What Was The Point Of The Kimura Trade Again?

Back on July 1st the Rapids traded Kosuke Kimura to Portland for allocation money and an international spot for 2012.  Since then the Rapids cut an international player (Harrison Henao) and signed an international player (Hendry Thomas).  Jamie Smith may have gotten his green card as well, which would have freed up another international spot.  Last weekend was the roster freeze deadline for the year so the Rapids won't be signing an other players.  See the problem?  The Rapids traded for an international spot for 2012, and never used it.  Thomas took the international spot of Henao who was waived about 2 weeks after the Kimura trade.

At the time I understood the trade of Kimura.  He had obviously been passed on the depth chart in Pareja's mind by Freeman and he's in a contract year and wanted to go somewhere where he could play.  Win-win for both teams.  Honestly at the point he was traded Freeman was outplaying him and the Portland fans love his passion but aren't impressed with his play there so he may never have gotten the spot back.

If you're going to trade a guy who's been with the team 5+ years and been a steady starter for the last 3 though, I expect the team to get some value for him.  Instead they got some allocation money which the Rapids never seem to use except for other trades and an international spot they didn't use, so essentially they got allocation money for him.

If I had to guess, about a week after the trade reports came out that Colorado had made a bid for Senegalese defender Mor Diouf from a South African team.  I'm betting the Rapids thought they were going to get the deal done and traded for the international spot to be able to add Diouf to the roster.  If so, this was a poor decision on two levels.  First apparently the deal wasn't as "done" as Colorado thought as Diouf never signed and is still playing in South Africa.  Secondly, the Rapids made a decision a week after the reports of their interest in Diouf to cut Henao which freed up an international spot anyway.

Colorado still has the allocation money they got, so it wasn't a complete giveaway, but a pretty poor trade none the less.

Rapids Waive Henao, Place Pablo Back On DL

Not that we'll miss him but today the Rapids waived Harrison Henao and he'll return to the team we loaned him from. On a worse note, Pablo Mastroeni was placed back on the Disabled List due to his concussion symptoms, which means he's out at least the next 6 games. The soonest he could play is against San Jose on August 25th but I think we have to accept that while we might see him have one last token sub appearance his career is essentially done at this point.

New Player Joins the Rapids

Colorado announced the signing today of Brazilian striker Luis Eduardo Schmidt, commonly known ad Edu.  He had trialed with the team last month and rejoined the team this week.  Edu is 33 and has previously played in Brazil and Spain's La Liga.  He's a big guy that would probably fill in well in Casey's target striker role.

In other roster news Harrison Henao is expected to join the team tomorrow or Saturday now that his paperwork is completed.  He may or may not be active for Saturday's game, depending on his travel fatigue, but he's expected to be available for next week's two games.  Also there have been multiple reports that Quincy Amarikwa is being "evaluated" and the team will make a decision on him as soon as he returns from Nigeria where he's dealing with family issues.

Today, with the help of the Rapids Media Office, I figured out the current status of the team's roster and international limits.  The team is limited to 30 players, 6 of which can be internationals.  Players on IR do not count towards those limits.  Also players who are still awaiting paperwork aren't counted either.

Right now the Rapids have 8 internationals "under contract".  Castrillon, Edu, Henao, Janniere, Rivero, Smith, Yamada, and Zapata.  They also have 32 players total "under contract".  There are some players that don't count though:

Edu - Awaiting paperwork
Henao - Awaiting paperwork
Mastroeni - On IR
Smith - On IR
Wallace - On season-ending IR

So without these 5 Colorado has 27 players and 5 internationals that count towards the roster limits.  That leaves 3 open roster spots, one of which could be an international.  Henao will take that international spot when he joins the team tomorrow or Saturday.  Then Edu will take one of the two remaining roster spots and we'll be short an international spot.  When Mastroeni comes off IR he'll take the remaining roster spot, which means when Smith comes off of IR we'll need another roster spot and an international spot.

So what this means is that if everyone is healthy (but Wallace) and eligible the team has one too many players and two too many internationals.  With the news about Amarikwa he could be leaving soon which would solve the extra player issue but not the international one.  I did hear a rumor that Smith is close to getting his green card, so that would reduce our international spot need to one.  My guess is that Janniere is the odd man out.  He and Smith are the only tow internationals that Pareja didn't bring in so he's the obvious cut.  The other possibility is trading Amarikwa for an international slot, but I'm not sure they can get that much for Qunicy.

Rapids Sign Harrison Henao On Loan

Colorado has just announced that they've signed midfielder Harrison Henao on loan from Once Caldas of Colombia.  No terms were released but reports in Colombia say its until December and almost all MLS loans include an option to buy.  Henao is a 25 year old player who's been a pro since 2006.  Early indications are that he's a defensive midfielder, which may not be a positive sign for Pablo's recovery.

The Rapids currently have 3 open roster spots with Mastroeni, Smith, and Wallace on long-term IR but only one open international spot, also due to Smith being on IR.  Since Wallace has already been placed on the season-ending list we have the roster spot for the season, but the Rapids will have to make some sort of move when Smith is ready to come off the IR.  They'll either have to trade for another international spot or cut one of their current internationals.  Since Castrillon, Henao, Rivero, Yamada, and Zapata are are recent acquisitions by the current coaching staff the players most likely to be cut would be Janniere and Smith.