Ins and Outs in Commerce City

A trio of trades by the Rapids before the window closed last night has certainly generated some discussion today among burgundy fans.  We're going to break each one down in order of complexity and then talk about the bigger picture.

Rapids loan CB Lalas Abubakar from Columbus until the end of the season for $125K in TAM

This is pretty straight forward.  The Rapids needed CB help immediately and Abubakar wasn't getting a ton of time in Columbus.  I expect Lalas to start ASAP, maybe even on Saturday.  I also get the impression that the teams will work out a long-term deal to keep him here before the season ends.  Abubakar is a 24 year old Ghanaian who was the 5th overall pick in the 2017 SuperDraft.  He made 20 starts for the Crew last season but has only made 1 start this year.  He played for the Ghana U-20 team but got his green card last year.  He's not a top MLS starter but he can do the job.

Rapids acquire F Jonathan Lewis from NYCFC for $650K of TAM and a 2020 international slot

Lewis is the big pickup of the day.  A 21 year old winger/forward from Florida, he got his start by signing for Bradford City (his mother is English) before realizing he'd rather be home in the States.  He came back and played for a year at Akron before being drafted by NYCFC with the 3rd overall pick in the 2017 draft.  He's made 31 appearances for the Pigeons over 3 years with 3 goals and 5 assists.  He's also been capped by the U.S. Nats 4 times in 2019.  He's best as a winger, which we're not currently playing with, but can also tuck under a striker more centrally.  Probably not a true #10 but might be able to serve in a pinch.  He came at a high cost though, with a lot of TAM going to NYCFC.  According to reports there were multiple teams pursuing him, which pushed his price up.  Depending on unannounced performance targets the TAM price could go up by up to another $100K.

Rapids acquire CB Abdul Rwatubyaye, $50K TAM, 2019 international slot, a 2nd round pick in 2020, and $250K season ending injury replacement allowance for Benny Feilhaber.  Teams also swap waiver wire priority order (KC to #1, Colorado to #5)

Yeah, that's as confusing as it looks.  Let's start with the players, then we'll move to the rest of the stuff.  Rwatubyaye is a 22 year old Rwandan defender who signed with KC this past offseason.  Before that he had played for 6 years in Rwanda, winning the Rwandan Premier League 3 times.  He's also a regular for the Rwandan National Team after playing at each national team youth level, playing for them in World Cup qualifying and African Cup of Nations qualifying.  He's played in all 4 of their most recent African Cup of Qualifying matches.  All that said, he's still very raw and is expected to be a long-term project, not a 2019 contributor.

In exchange Benny Feilhaber is going back to KC.  Feilhaber was somewhat of a surprise signing this offseason but was expected to bring senior leadership to fill the gap until we could get new DPs in 2020.  Obviously as this season has gone south the need for that senior leadership has evaporated.  At the same time it appears Benny wasn't aware, or wasn't up, for what he signed up for.  In quotes from a KC reporter:

My response to these quotes is "Benny, if you don't want to be here, we don't need you".  I understand the desire to finish on a high note, but its not like this is year 3 of a 4 year deal that hasn't gone well.  This is 10 games into a 2 year commitment for a team that could be expected to be, well, not this bad, but not competing for championships.

Outside of the player swap we also traded some assets.  The $50K of TAM, the draft pick, and the international slot explain themselves (we needed an slot to add Rwatubyaye to the roster).  Swapping of the waiver wire order seems fairly meaningless. I'm guessing KC knows, or believes, that a player they're interested in will be waived soon and want first dibs on him.  The season ending injury replacement allowance is a big name for teams being allowed to spend up to $250K of their own money to replace a significant player that got a season-ending injury in the early part of the season (before the window closes).  Essentially KC is paying us $250K out of their own pocket that we can use as GAM.

So, in the end, here's the combine total of today's activities:

OUT: Feilhaber, 2020 international slot, #1 waiver wire pick, $775K-$875K of TAM (most not payable until 2020)

IN: Lewis, Rwatubyaye, Abubakar (on loan through 2019), 2019 international slot, #5 waiver wire pick, KC's 2nd round pick in 2020, $50K in TAM, $250K in GAM

Essentially we gave up Feilhaber and about $500-$600K in TAM, plus swapped waiver wire and international spots, for a National team player, a raw CB prospect, and a starting CB on loan, plus a draft pick.  That's not a bad days work.  It, however, doesn't help us much for 2019.  Adding two or three young players to the list of Acosta, Anderson, Bassett, Ford, Hundley, Nicholson, Raben, Rosenberry, Shinyashiki, and Vines is a lot of youth at low cost for the next coach to work with.  We've got a full youth movement going, but its going to take time to pay off.  I'm not sure the fans, or Smith, has that time.

Recapping A Busy Day

Ok, lots of stuff happened today.  Lets break down the details, then we'll talk end result.

• Made the Beeny Feilhaber signing official
• Traded Marlon Hairston for $175K in GAM ($125K this year and $50K next year)
• Traded the #15 pick and $100K of GAM to Chicago for the #5 pick
• Used the #5 pick on DU forward Andre Shinyashiki
• Used their two second round picks on defenders Marcello Borges and Jacob Hauser-Ramsey

So at the end of the day we ended up with two signed players, two trialists, and $75K in GAM.  We did had to lose Hairston to do it.

All in all, a really good day.  We covered Feilhaber last night.  Shinyashiki comes to us from across town at DU where he played with Kort Ford and Sam Hamilton.  He had 28 goals and 4 assists in 21 games last year and 51 goals with 15 assists over his four years with the Pioneers.  He plays a bit in-between attacking mid and full striker.  As a Brazilian he does require an international slot (more on that later) but he already signed a deal with MLS so he's pretty much assured of making the roster.  It will be interesting to see how much time he spends in Commerce City compared to Colorado Springs, given that he has Kamara, Rubio, Feilhaber, Jackson, Gashi, Nicholson, and Mezquida battling for minutes in similar positions.

Borges is an outside back that, if he makes the roster, I expect to spend most of the season in the Springs and be an emergency backup behind Rosenberry, Vines, and Wynne.  Hauser-Ramsey is a tall centerback that's probably a long-shot to make the roster but given that we're a little thin there he'll have a shot.

One interesting point with the roster right now is that we've got a bit of an issue with international slots.  Right now we've traded for one and traded three away, leaving us with 6.  We currently have 8 internationals though.  Blomberg, Gashi, Mezquida, Nicholson, Price, Shinyashiki, Smith, and Wilson.  I'm not particularly worried about this, we've got plenty of time to figure it out.  There are a few options.  The most obvious one is Ena Patel's work getting green cards for some of these players.  Shinyashiki has been here for at least four years going to school, Blomberg and Nicholson are entering their third season in MLS, and of course Gashi has been here since 2016, though he may not be too interested given that he's probably leaving at the end of the season.  Other than that there's the always the unlikely possibility of trading one of them away, or the more likely scenario that we trade for an international slot or two.  They tend to go for around $100-$150K of GAM.  Lastly, we could always buy somebody like Blomberg or Boateng out of their contract before the season starts (that would only work for one of our two extra internationals).  Regardless we have 7 weeks to figure it out so no need to panic.

Rapids Sign Benny Feilhaber

I'm unexpectedly making a second post tonight.  MLSsoccer.com just broke news that the Rapids have agreed to terms with National team midfielder Benny Feilhaber.   The report is a one year deal at just below max salary with a team option for a second year.

For the first three years of his career Benny played in Germany, England, and Denmark before returning to the U.S. and joining New England in 2011.  After two seasons there he was traded to Kansas City where he played for 5 years before being traded to LAFC last year where he played in every match, starting all but 2.

Feilhaber has been a iron man in MLS, playing in almost every game in his 8 seasons in the league, averaging just under 30 appearances a season.  In that time he has 37 goals and 56 assists.  As a #10 he's known for passes that can pick a defense apart and a mouth that can get in their heads.  He's particularly hated by FSL fans, which, bonus!

I like this move by the Rapids.  There's no long term commitment and it fills a 2019 hole, namely that we won't be expecting Mezquida to be "the man" to run the attack yet.  I'm not expecting a MVP season from Benny at his age, but if he can put in 60-70 minutes in each of his starts, make 25+ appearances, and total a combined 8-10 goals and assists over the season it will be a solid move for the year.  I think those numbers are reasonable, if a bit of a stretch.

If I can manager not to misspell his name more than 5 times this year I'll be pretty happy too.