One Move Made, One Move (At Least) Left

By tomorrow at 6pm MT the Rapids have to be roster compliant.  That means they need to figure out how to fix 8 internationals into 6 international slots.  Today came word of the first of those moves in the news that Sam Nicholson received his green card.  That means we have 7 internationals to fit into 6 international slots, which means one more move is coming tomorrow.

There's Twitter chatter that there will be a press release tomorrow about the move and that it does not involved trading for an additional international slot.  For now lets assume the chatter is accurate.  What options does that leave?

1. Somebody else gets a green card - unlikely, there was no press release for Nicholson so why would there be one tomorrow?  Unless is was a release for both of them, but the Rapids haven't done press releases for green cards in the past.
2. We trade an international to another MLS team - also unlikely, there's been no rumors of that and of the internationals we're likely to be willing to give up (Blomberg, Gashi, Wilson) there's not a lot of value.
3. We sell an international to a team outside of MLS - equally unlikely, same issues with player value and with a number of windows closed for other leagues there aren't a lot of options.
4. We loan an international to a team - possible, though most likely to MLS or USL since the transfer window applies to loans as well.  If we were to go this route I would expect it would be a short-term loan while we wait for an additional green card to process.  Somthing like Shinyashiki to the Springs.
5. We buy out an international's contract an release them - this is the most likely move I believe.  It solves the problem for the whole season, it clears up cap space, and there are a couple of internationals that are unlikely to feature much this season.

So assuming the final option is the one they go with, who is it going to be?  We can rule out Mezquida, Price, Shinyashiki, and Smith as they are all core pieces to the 2019 plan.  That leaves Blomberg, Gashi, and Wilson.  I doubt its Gashi, if you're going to make that big of a move you make it at the beginning of the offseason so you can use that cap space.  So really it comes down to two:

• Blomberg - On ~$250K salary that would have to be bought out but will be out of contract next season
• Wilson - On ~$550K salary that goes through 2020 (2021 is a team option year) and both years would have to be bought out

I think the key to this decision is the rule that the first buyout of the offseason is "free" in that it doesn't hit the cap.  Any other buyout in an offseason or any in-season buyout hits the cap, as we saw with Aigner last season.  So the Rapids could cheaply buy out Blomberg and free up a little cap space, or bite off a bigger chunk with Wilson and free up space both this year and next with no penalty.  This would also allow them to buy out Blomberg in the middle of the season if necessary with a minimal cap hit (whatever is left of his 2019 contract).

I think tomorrow they'll announce they bought out Danny Wilson's contract to get to roster compliance.