Rapids Make Major, And Surprising, Move

Yesterday I theorized that the Rapids would announce an international would be bought out today to reach roster compliance and that international would be Wilson.  Well, that's not exactly what happened.

This afternoon the Rapids waived Shkelzen Gashi.

Yeah, I did not see that coming.  Not only did they move Gashi and not Wilson, they did it in a way that provided no cap relief (per Burgundy Wave's discussion with the Front Office).  Gashi will go on waivers for the next 48 hours and any MLS team can claim him.  The team that is willing to take on the largest amount of his salary will get him and the Rapids cap hit and salary responsibilities will be reduced by that amount.

Nobody is going to pick him up for anything more than the league minimum.

So, where does that leave us?  We now have a free roster spot and we're at our international limit instead of over it.  In theory we could sign another DP but with no cap room relief and no international slot there's not a high likelihood of that.  On the flip side, Gashi wasn't going to feature this season and hadn't made an impact since his goal in the 2016 playoffs.  Reports are that he didn't impress enough in preseason to really factor into the team's plans.

The confusing part is why waive him instead of buying him out?  All I can figure is that we have some sort of belief that another team will pick him up and save us some salary.  Otherwise this seems like a missed opportunity.  Getting ~$500K of cap space back would be a significant move.

Despite that though, I like this move.  Better to cut bait on somebody that had no role going forward than depth we might need somewhere else.  Its also the kind of major move prior Rapids leadership would not have made.  In the end Gashi had an amazing 2016 season and coasted on that for two years.  We can do better.