Colorado Trades Mark-Anthony Kaye To Toronto

Rumors were swirling earlier this week that Toronto was interested in reuniting Kaye and Bradley.  Many (including myself) dismissed it as a single report from the Toronto side that felt like the "big" team trying to bully the "little" team into making a move.  Well, the move is being made.  No official announcement yet but the deal is reportedly done:

    Toronto gets Kaye

    Colorado gets $1M in GAM, midfielder Ralph Priso, an international slot in 2023, and TFC's 1st round pick next year

Overall that's a sizeable haul.  Last summer we traded $1M of GAM and an international slot for 2022 to get Kaye, so a year later we've added a 1st round pick and a young player to his value.  Long term this looks like a solid move.

But for 2022?  This feels a lot like throwing in the towel on the season.  As Joseph Samelson pointed out, the 2021 team has lost Vines (who left midway through), Bassett, Badji, Acosta, Shinyashiki, Mezquida, Trusty*, and now Kaye.  Essentially in 8 months we've gone from the top of the West to a rebuilding project.  The thing is, if you look at any of those 8 moves on their own, all of them look like solid, smart moves.  The problem is, again as Joseph put it, the Front Office failed to bring in adequate replacements.  We traded Acosta because we ere going to pivot from him and build our midfield around Kaye, but that wasn't working.  We moved on from Bassett, but brought in Max, who's shown nothing in MLS play.  We sold Vines and Trusty and brought in Keita who got injured (admittedly, not something you can plan for) and then Vallecilla, who looks like he has potential but is he ready to start?  Looking back now, the offseason was a disaster and we're suffering for it now.

Ralph Priso-Mbongue is a 19 year old defensive minded Canadian midfielder.  He came up through the TFC academy (which means he doesn't need an international slot) and was on TFC III and II while Fraser was still an assistant coach for the first team.  He's played for the Canadian U-15 and U-17 teams and has some real potential.  He's made 12 starts and 25 appearances for the first team over the last 2+ seasons, with 2 goals and 3 assists in just over 1000 minutes.  He got his first full national team camp callup in January but has not yet appeared for the full Nats.

Again though, this is a solid deal than in a year or two we're going to be happy with.  But I don't see a way to the playoffs in 2022 now, unless the Rapids have a midseason window unlike one they've had in a long time.

* - Trusty is not available for tomorrow's match and has played his last game in burgundy