MLS Salary Information Day: What the Summer Acquisitions Make

The bi-annual release of Major League Soccer salary information came out via the MLS Players Union on Tuesday. While it doesn’t prove a be-all, end-all list of how a player impacts his team’s salary cap—a shadowy blend of allocation spending and fuzzy math with transfer fees ultimately dictates that—it does at least help with modeling out where the team is spending in relation to other areas. With the fall release in particular, it gives insight on new signings.

As it was following the May release, Darwin Quintero remains Minnesota United’s highest paid player, ranking 19th in the league in base salary and 24th in total compensation. Two of Minnesota’s summer transfers fill out the top three, with Angelo Rodriguez making a base level of $575,000 and Romario Ibarra on a $500,000 base.

Rodriguez’s deal places him in the top 15% of MLS base salaries and at the top 14% of guaranteed salaries in the league. Curiously enough, his base is exactly the same as former Loon Christian Ramirez, with a modestly higher guaranteed number potentially boosted by considerations from his transfer or other expenses. The salary number comes in line with the common belief that Minnesota applied the Designated Player tag to the Colombian striker in order to amortize away the cost of his transfer, with the intent to buy him down with Targeted Allocation Money next season.

Romario Ibarra’s contract sets him as the highest paid winger on the team and one of three players in the top 20% of league pay, eclipsing Kevin Molino’s $425,004 base number. His listing as a TAM-eligible player suggests that his salary cap hit is limited—and, maybe most notably, his yet-unknown transfer fee was thus paid for with TAM funds. Fernando Bob’s salary (a guarantee/base of $152,496) is worth mentioning for how low of an annual value it represents given his profile in Brazil; the Players Union reports on an annual basis versus the cost of his deal prorated to the amount of games each player is available for. The other notable change over the course of the year is Sam Cronin, whose salary dropped from a guarantee of $339,750 to $141,660. It’s unclear why this would have occurred, though that level of a cut represents only having been paid for the equivalent of fourteen games of his original contract level.