There has been a lot of activity over the last week, with more to come based on the reports that Tom Bogert is cranking out these days.
Designated Players, coming and going
1. The Jesus Ferreira deal was finalized. He restructured his contract so he won't count as a DP, but it also came to light that Jordan Morris hit incentive numbers in his contract that will cause him to be a DP this season. The Sounders also re-signed Albert Rusnak, so their DP slots will be Morris/Rusnak/de la Vega. On the bright side for Seattle, the departure of Leo Chu opens up a U22 slot.
Also, it's not announced yet but very reliable sources say that the Arriola deal is done, too.
2. The Revs have been shopping Giacomo Vrioni all winter and they just dumped him on Montreal for a token $50,000 in GAM. Pure salary dump. As much as Vrioni underperformed, it's true that he does have some decent underlying numbers. The downside for Montreal is low, because they have become the cheapest team in the league and there is no opportunity cost to trading for an overpaid DP because they aren't going to fill that DP slot with anyone else.
3. A variety of MLS clubs have been fortunate to have various Latin American clubs be willing to somehow take bad DP contracts off their hands. Sporting KC is truly blessed that Chivas overpays for Mexican players, because they were willing to take Alan Pulido,
Big rumors from good sources:
Chico Arango from RSL to San Jose
Moving Out
4. D.C. United sold Matai Akinmboni to Bournemouth for around $1.5m plus a sell-on. It's a modest fee for a raw, toolsy young center back. If DC and Matai both believed in DC's ability to develop him well, Matai would have stayed for another 12-24 months and been sold for a larger fee. But DC seems to like to sell its guys young and cheap, and don't take the higher risk/reward that comes with the next phase of development for a guy like Matai. I think this kid is too raw for a move to an EPL club to be wise. He has a lot of work to do to get to first-team level at Bournemouth and reserve team games and life on loan aren't the best options. We'll see.
5. RSL has transferred English attacking midfielder Matt Crooks to Hull City. He arrived just a year ago from Middlesbrough, and was fine, but probably not the best use of a $1m salary.
6. Another one-and-done guy is LAFC left back Omar Campos, who was sold to Cruz Azul one year after arriving from Santos Laguna. This frees up a U22 initiative slot for LAFC.
7. Charlotte shipped out Finnish left back Jere Uronen to AIK in Sweden.
Revs News
8. The Revs have continued to re-tool their roster in various ways. First, Noel Buck's loan at Southampton is over; they didn't trigger the purchase option, so he's back in the squad. The Revs shipped out Ema Boateng to San Diego FC. Boateng is not a huge loss, but he's the definition of a "does a job" type player and will need to be replaced in the depth chart.
The Revs signed 25 year old Cameroonian forward Ignatius Ganago on loan from Nantes. He's scored a few goals in Ligue 1 over the years, but does not have an eye-popping resume. But with Vrioni and Wood out, we need depth behind Campana.
Lastly, the Revs did a real Mystery Box signing with the acquisition of 17 year old Ugandan attacking midfielder Allan Oyirwoth. He's coming from a club in Uganda, so publicly available track record and scouting reports are slim to none. He has two caps for Uganda.
Moves Around the League
9. One of the more discussed moves has been LA Galaxy's decision to ship out Jalen Neal to Montreal, who subsequently signed a new contract under the U22 initiative. After signing Emiro Garces, Neal became the first CB on the bench, and he would have been in the same position in 2025. So this deal gives the Galaxy some cap relief in the form of allocation money, it gives Neal a much clearer path to playing time and development, and Montreal gets a talented player relatively cheaply. Montreal is basically the East Coast Colorado Rapids, by which I mean they are a cheap club that focuses on collecting distressed assets and opportunistic acquisitions around the league.
10. San Diego FC signed former Inter Miami left back Franco Negri. Miami had declined his option and San Diego snagged his rights in the re-entry draft. Decent sort of player to pair with the more boom-or-bust acquisition of Hamady Diop. If Diop doesn't develop, Negri can do a job.
11. Columbus signed alliterative Finnish winger Lassi Lappalainen. I admittedly don't watch all that much Montreal, and when I looked up his numbers I was a little surprised to realize he's already been in the league for five years.
12. Fabian Herbers signed for Montreal.
@67YAZ will write a 3,000 word essay on this later.
Imports
13. Atlanta signed 31 year old Japanese forward Cayman Togashi from Sagan Tosu. Based on his record — a decent strike rate in J2, not too many goals in J1, he must be viewed as backup material. It turns out that he was born in NYC, so he won't count as an international. Kind of a random signing, it seems. Maybe there's more to his game than what shows up on the scoresheet.
14. D.C. United signed 21 year old Korean goalkeeper Kim Joon-Hong. He comes from Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, but it looks like he spent the last two years on loan with Gimcheon Sangmu, which apparently is a top division club that consists of the best soccer players that are amidst their two year mandatory military service. I suspect D.C. got him with the idea that he'll be the starter, though Luis Barraza is a serviceable option if necessary.
15. FC Dallas triggered the purchase option for DM Patrickson Delgado, a 21 year old Ecuadorian who comes from Independiente del Valle in his native land.
16. The New York Red Bulls did a very NYRBish thing and signed an obscure 20 year old striker named Wiktor Bogacz who has 25 career apperances with Miedź Legnica in the Polish second division. He'll be one of Choupo-Mouting's backups. I'm more interested in Roald Mitchell '03 who will hopefully bounce back well from an ACL tear last year. He was absolutely lighting up MLS Next Pro when he got hurt.
Kids
17. FC Dallas signed six(!) players to homegrown contracts the other day. All of them were already on MLS Next Pro contracts with their reserve team, North Texas SC. FC Dallas isn't the premier MLS academy that they were five years ago, and I don't get the sense that most of these guys are super high upside, but it would be good to see Dallas get more success from bringing kids into the team again. Malachi Molina '06 is a fullback who might be the best of the bunch, although from an NT perspective he is provisionally cap-tied to Jamaica. They also signed Diego Pepi '04, who is Ricardo's younger brother — not the same tier of prospect, though.
18. Dallas may have signed Ricardo Pepi's little brother, but Colorado signed Cole Bassett's little brother Sam.
19. I'm hopeful that San Diego FC will prioritize the academy pipeline, but it always takes time for expansion teams to build out their infrastructure. For now, they traded for the rights to Anisse Saidi '08, a young Tunisian-American forward who had been in Philly's academy, and signed him.
20. NYCFC signed CM Jacob Arroyave '07 to a homegrown contract, as well as the older CB Prince Amponsah '03 who spent a bunch of time as a top college player.
21. SKC signed CB Jacob Bartlett '05 to a homegrown contract. Bartlett spent one year at Notre Dame before going pro, and is the younger brother of D.C. United defender Lucas Bartlett.