One Last Move Under The Window

Colorado made one last move before the window closed last night, trading Michael Barrios to the Galaxy for their first round pick, plus up to $50K of GAM next year based on his play in the rest of 2023.

I see a lot of Rapids fans complaining about a "fan-favorite" being traded for so litter.  First of all, I never saw him as a fan-favorite.  People seem to like his hustle, but MLS is way past the point where hustle makes a good player.  Barrios is a 32 year old winger who's lost pace and endurance and who's on a max salary deal.  What kind of market do people think there is for a player like that?  The real value we got in this move is the roster spot and salary cap room.  Bringing in Gutman, Navarro, and Tavares (see below) probably meant we needed some wiggle room.  And its not like Barrios has set the world on fire the last tow years.  He's got 4 goals since the start of 2022 while starting just 26 of a possible 57 games.  That's not much production for the salary.

If this team has a future its not with the likes of Barrios or Acosta.  This is what a rebuild looks like.  Its ridiculous that we're rebuilding for a second time less than two years removed from winning the West in 2021, but it has to be done and these are the right moves to start the process.

Also today we got confirmation of the loan of Sidnei Tavares from Portugal.  So the moves in this window:

Andrew Gutman - Trade

Daniel Chacon - Signed from Rapids 2 (then loaned to a Costa Rican side)

Marko Ilic - Converted from loan to buy after renegotiating

Rafael Navarro - Loan

Sidnei Tavares - Loan

Its not enough, but hopefully its a start.

I expect that to be the last of the Rapids news until our next game on the 20th.  If something comes up I'll post though.  I'm not sure if I'm going to fill the time with something else or just take a break for two weeks.  Maybe I'll do some non-league previews or something.