Your 2022 Rapids MVP Is...

 ...Diego Rubio.  I mean, obviously, right?

This wasn't even close.  Rubio set a new team record for goals + assists in a season (23), tied the team's single-season goal scoring record (16), and set a new record for career game-winning goals (13).  And he did it in a year where the Rapids struggled to win a third of their games.  Diego was involved in 50% of the goals Colorado scored this season, and when you look at other stats you see he has the most shots on the team, by over 60% (Rubio had 93, Lewis had 57).  Rubio also had the most shots on target, and almost double the fouls suffered than anyone else on the team.

Essentially whatever offense we had in 2022 largely went through Diego Rubio.  His 16 goals and 7 assists were career highs for him as well.  At 29 (30 in May) you would think he's probably got another couple of good years in him, which is good since we have him under contact with an option for next year, an option I expect the team to pick up.  In a year where a lot of things went wrong, his play gives us something to build around in 2023.

Acosta, Rosenberry, and Rubio Signed To Long-Term Deals

So I had two of the three right in my prediction, but it was Rubio instead of Ford that got the contract extension.  Big news to tie up three of our big young players to long-term deals.  The exact details:

Kellyn Acosta - 2019-2021 guaranteed, 2022 and 2023 on team option deals
Keegan Rosenberry - 2019-2022 guaranteed
Diego Rubio - 2019-2022 guaranteed

Prior to these signings 2020 was a team option year for Acosta, Rosenberry was out of contract at the end of 2019, and Rubio was on a team option year in 2019 (with an unknown status for 2020).

Some Rapids fans are already questioning why we would sign two players who have yet to play a competitive game in burgundy and blue to long-term deals.  Beyond the concerns over their contract status, where at least one of them if not both could walk away for nothing at the end of the season, these are two young players with great interest within the league and (in Rosenberry's case) interest from the National Team.  Worst case scenario these guys don't fit in and we can pretty easily flip them to another MLS team.  More likely though these three are core members of the Rapids for the next 3 seasons with possibilities to sell them down the line.

Great long-term planning from the Front Office tonight.

Catching Up On Rapids Moves

Ok, lots of moves to catch up on.  I was waiting to post about the goalkeeper moves on Friday for an official announcement about a contract deal but I think it may have gotten buried by today's news so I'll catch up now.  We sent a 2nd round pick in next month;s draft to Toronto for Clint Irwin.  On the surface swapping $175K MacMath for Irwin with a $220K option in his last contract year doesn't look great.  There are heavy rumors though that Clint is signing a new deal with the Rapids that will bring him in under MacMath's number for at least two seasons.  That makes this move a no-brainer.  Arguably Irwin is a better keeper than, certainly he's as good as, MacMath and he's familiar with the club.  He gives us a quality backup for Howard this year and will compete for the starting job in 2020.

We then used the 2nd pick in the Re-Entry Draft to select Andre Rawls from NYCFC.  I don't know a ton about Rawls but he's 26, was drafted by NYCFC in 2015 and spent that first year in the USL while being their back up the last 3 seasons, but never played a league game.  I'm sure he'll spend 2019 in Colorado Springs unless we need him on the bench as a backup of Howard or Irwin are unavailable.

That sets our keeper roster for 2019 at Howard, Irwin, and Rawls, which is a solid 1-2-3.

Today we made a big move, sending Edgar Castillo to New England for Rowe and then sending Rowe, $200K of GAM, and $100K of TAM to KC for Diego Rubio.  The $100K TAM matches what we got in the MacMath trade so you can kind of look at this like MacMath+Castillo+$200K of GAM = Mezquida+Rubio which is a nice piece of work.  Rubio is a 25 year old striker from Chile that has played in Chile, Portugal, and Spain before signing with KC in 2016.  He's been a spot starter/sub for KC, scoring 8 goals in 9 starts/20 appearances last year (averaged 39 minutes an appearance).  He also got his green card in KC so he does not count as an international.

I can see Rubio being a starter in 2019 or competing with another signing to start along-side Kamara.  Either way he's better than anything we had starting up top last year and paired with Kei we could see a combined 20 goals from them, which is better than anything we've had since C+C Goal Factory.

The Rapids still need to shore up the defense, I expect at least one outside back signing, and a couple more solid signings in attack would be helpful, but this is more moves before Christmas than we've ever seen from this organization so these are positive signs.  The question is, can Hudson make it all work on the field?