Welcome Mark-Anthony Kaye!

The Rapids made a big move today, sending $1 million in GAM and an international slot for next year to LAFC for Canadian midfielder Mark-Anthony Kaye and LAFC's first round pick next season.  There are incentives in the deal that could raise the final amount of GAM LAFC gets but from what I'm hearing its not much or its based on the Rapids doing so good we won't care about paying them.  LAFC also retains 10% of any transfer fee the Rapids get after the Rapids get their initial payment back (so 10% of the fee after the first $1M+incentive payments).

Needless to say this is a significant outlay for a player.  Kaye is 26 years old (birthday in December) and is a regular callup for the Canadian National Team.  He's been part of LAFC since they signed him before their inaugural season in 2018, appearing 77 times in 3.5 seasons for them.  Before that he played for Louisville City in the USL and TFC II and TFC III before that.  Coming up through TFC's Academy means he counts as a domestic player even though he's Canadian so he doesn't need an international slot.

This season he's lost playing time as LAFC has shifted formation and his skills have been squeezed out of their midfield.  He's also seems to be making a few more mistakes in defense lately and some LAFC commentators suggested that he needed a change of scenery.  Of course we heard the same thing about Keegan Rosenberry.  And Kellyn Acosta.  And Auston Trusty.  And Michael Barrios.  We aren't becoming known as Distressed Assets FC for nothing.  I have faith that if there are any issues along those lines that Padraig Smith and Robin Fraser know how to get a player back to playing at their best.

IMO this is a real solid move by the club.  It seems to be seen as a very positive move for both teams by neutral fans and commentators around MLS.  There are a number of Rapids fans who are still, somewhat fairly, gun shy after seeing so many deals blow up in our face but the track record of the current FO is one that doesn't make the same mistake twice and one that has a pretty good read on MLS-based players.  (International signings, well, there's still work to do).  

Plus look at how this deal breaks down.  $1M of GAM is the same amount of GAM we're going to get from the Vines sale.  100% of the proceeds from a homegrown player being sold go back to the club, with the first $1M going back to the club as GAM, and the rest going back as funds that have to be reinvested in the club outside of salary/transfer fees (it can't be pocketed.  We're essentially buying Kaye with house money, which is exactly how the youth system is supposed to work.  The international slot in 2022 is meaningless as we have no idea what kind of green cards will be acquired by then, so we can easily work around that.  The 10% sell on clause is nothing.  If we sell Kaye for $2M we'd get $1.9M (our initial cost of $1M plus 90% of everything else) and LAFC would get $100K.  Whatever.

In exchange we get a midfield of Jack Price, possibly the most underrated midfielder in the league, Canadian Nat Mark-Anthony Kaye, and American Nat Kellyn Acosta.  Its hard to say there's a better 3-man midfield in the league.  It gives us some of that bite we've been missing and another threat to score.

You noticed I included Acosta.  My first reaction to this move was that this screamed that we were about to sell him but after some thought and talking to some contacts I think that's less likely.  As well as Acosta has been playing we haven't heard any rumors about offers for him.  This improves the team even if he doesn't get sold in a year where we have a chance to really make some noise.  I think the odd man out here is Bassett.  Its going to be hard to displace those three from the starting lineup.  He's going to have to force Fraser to play a 4-man midfield or hope Acosta spends more time at LB than I expect.  With only 18 months left on his contract this feels more like a plan for him leaving, one way or the other, than Acosta.