young CB's for backup playing time.  The Rapids then traded their natural first round pick (#12) to Charlotte for $50K in GAM and Charlotte's first round pick next season, plus up to $50K of conditional GAM based on how their pick does.

With the 12th pick in the 2nd round we selected goalkeeper Oliver Semmle from Marshall University.  Semmle is a German citizen who will give Abe Rodriguez competition for the backup spot behind Yarbrough.

The Rapids, as is their ilk, passed with their third round selection.  As we've seen under Padraig Smith Colorado tends to target one player in the draft and get him, and then trade their remaining picks for value.  What they can't move they then only use if they see a player worth their time.

So all in all today we added three international players with potential but all of them are unlikely to contribute much in 2023.  We still need some significant moves to be competitive this year and the clock is ticking.  We open camp the week after the holidays end.

2023 Schedule Released!

At noon today MLS dropped the 2023 schedule  The Rapids will start on February 26th in Seattle and finish at home against FSL on October 21st.  In-between will be 32 other games and the Leagues Cup, plus the U.S. Open Cup.  Looking at some of the highlights:

• 14 Saturday night games, 2 Wednesday night games, and 1 Tuesday night game (July 4th).  All home kickoffs are at 7:30pm except the final match with is TBD.
• All away kickoffs except the opener are at 7:30 local time for the match.  The opener in Seattle is at 5pm local/6pm MT due to being on FS1 (ironically I'm flying home from a family gathering two days before where everyone else is flying home to Seattle, should have gone home with them!)
• This scheduling is part of the AppleTV deal where all games will be on Wednesdays and Saturdays with 7:30pm local kickoffs, unless the FOX TV deal needs them in a different time slot.
• Rocky Mountain Cup matches are home on May 20th and October 21st and in Utah on Labor Day weekend.
• Portland will be the opponent for our annual 4th of July match
• Jameson Night September 16th!
• Eastern Conference opponents are at Charlotte, Atlanta, Columbus, and Orlando, and hosting Philly, Cincinnati, and New England.
• You'll notice Miami is not on that list.  That means in the 4 years they've been in the league we will still have not faced them, unless we matchup in the Open Cup or Leagues Cup (or MLS Cup final).
• We play expansion St. Louis on April 22nd at the Dick and July 1st in St. Louis.

Beyond that the big thing to look at with the schedule is the rhythm of the games.  Only once do the Rapids play 3 home games in the a row, on July 4th, 9th, and 15th, leading into the Leagues Cup break.  They never have more than 2 games in a row on the road.

As far as busy 3 game weeks (by which I mean anytime we have a midweek game between two weekend matches or two Wednesday matches with a weekend match in-between) it happens five times.  The first is in mid-May where we have a midweek trip to Atlanta between home games against Philly and FSL.  After a week with no midweek games we then have a trip to Columbus sandwiched between home matches against Cinci and San Jose.  The next time it happens is over the 4th of July match where as mentioned we play in St. Louis on Saturday, Portland at home on the 4th, then stay in Commerce City to host Dallas on Saturday.  The last two times are like the first two, with 3 games, a week without a mid-week game, and 3 games.  In this case it starts with New England at home on September 16th, Seattle at home on the 20th, and then a trip to Portland on the 23rd.  After a midweek off its then a Texas Trio of Austin at home on Sept. 3oth and then trips to Dallas and Houston on October 4th and 7th.

So almost half our games will be played in 3-game weeks.  Squad rotation is going to be important this season.

The next major offseason news is tomorrow, when the Superdraft will be held tomorrow afternoon.  The Rapids hold the 12th pick in each of the 3 rounds, but they also hold the #3 overall pick which they acquired in the trade with Toronto for Mark-Anthony Kaye.  Some talk that forward Ilijah Paul, Pac-12 player of the year out of Washington, might be available at #3.  If so he fills an obvious need for the team and you can't go wrong drafting a Husky.  Go Dawgs!

Beitashour In, Zardes Out

Today the Rapids announced that Steven Beitashour has re-signed on a one year deal with a team option for 2024.  This gives us added depth at outside back and he'll fill the "grizzled veteran" role now that Drew Moor has retired.  I still think we need a regular starter at LB in front of him but this at least gives us some wiggle room.

Yesterday Austin FC announced they had signed Gyasi Zardes to a new 3 year deal.  This was the type of deal the Rapids couldn't afford to offer him since there were a number of clauses in the trade for his rights with Columbus that would have kicked in that would have sent GAM to the Crew from our coffers.  I am not at all surprised that we passed on making a deal with Zardes given that, it was the right move.  But it leaves us looking for a #9 still.

I have heard a rumor that no deal could be reached to bring Felipe Gutierrez back on a loan (or outright) so the only remaining player from our 2022 roster we expected to try to bring back after they were released (or their contract was up) was Michael Edwards.  Even if we bring Edwards back I don't expect him to be a significant contributor in 2023.  That means any more additions will be new to the team.

Rapids Acquire Kévin Cabral from the Galaxy

Today Colorado made its first big move off the season, acquiring French winger and Designated Player Kévin Cabral from the LA Galaxy in exchange for $600K of GAM in 2023 and $400K of GAM in 2024.  LA will pay half of Cabral's salary and retain a percentage of any transfer fee should the Rapids sell him.

Cabral was acquired by the Galaxy in April of 2021 for over $6M and in 61 appearances had 6 goals and 5 assists for LA.  Prior to that he was with French Ligue 2 side Valenciennes FC where he came up through their youth academy, having originally started in PSG's academy.  In 63 appearances with Valenciennes he had 11 goals.

At 23 years old (24 in July) Cabral is still early in his career but his start in MLS was not good.  Widely considered one of the worst DP signings in recent years by the Galaxy he was an albatross on their roster and with their upcoming transfer ban for overpaying Pavon and not reporting him as a DP and the $1M GAM fine for it the Galaxy were really on the ropes.  This move helps bail them out of the hole they dug.

On the plus side however, getting them to eat half his $1.65M salary and having already paid his transfer fee means the Rapids are only on the hook for the GAM and for about $150K in cash for each of the next 3 years to pay off the amount between the max salary and 50% of his salary.  So the cost here for a 6 million dollar player 20 months ago is minimal.  He does take a DP slot, but lets be realistic, the Rapids weren't going to use all those slots anyway.

There are still a couple of big negatives for me in this deal, and I think I come down on the side of "this had better work, because this looks like a bad deal right now".  First of all paying the same amount as we got for Kellyn Acosta seems out of whack on this move.  Either we sold Acosta cheaply or we overspent on Cabral, because as a MLS player Acosta is a lot more valuable than Cabral  Secondly, letting a fellow Western Conference team off the hook like this is not a great move.  LA was going to bein a world of hurt, and still will be, but since the transfer ban doesn't take effect until summer this gives them a chance to fill a DP slot before the winter window closes, and replaces the GAM they lost in the fine.  Third, this deal reeks of another case of Plan A and B for a new signing fell apart, so now we need to find a Plan C we can actually get over the line.  Similar to Zardes and Gutierrez last year.

Regardless of how you feel, the Rapids FO (Padraig Smith and co.) have put all their chips on Max and Cabral this season.  That's $2M+ investment in two players that so far haven't shown to be up to making a difference in MLS.  I can't see us making another major attacking move after those, so we will live or die on how that midfield works out.

In related news, earlier this week Minnesota United announced the signing of Clint Irwin, so as expected Yarbrough will have a new backup this year.

Rapids Pass On Esteves

Yesterday the Colorado Rapids announced that they would not exercise the buy clause in Lucas Esteves' loan contract.   This was set at $1M for 50% of his rights (or in Football Manager terms, a $1M transfer fee with a 50% sell-on clause).  In order for that to make sense the Raids would have had to have gotten at least $2M in value from Esteves, either in his play or in a future transfer fee.

Colorado reportedly sold Vines for $2M+, so essentially Esteves would have to be as valuable to the Rapids as Sam Vines was.  Esteves is not as valuable as Sam Vines.  This was a good decision by the club even with a lack of an obvious replacement at the moment.  The team should not throw money away just because they feel like they don't have an option.  We're not going to get better by using our limited fund on players who aren't worth it.

This, however, leaves let another hole for the Front Office to fill in an offseason that's starting to get short.  I expect training camp to open somewhere between January 9th and the 16th.  Last year it opened on the 10th but we had a CCL game to play before league play started, which meant we had to open camp a little earlier.  Essentially in about 6 weeks players will be reporting and we only have half a starting XI right now.