Roster Moves To Wrap Up 2020

Lots of news in the last 24 hours.  The biggest is that the Rapids announced their end of season roster moves, something that the fans had been waiting on for the last week or so.  In short:

• Options picked up for Sam Vines, Andre Shinyashiki, and Jeremy Kelly
• Released Niki Jackson, Abdul Rwatubaye, and Deklan Wynne
• Signed new deals with Steven Beitashour and Drew Moor for one season, and Clint Irwin, Collen Warner, and Danny Wilson for two years
• William Yarbrough's loan completed but the Rapids are negotiating a purchase from Liga MX side Leon
• The rest of the roster is already under contract for 2021

Most of these are expected, I had Wynne leaving and Jackson and Rwatubaye being coach's decisions based on the lack of time we got to see them.  I had all three options we picked up as the expected moves (they're all very obvious moves).  I did not have Beitashour, Warner, and Wilson coming back and I wasn't sure on Irwin.  I think bringing Warner and Beitashour back is fine, given the realities of an offseason with COVID going with what you know might have a higher upside than usual.  Irwin is a solid backup and it keeps Leon from thinking they have us over a barrel on the Yarbrough negotiations since we have an option to fall back on.  I just thought he might want to go somewhere where he has a better shot at being the #1.

That leads us to the one real surprise today, re-signing Danny Wilson to a two year deal.  I think most Rapids fans had raised eyebrows when we saw that, but after thinking about it for a bit its not a bad move if the deal was right (and I have reason to believe it was).  If he took a 50% pay cut, give or take, and he's going to get his green card soon, he's a MLS-capable role player for $200-$300K that doesn't take an international slot.  While he's not an obvious starter we can put him in without feeling like he has no chance.  His biggest problem is being consistent game to game and for 90 minutes in a game, but he has the skills to play CB in MLS.  I wouldn't want him to get as many starts as he has been getting, but I don't mind him as the 3rd/4th CB option on the team.

We'll get more into the holes the team needs to fill in the offseason later after we get through this busy week with the expansion and the re-entry draft.  Speaking of which, the Rapids also announced their protected list for tomorrow's draft:

• Auto-protected: Rodriguez, Anderson, Ford, Trusty, Vines, Acosta, Bassett, Vint, Hundley
• Protected by choice: Irwin, Yarbrough, Abubakar, Kelly, Rosenberry, Wilson, Galvan, Namli, Price, Lewis, Rubio, Shinyashiki
• Exposed: Rawls, Beitashour, Moor, Mezquida, Warner, Benezet

Again, most of this was expected, I picked 9,5 out of 12.  I had 9 right and had I known Trusty was an HG and auto-protected I would have protected Irwin or Kelly, making 10.  I was wrong on Benezet and Mezquida, the Rapids went with Wilson (who I didn't expect to be re-signed) and the other of Kelly/Irwin.

Really, the only questions here were three of Wilson/Irwin/Kelly/Mezquida/Benezet.  The other 9 are obvious.  Its really a matter of what the FO is hearing about who Austin might be interested in.  Right now I think the only player that might be taken is Mezquida.  There is an advantage to the Rapids losing a player tomorrow.  Anyone who loses a player tomorrow should be exempt from next year's expansion draft where two teams will be drafting and Acosta will lose his auto-protected status (he'll be over 25). It might be better in the long run to lose somebody tomorrow, because if we don't there are good odds we'll lose one next year.

The last bit of news is that the Rapids sent $125K in GAM to Chicago for the #6 pick in next month's draft.  This is right in line with what draft picks have been priced at in recent years, for example last year the #3 went for $150K and the the #10 went for $100K.  In the last two drafts the Rapids have pinpointed one player (Shinyashiki, Kelly) and made moves to acquire them.  This feels like another one of those moves.  Its also happened soon enough that the Rapids can have some influence on who gets offered a Generation Adidas contract, so they may have a target in mind that's coming out early for a GA contract (the league offers GA contracts based on interest teams have shown in players, they don't want to sign a player to a GA contract and then find out nobody wants them, that has happened in the past and the league had to "encourage" a team to select the player in the draft).