Fernandez Traded To Portland

This afternoon Tom Bogert broke the story that Omir Fernandez was being traded to Portland, later confirmed by the Rapids in a press release.  The return was $200K in GAM plus up to another $50K in GAM based on performance this season.

This is a bit surprising only in that in our lack of successful wingers Fernandez seemed to be one of the ones that could help from time to time.  The reality though is that in his season+ here he never really locked down a starting spot or was regularly successful off the bench.  To be fair, none of our wingers have managed to mesh well with the Rafa/Djordje/Bassett core, other than the hot streak Cabral got on last season.  So from an immediate impact the biggest issue is that its one less body in the rotation but I don't think we lose a whole lot.  $200K is a bit low for a 26 year old semi-starter in this league, but again he's on his third team in MLS and hasn't been consistently productive.

The bigger question is what this does to our lineup going forward.  We're down to just 5 real wingers.  Cabral, Kimani Stewart-Baynes, Calvin Harris, and Ted Ku-DiPietro (Alex Harris, Cole, or Djordje could play wing as well).  If we stick with our 4-5-1/4-3-3 two of those guys would have to start every game.  KDP seems like an easy choice but after that it gets questionable.  Could this mean a further shift to the 4-2-2-2- we saw against San Diego last week?  If so, where does KDP, who was a big offseason signing, fit in?  Push him or Mihailovic up front with Rafa?  Thanks to Burgundy Wave we know this now gives us about $450K in GAM.  Is there another move coming before the window closes on Wednesday?