Merry early Christmas, MLS nerds. This afternoon marked the second in-season release of player salaries by the MLS Players’ Association of 2019, showing just how much your favorite players make, who is criminally underpaid, and what a team’s overall budget picture looks like going into the next phase of their roster build.
What Do The New Loons Make?
With the team not announcing new contracts for any players lately, it’ll come as no surprise that the Loons aren’t showing any raises on player deals since the last release in June. Instead, the new spending came in the form of summer signings Thomas Chacon, Robin Lod, and Wilfried Moimbe-Tahrat.
Lod’s deal is perhaps the eye-popper for Minnesota United fans. The Finnish midfielder came to MLS after an up and down year with Spanish second-division side Sporting Gijon, but his TAM-level contract still nets him a base salary at just under $850,000, one that is likely prorated for the 2019 season. When adding in bonus compensation, his annual salary hits over $950,000, making him the 61st-highest paid player in the league and in close competition with players like Vancouver’s Fredy Montero and his national teammate Alex Ring of NYCFC. Under current rules, Minnesota can buy his cap hit down to just $150,000 with TAM.
Chacon’s contract has a more reasonable outlay. At $337,500, his guaranteed compensation falls just above the median for the team and is less than the other five players who primarily compete for minutes at winger. That sort of money doesn’t scream “maximum charge” to most, but keep in mind that in assessing a team’s salary cap compliance league officials also look at the amount paid in transfer fees; in Chacon’s case, the belief is that the Loons paid his former club Danubio a low to middle seven-figure sum, though the team disputed suggestions that his fee was a club record. As a Young Designated Player, his cap hit maxes out at $150,000 per season though his age 20 year.
As for Moimbe-Tahrat, his free agent deal is worth $274,275 on an annual basis. However, as Andy Greder of the Pioneer Press confirmed, the short-term deal only runs until the end of the season, which means it is sure to be on a pro rata basis. Even so, that puts the French fullback squarely in the league’s middle class for defenders: 81st out of 212 (including rookies) and $12,000 below the average mark. Moimbe-Tahrat takes up a senior and an international slot, and his cap hit isn’t eligible for a TAM buydown.
What Does This Mean Going Forward?
That’s a much more difficult question to answer given the uncertain nature of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The MLSPA and the League are continuing to hash out the parameters of the agreement that sets floors and caps on how much teams need to spend on player salaries, and while it’s unclear what final numbers the team will be working with, it’s fair to expect that clubs will have more flexibility in the next window.
At present, however, Minnesota are looking at a stretched salary cap figure. Adding up the minimum cap hits of the nineteen cap-eligible players on the team comes to around $4.93 million, which exceeds the $4.24 million on the 2019 cap. That not only means the Loons would need to spend general allocation money to work their way down to cap compliance, but also they would need to spend significantly to buy down salaries that are TAM-eligible: the seven players eligible for those buydowns make $3.12 million more than their maximum buydown limit. To be clear, Minnesota is certainly compliant for 2019 when considering various cap money that came in and out with transfers, including the $500,000 made by the loaned-away Romario Ibarra that technically counts against Minnesota’s salary spending.
But it’s also worth remembering that players will be due for raises, some more critical than others. Among the players who haven’t gotten a pay hike this season is Ike Opara. The Kansas City Star reported around the time of his move north from Sporting KC that the move was sparked by Opara asking head coach and technical director Peter Vermes for a big raise from the $325,000 guarantee he had made the year before. Opara has since had a Defender of the Year-caliber season, and should be firmly in line for a TAM-level deal before the expiration of his contract that, per that report, goes through 2020.
Ultimately the answers for which of the Loons will return and what space there is going forward comes down to how much money there will be to spend next season in the new CBA. Minnesota have a few contracts that they can offload or pick up options on—most prominently Darwin Quintero—that will create space for additions should they be needed. The Loons won’t be fully hamstrung by any of their contracts, even if some make more money than expected, but it could help to have extra breathing space, either from a higher salary cap or increases to allocation money.