Expansion draft coming

In 2022 we add Charlotte FC to the league, which means yet another expansion draft is coming.  The draft will be next Tuesday, December 14th.  The rules this time around are that Charlotte gets 5 picks, they can't pick more than one player from a team, and the teams that lost players to Austin last year are exempt from the draft this year.

The Rapids can protect 12 players, plus every homegrown player under 25 or under and ever y Generation Adidas player.  The roster is everyone on the team at the end of the season, regardless of contract status.  However players out of contract (in the Rapids case, Badji, Beitashour, and Moor) hold no real benefit to Charlotte in picking them as they are still free to sign anywhere they want.  Players who's options were declined however are valuable because Charlotte can pick them, but I believe they have to pick up their option year to do it.

In last year's expansion draft Beitashour, Mezquida, Moor, Rawls, and Warner were left unprotected.

Automatically protect on the Rapids roster are: Seb Anderson, Cole Bassett, Michael Edwards, Kortne Ford, Matt Hundley, Ollie Larraz, Phillip Mayaka (Generation Adidas), Abe Rodriguez, Yaya Toure, Will Vint, and Darren Yapi.

The notable name not on that list is Kellyn Acosta, who is now too old to be automatically protected as a homegrown player.

Given that, here's my prediction/suggestion on who will be protected by the Rapids:

Lalas Abubakar, Kellyn Acosta, Michael Barrios, Lucas Esteves, Brain Galvan, Mark-Anthony Kaye, Jonathan Lewis, Jack Price, Keegan Rosenberry, Diego Rubio, Auston Trusty, and William Yarbrough.

But the expansion draft is as much about who you leave unprotected and why as it is who you protect.  I think the above are all obvious choices but I want to explain my reasoning on who I didn't protect:

Badji, Beitashour, & Moor all have the same reasoning.  Charlotte doesn't get anything out of selecting them, unless they think being left unprotected upsets the player enough to want to turn down any offer from Colorado and sign with Charlotte.  Beitashour and Moor were left unprotected last year and are still negotiating so that's clearly not an issue for them, and I can't see it being an issue for Badji.

Namli & Rawls - We've already said goodbye to them, no need to protect them

Clint Irwin - I think we saw this year he's the solid #2 in net, and you just can't justify protecting your #2 while leaving a more regular player unprotected.  There's an outside chance Charlotte could take him.

Jeremy Kelly - He's got some talent but is just a backup right now.  I can't see him being selected as one of the 5 picks by Charlotte.

Nicolas Mezquida - He's got a high number and is a bench player.  We're not even sure we're going to re-sign him.  He's not worth protecting because his loss wouldn't be that big of an impact.  I don't think Charlotte would be interested in him but it wouldn't be completely surprising.

Andre Shinyashiki - We have 3 forwards and we should protect at least one of them.  With Badji out of contract its either Rubio or Shinyashiki.  Neither one would be irreplaceable if Charlotte selected them, but there are hints of interest in Rubio from Chile.  That possible interest plus Diego being slightly more consistent makes him the choice to protect and Shinyashiki the one to leave exposed.  I wouldn't expect him to get taken though as I think forward is where Charlotte will spend money to bring in players instead of looking at the draft.

Collen Warner - I don't se an aging backup d-mid being somebody Charlotte is going to take.

Danny Wilson - This is the one difficult choice.  It really came down to protecting Rubio or Wilson and again, the interest from Chile made the difference.  I also think an international average MLS CB (at best) is an unlikely target for Charlotte but I won't say I feel confident they won't take a chance on Wilson.  But the reality is we have 13 players who aren't automatically protected that I wouldn't want to lose and only 12 slots.