Rapids Acquire Carlos Alvarez

Yesterday the Rapids traded Nathan Sturgis to Chivas USA for midfielder Carlos Alvarez.  Alvarez is an attacking midfielder who was the 2nd choice in the 2013 Superdraft (taken before Brown at 6 and Powers at 11).  He's played in 40 of Chivas USA's 49 games since being drafted  with 2 goals and 3 assists in 2013.

I like this trade for Colorado.  Like I said earlier in the week Sturgis is a solid role player for a MLS team but nothing more for the Rapids.  I'm a little surprised we picked up another young midfielder, but we seem to be having good luck with our youth movement so hopefully Alvarez will benefit from that.  The Rapids also save somewhere between 15K and 40K in salary with the move.

Sturgis to Chivas USA?

The first of 3 entries tonight.

Chris Bianchi ‏@Rapids_News  1h

Deal not finalized- but Sturgis heading to Chivas USA, I’m told. Don’t know what #Rapids96 receiving in return. #RapidsWest

If accurate it will be interesting to see what we get in return.  Sturgis is a solid role-player but we have a good young group for midfielders (Powers, Serna, Hairston, Eloundou) backed up by a couple of great vets (Sanchez, Jose Mari) so Sturgis playing time was going to be limited going forward.  If we can get good value for him this would be a smart move by the Rapids.

The Offseason Starts

Two pieces of news out of Commerce City today.

• The Rapids re-sign Nathan Sturgis

Good move to start the off-season.  Sturgis is the kind of player that every MLS team needs.  A solid capable player that can be plugged into a number of spots at a reasonable salary.  He's nothing flashy but he's one of the basic building blocks of a MLS squad.

• Reports are the the Rapids refused a team's request to talk to Pareja

Everyone assumes this is Dallas, since the only other team currently looking is Vancouver.  We knew that Dallas was interested but now it seems its official.  The good news is that either Pareja doesn't want to leave or Colorado is going to extract a pound of flesh from Dallas if he does.  I'm leaning towards him not being interested in the FCD job based on comments he's made and the general state of Dallas (not good) but we'll have to see how this plays out.

Cummings-Sturgis Trade Follow-Up

Now that I'm back from my holiday travels time to get into this trade that happened at the oddest time I can remember, Sunday morning two days before Christmas.  The Rapids gave up the other half of the C+C Goal Factory, Omar Cummings, in return for allocation money and Nathan Sturgis.

My first instinct is much like the Kimura trade from last year (oddly, Cummings and Kimura were roommates and were considered the Odd Couple of the team).  I understand why we moved Omar but if we got value for him will be dependent on the next moves the team makes.  How much allocation money we got is the real question that will never be answered.  Sturgis is a journeyman MLS player, on his 6th team in 8 years despite being only 25.  He has also played for the U.S. at the U 17, 18, 20, and 23 levels.  Listed as a defensive midfielder he's also played center back on a somewhat regular basis.  Sturgis is a depth player, nothing more at this point.

There has been some talk about how this is a salary cap move as Omar was set to make $250K next year after his new contract.  I'm not saying that's wrong, but his updated salary from the Players Union didn't reflect that after his contract last year.  There could be a significant escalation clause in his contract for next season, but if so the Rapids did a lousy job of handling Cummings.

The updated roster is below.  We currently have 20 signed players plus Avila and reportedly Calderon.  Out of those 20 players only 10 of them predate Pareja's hiring of just under a year ago.  Assuming we get up to 30 players, 2/3rds of the roster will have less than 1 year of experience in Colorado.  Omar Cummings was the last player on the roster brought in under Fernando Clavijo, Pablo Mastroeni is the only player from the Tim Hankinson era, the other 9 were brought in by Smith (they all have rings, so nobody Smith brought in in 2011 stuck).

* = pre-Pareja acquisition
Goalkeepers:
Steward Ceus*
Matt Pickens*

Defenders:
Chris Klute (on loan from Atlanta through late-Sept)
Drew Moor*
Anthony Wallace*
Marvell Wynne*

Midfielders:
Davy Armstrong*
Eric Avila - Unsigned
Tony Cascio
Jaime Castrillon
Jeff Larentowicz*
Pablo Mastroeni*
Brian Mullan*
Shane O'Neill
Martin Rivero (on loan from Rosario Central through 2013)
Nathan Sturgis
Hendry Thomas

Forwards:
Andre Akpan*
Edson Buddle
Atiba Harris
Kamani Hill

Rapids Trade Cummings For Sturgis

More after the holidays but today the Rapids traded Omar Cummings to Houston for Nathan Sturgis and allocation money.