Rapids Continue To Trade Player Options For Money

So two official moves since last I wrote.  Bassett to Portland is now official, with the final price being the same as reported up front but the add-on potential being $100K less than first reports.  As I covered last week, this is not a great move.

Today the Rapids sent two international slots to Chicago for $650K of GAM this year and another $200K of GAM next year.  This is the most ever(?) paid for an international slot.  So good business, but it ties our hands in the number of reinforcements we can bring it.  By my count we have 6 internationals right now:

    Rafa Navarro

    Hamzat Ojediran

    Rob Holding

    Lucas Herrington

    Alexis Manyoma

    Ali Fadal

With two spots traded away that covers all 8 spots.  Now Navarro or Fadal could be getting a green card, or the plan might be to loan Fadal to Rapids 2 this season, but as of right now it appears we have no room for any more internationals.

Which makes this rumor interesting,  The Rapids are linked with Spanish center back Loic Williams, who currently plays for Granada in the Spanish Segunda Division.  The catch is that Granada is fighting relegation and won't sell him until the summer window.  By summer either one of those green cards may have come through, or Manyoma's loan will be up and if we don't buy him that spot will be free.

Williams just told 24 years old and has played his whole senior career in the Spanish lower leagues, amassing 95 appearances over the last 4 seasons for three different teams.  Granada bought him for 600,000 Euros from Tenerife after they were relegated to the third division last year.  The last player I can think of to come over from Segunda and make a solid career in MLS was Shaq Moore leaving Tenerife for Nashville in the summer of 2022 but its not something I've tracked closely either.

Right now the Rapids opening night lineup in Seattle in 19 days looks something like this:

Steffen

Cannon - Holding - Cobb - Vines

Ronan - Ojediran - Aaronson

Yapi - Navarro - Sealy

Which...isn't a MLS playoff-level starting XI.  Not unless Matt Wells has really turned some players around.

I know its been a quiet offseason here, but its hard to have much to talk about when you look at this roster and the lack of action this offseason.

From Goal Bassett To Gone Bassett

Tom Bogert broke the news early this evening and its been confirmed by Nourse at the Post and Burgundy Wave.  Cole Bassett is being sold to Portland for $2.65M and 1.05M in performance add-ons.  The Rapids retain a sell-on percentage.

A stunning move by Padraig Smith and (presumably) Matt Wells.  Bassett is the best homegrown player the Rapids academy has ever developed.  He was probably the player most likely to be the next addition to the Gallery of Honor in 10-15 years, and he's only 24.  Instead the majority of his career will now not be in Colorado.  He's also the long-time face of the team in the Colorado market.

Bassett was an expected starter in 4 weeks and started the one preseason match that has been played so far, setting up Yapi for the only Colorado goal of the game.  Bogert's report says the relationship between Cole and the club "remains strong" which doesn't suggest that Bassett asked out.  Tom also said that multiple clubs had asked about him this offseason.

There is a new manager with a new style of play.  Its possible that Wells doesn't see Bassett as the player he wants in the midfield 8 position.  Or maybe he's not planning to use an 8 at all.  If that's the case A. I think that's a poor decision given the rest of our roster but also B. it does make Bassett the most valuable asset we have to move.

Two years ago this month I wrote an article for Burgundy Wave about how Padraig Smith's methodology seemed to map to the one laid out in Soccernomics.  One of the principles of that methodology is "Sell any player if some club offers more than he’s worth.".  That's followed by this quote:

Buying and selling players is not an activity for improving soccer performance. It’s a trading activity in which we produce gross margin. If an offer for a player is greatly superior to his market value, you must not keep him

This move feels like it falls into that rule.  We got an offer for Bassett we were happy with, so we sold him.

The only reason I'm not fully convinced is that $2.65M guaranteed is too low  for what Bassett means to this club on and off the field.  We got $8M for a 26 year old Mihailovic (and that seemed low), we get barely a third of that for a 24 year old Bassett?  This doesn't seem like being offered "more than he's worth", especially if multiple teams were asking.  Essentially selling Cole paid off what we paid for Sealy.  Those two do not feel like equal players.

If we had gotten the full $3.7M up front it would make more sense.  Maybe those performance goals are so low we think we're going to get the full amount without difficulty and breaking them out just let it fit into Portland's budget?

The real problem I have with this, beyond the low number, is the timing.  We are 26 days from the season opener.  If this was going to be our major move of the offseason (so far) it needed to happen in December so we could spend the money we got before the season starts.  Now whomever we spent the money on has to be negotiated, signed, and processed in less than a month.  Unless that player(s) is American or already has a visa its a safe bet they won't be in Seattle for the season opener.  So once again we're starting the season at less than full strength.

With Mihailovic, Larraz, and Bassett all gone we have lost 6500 2025 minutes from or midfield in the last 5 months.  Obviously we should expect Aaronson to take a third of those.  But what about the other two-thirds?  Hamzat?  Atencio?  Ronan?  Unknown signing?  Going back to my post two weeks ago we now need ether another signing or another young player like Atencio to step up just to get us back to our 2025 levels.  This offseason is not filling me with a lot of hope that we're going to see a significant improvement in 2026.  We seem to be going all in on Matt Wells being the secret to unlock this roster.

One Month To Go

One month from tonight the Rapids kick off the season in Seattle., opposite NBC airing the Closing Ceremonies from Italy that would have taken place 8 hours earlier.  The Rapids haven't made a whole lot of news in the last week or two until today where they signed a draft pick and played their first preseason game.

Colorado signed 2025 Superdraft pick (so December of 2024) forward Donovan Phillip to a 2+3 season contract.  With the sprint season next season this means he's guaranteed through the sprint season, then has 3 team option years.  After being picked last season Phillip went back to school at NC State and won the MAC Hermann Trophy this year, which goes to the top player in Division 1.  He is actually the third Hermann trophy winner to make his MLS debut with the Rapids, but the first as a player.  Former GM Dan Counce and former coach Mooch Myernick were also Hermann trophy winners.

Phillip will join the team in Florida once he gets his visa.  On that subject Matt Wells was able to join the team in Florida just a couple of days after they got down there.  His new assistant coaches are still waiting for their visas though, as is new midfielder Hamzat Ojediran.  Braidon Nourse of the Denver Post has a good article about why these are taking longer than they used to and how its largely out of the Rapids hands.

The Rapids also extended Nico Hansen through the 27-28 season with options for the two seasons after that.

Today the squad got their first preseason action in, facing Nashville SC.  Interesting note is that Sam Bassett is in camp with Nashville and got time in this game, but after Cole had subbed out for the Rapids.  Colorado started in what looked like a 4-3-3 with a largely second-string lineup but with Steffen, Holding, Cannon, and Bassett starting alongside Herrington, Travis, Frederick, Wathuta, Harris, Sealy, and Yapi.  Yapi got the scoring going early with a nice curving shot into the far corner but after that it was all Nashville as they scored 3 to win 3-1.  The second half roster was another mix of starters and backups as it was Hansen, Rosenberry, Murphy, Cobb, Vines, Ronan, Antencio, Aaronson, KSB, Manyoma, and Navarro.

Hard to take much out of the first preseason game (or any preseason game really).  Wells had mentioned that he was intentionally working the team hard leading up to this one as he wanted to see how they reacted when they were tired.  About the most preseason tells you is if somebody notable isn't playing, but nobody was really missing from this one.  Ted Ku-DiPietro was the only notable name not to play but hard to get all our potential wingers on the field with everyone getting 45 minutes.

My bigger concern is that we're one month out and nothing has changed from my roster analysis a week and a half ago.  I did have one glaring mistake, I didn't consider the addition of Lucas Herrington.  That said right now to me he's the Australian Noah Cobb (or maybe since Herrington signed first Cobb is the American Lucas Herrington).  Both young center backs playing at a high youth level but yet to prove they can be a regular MLS starter.

Herrington aside though, I still have the same conclusions. With no other changes we're banking heavily on young players being able to quickly step up to be full-time starters and that Wells can unlock something in the team Armas couldn't.  I'm most concerned about a defense that is looking like its going to be Cannon - Holding - Herrington/Cobb/Murphy - Vines across the back line.  This is a defense that is likely to get torched regularly while only Vines would be expected to add to the attack.  The Rapids really need to make a move for a MLS ready CB and make it soon so they can integrate in camp before Feb. 23rd.

Problems ON The Pitch: 2026 Roster Seems To Have Regressed

So in the down time over the holidays the Rapids had three big additions and have now opened camp.  First the details of the additions.

• As covered before the holidays the Rapids officially announced Matt Wells, on December 23rd

Very odd timing for what is essentially the biggest news of the offseason.  Hiding it the day before Christmas Eve means it probably didn't even register for most causal fans.  The original news broke a couple weeks earlier and the delay was thought to be because of wanting to get his visa done before the announcement.  Except that Wells is not with the team in Florida (nor are the two assistants e's added from England) while he waits on his visa.

My first reaction was that this was a bit stunning to me.  How do you open camp without a manager (unless you're the 2014 Rapids but we are not reopening that old wound)?  I recognize that the current government has played hell with any type of immigration, but that's something I would assume the team would factor in.  But then I decided to take a look around.  The Crew are the only other MLS team to hire an international manager who hadn't worked in MLS before and has to go through the visa process.  Sure enough, they're in the same situation waiting on paperwork as camp opens.  So I'm going to cut the Rapids some slack, at least for the first couple of weeks.  ;)

• The Rapids traded $1.9M in GAM, plus up to 600K more based on performance, to Montreal for winger Dante Sealy.

Sealy was originally a homegrown with Dallas before ending up in Montreal.  Last season he started 28 games, tallying 9 goals and 2 assists, with six of those goals and one of the assists all coming in the last 9 games of the season.  Sealy will be 23 in April with 141total professional appearances, his 9 goals last season exactly doubled his career total.  He was capped at each of the U.S. youth levels, all single-digit number of times, but last season officially switched to Trinidad & Tobago, being capped 6 times in 2025.

• Colorado signs defensive midfielder Hamzat Ojediran from RC Lens of League 1.  Reportedly the transfer fee is around $3 million.

Ojediran is Nigerian and has played in Albania and Hungary before France (60 total professional appearances).  He's also been capped by the Nigerian U-17 team.  Ojediran will join the team in Florida once his visa comes through.  Something that might be harder with the current governmental leadership.

So that's the additions.  Are they enough to improve this team from 2025?  There are two areas to look at, quantity (minutes), and quality.  Lets compare to what we lost.

Goalkeeping: The Rapids return essentially all their goalkeeping from last season.  Beaudry played one game but Steffen and Hansen should easily cover that.

Defense:  As far as playing time Holding was almost an exact replacement for Awaziem so that covers that hole.  On top of that the team lost 3261 minutes from Maxso and Santos that needs to be covered.  Vines and Travis can talk Santos' minutes (we'll get to quality later), but who will take Maxso's 2880?  Noah Cobb?  That's a lot to put on a 20 year old.

Midfield: Obviously Aaronson is meant to be the replacement for Mihailovic.  Larraz's 2225 minutes, Harris' 1327, Cabral's 770, and Sam Bassett's 333 have to be replaced though.  So far Manyoma's play has approximately replaced Omir Fernandez.  Now Ojediran could e a like foe like with Larraz and Sealy could take the Harris/Cabral minutes.  That still leaves Manyoma as a wild card, or vice versa if Manyoma takes the minutes.

Forward: No real losses up front, as long as Navarro stays around.

So from a quantity aspect the Rapids have gone out and gotten the minimum additions needed to replace what they lost from 2025.  But that means expecting full starter minutes from 20, 22, and 23 year olds (Manyoma and Sealy are the same age).

From a quality standpoint the changes are again, a 20, 22, and a couple of 23 year olds.  That is not a normal age range you expect to improve a team.  Meanwhile across the board we're brining back a roster that failed to make the playoffs last season.  At this point guys like Steffen, Cannon, Holding, Bassett, and Navarro are who they are.  The only way to get improvement out of them is through tactics, they're unlikely to suddenly find another level in their play.  Aarons is young and talented, but can he carry this team to the playoffs on his own?

Given that our major weakness in 2025 was defense and we've really only subtracted from it in the loss of Maxso and Santos its really hard to see this roster as better going into 2026 as currently constructed.  We've spent $5 million in GAM and cash to bring in two unknowns who might not even be ready for a full-time starting role as our only changes.  Meanwhile other team have been getting better, largely by spending less on more known quantities it seems like.  This feels like another offseason where Padraig Smith thinks he's outsmarting the league by zigging while everyone is zagging but the reality is that has rarely worked for him.

Really Questioning Why The Rapids Deserve A Fanbase

Yeah, I'm not dead.  I was originally planning to come back and write something after the new year.  But I've started this post a couple of times and each one ended with "Do I really want to get that worked up?".

To be blunt, I feel like MLS and the Rapids really stopped all pretense of caring about long-term loyal fans this offseason.  Some of this was intentional, or at least, intentionally deciding not to worry about how that demographic would react.  Some of it is typical missing the mark.  We've known for a long time that the Rapids have regularly fumbled that market but it was one thing to see them try, even badly, and fail, its another to see them apparently just not care.

The big thing from the league is of course the schedule switch.  I went over this in detail when it was announced so I'm not going to rehash the argument here.  I will mention though that this week is two months since that announcement, 2 of the 15 months between the announcement and the start of the 'sprint season' that will lead into the new schedule, and there's been no further information released by anyone about how this is going to work.  Still no announcement that the players are on board, no announcement about how the Rapids and other cold weather-teams will be handled, and no updates about things like the Open Cup nd Leagues Cup in this new schedule.  But hey, that's only 15% of the time gone.

When I finished up my last post in December I mentioned that the moving of the Messi game was frustrating for me, but I needed a couple of weeks to disconnect.  That coincided with my trip home to Seattle for Christmas.  I was on the train leaving Sea-Tac when I get a ping from the Rapids app announcing a 'fan activation' about rebranding the Rapids.  Everything from the badge to the colors to the name changing is on the table.  Excuse me, what? 30 years with our current name, one of the 5 remaining names from 1996, and 20 years with our badge and colors, and you're just going to throw out the possibility of changing them all?

Now before you think I'm going full "old man yells at crowd" I understand that even classic badges have been updated over the years.  I'm open to the idea of tweaking the badge.  And for other teams trying new colors could be a thing but for a team that's kind of known in MLS for an early history of switching colors (green, white, gold, black, and blue were all used as team colors in the first eight season, then moved to burgundy and blue in the twelfth season) having another rotation of colors is unnecessary, unless you're going to go back to the original green.

But changing the name?  What, we want to be Arsenal Colorado again?  FC Colorado?  Denver United?  Everything we've ever done in our history has been under one name, 'One Club' you might say.  There's likely some belief that this team needs to be "relaunched" to appeal to Colorado soccer fans alongside the start of the Summit but the problem with this team has never been the name or the colors, its been the lack of investment and caring from ownership.

As part of this "fan activation" they invited fans to fill out survey about the Rapids branding,  Fans were asked to rank each of the 4 logos (the classic wave, the classic round soccer ball, the current shield, and the Colorado C badge currently on the Headwaters kits) on a five-point scale between two contracting ideas.  Those ideas?

• Traditional vs. Modern
• Quiet vs. Loud
• Local vs. Global
• Gloomy vs. Cheery
• Fits In vs. Stands Out
• Party vs. Battle

Party vs. Battle?  Gloomy vs. Cheery?  How does a logo battle?  They also asked which of the four *shapes* of the crests best represents the club (ironically in a page that wasn't optimized for mobile so the four crests were all squashed out of shape).  I'm sorry, but this creams "trendy marketing survey" and not a real attempt to engage fans in this discussion.  Of course the fact that it 3as launched on December 22nd, the first day of one of the busiest travel weeks of the year and as we entered the two week dead news zone around the holidays suggests that they were hoping it would fly under the radar anyway.

They did follow up with an offer to sign up for small focus sessions to give more feedback, which I took.  This week I got an email inviting me to a session.  The session will be lead by Name & Number, the consulting agency the Rapids are using as part of this rebranding research, and the available times are 3 90 minute sessions on a Wednesday and one on a Thursday, all during the normal workday.  So I would need to take time off work, drive out to the Dick, and for all of that I don't actually get to give my feedback to the Rapids about the idea, just to the creative agency they hired to find out if they should rebrand.  This is not a serious attempt by the Rapids to reach out to their fans.

I can't help but notice that this is all happening six months after the Rapids hired Haley Durmer as CBO after the departure of long-time CBO Wayne Brant.  I'm all for new ideas, god knows this team needs them, but this feels like going from 0 to 100 without stopping to see if 50 would work.  I'd also point out that the one leak we have of the new jersey, from Footy Headlines which has been a reliable leaker of MLS kits in the past, is that the Rapids will be in a Black and Light Sky Blue kit for their new home kit this year.  Needless to say, that's not home burgundy.  MLS also posted a behind-the-scenes of media day reel that showed Aaronson wearing black socks with burgundy trim.  I'm going to be real suspicious if the findings of this fan activation finds that there' support for changing the colors, say to black and light sky blue.

Add to that the moving of the Messi game.  The Rapids have claimed that they were always planning to move a game to Empower Field this season to celebrate their 30th anniversary.  Right.  A team that can barely sell out the sub-18K Dick for fireworks was going to take on the costs of playing in front of maybe 20K at Empower to see the Rapids take on the Galaxy or something.  In fact they were so prepared to play at Empower that they waited 4 weeks to announce the game was going to be played there.  At best they knew they were likely to get Miami this season and reached out to Empower to reserve some dates.  Of course in those four weeks they didn't bother to get anything sorted out as far as tifo, instruments, tailgating, etc., just assuming the fans would handle it themselves.  There was even an issue over C38 tickets for that game, but that's been worked out this week.

All in all the attitude from MLS and the Rapids this offseason has been "we're going to do whatever we want and the fans will come with us or not, we don't care".  MLS talked about getting feedback from the fans before their schedule decision but I wonder how much feedback they really got from the Rapids fanbase if apparently nobody in C38 was ever asked.  The rapids talk about wanting to build the fanbase but again, they make decisions and then reach out to the fans, not the other way around.  Its quite possible that in 18 months the MLS team in this city is playing in the winter, under new colors and a new name, after their biggest game in years not being in their home stadium.  As somebody who's been following the Rapids (almost) from the beginning, is that even something I want to be involved in?

The worst part?  I'm still going to be back later this week talking about our very questionable offseason, including holding the biggest announcement of the time off (our new coach) until two days before Christmas.  There's a whole other discussion about what we've done to prepare on the field (not enough) but this rant is long enough.  Rapids, why can't I quit you?