Colorado Finally Announces Roster Decisions

Friday was the deadline to pick up player options for 2024 and the Rapids made their announcements today:

Options exercised: Andrew Gutman, Calvin Harris, Ralph Priso

Options declined: Sebastian Anderson, Steven Beitashour, Oliver Larraz, Jack Price, Abraham Rodriguez, Gustavo Vallecilla, William Yarbrough

Out of contract and leaving the team: Luis Diaz, Diego Rubio

Loan ending: Danny Leyva

Option triggered earlier this season: Danny Wilson

Currently signed for 2024:

Lalas Abubakar, Max Alves, Cole Bassett, Moïse Bombito, Kévin Cabral, Daniel Chacón, Michael Edwards, Braian Galván, Alex Gersbach, Andrew Gutman, Calvin Harris, Marko Ilić, Aboubacar Keita, Jonathan Lewis, Andreas Maxsø, Rafael Navarro, Sam Nicholson, Ralph Priso, Connor Ronan, Keegan Rosenberry, Sidnei Tavares, Jackson Travis, Danny Wilson, Darren Yapi 

The Rapids are negotiating to bring back Seb Anderson, Olli Larraz, and William Yarbrough on new (presumably cheaper) contracts.  Beitashour, Price, Rodriguez, and Vallecilla will not return.

A couple of notes.  Danny Wilson's contract had a clause that automatically triggered when certain metrics were achieved, which he met earlier this year.  Hat-tip to Matt Pollard at Burgundy Wave and Brendan Ploen with the Denver Post for finding that out.  The team has an option on him for 2025 that sounds like doesn't automatically trigger.

Max is still listed on the roster for 2024.  My assumption is that there are legal reasons that his contract can't be terminated for cause yet, my guess is that they can't do it until the legal process plays out in Brazil.  They could buyout his contract but each team only gets one buyout without taking a salary cap hit and they would still have to pay him if they bought him out, while terminating him for cause means the league isn't on the hook.  Unless he gets an absolutely clean pass from Brazilian authorities he'll never play here again and I'd be surprised if the contract is still in effect by the time the season starts.

There were really no surprises with the decisions today.  Gutman was an obvious pickup and while Harris wasn't particularly notable last year he's young and cheap so bringing him back makes sense.  Priso is really the only player I wouldn't have brought back, I'm not sure he adds anything but being a warm body at this point.

As far as who we let go, we knew Rubio and Price were leaving, and just yesterday news came out that Diaz was looking at European options.  We also knew about Leyva already.  

Vallecilla goes down as, so far, the worst trade Smith has ever made and potentially a top 3 worst trade in team history.  $800K of GAM and reportedly paying of his remaining transfer fee for 568 minutes of play.  We did get $185K of that GAM back by loaning him to Columbus this season, but even with that you're looking at a guy who made 12 appearances and had 2 red cards (in fact, he has a foul-to-card ratio of under 4 to 1 in his 49 MLS appearances).  Just a debacle of a knee-jerk move when Keita went down injured last season.

Beitashour is likely to retire and Abe Rodriguez seems to have been passed by Adam Beaudry for the "keeper fo the future" role so no surpises or real loss in letting them go.  Hopefully AbeRod can find a starting job either in MLS or the USL Championship.  Brining Seb Anderson and Olli Larraz back makes complete sense, especially the latter.  I hope they get that done.  I'm a little surprised that they're talking to Yarbrough, I don't know that paying him what he's worth makes sense as a backup, but we'll see.

Not counting Max there are only 23 signed players, and that includes Chacon who's out on loan in Costa Rica and Tavares and Navarro who are only here on loan through midseason.  So its really 20 players who are available to Armas for the whole 2024 season, and that assumes guys Lewis isn't traded.  There's a lot of holes to fill.