Well last year RSL avoided losing anyone in the expansion draft by working out a deal for Chris Seitz to be traded to the Philadelphia Union, one of the conditions was that the Union would not select any RSL players in the expansion draft.
I didn't have Alex on my protected list because while he has a good upside the RSL midfield is very deep, there is also the fact that Alex is clearly upset that he hasn't been brought back into the fold at RSL and spent two years on loan to the Portland Timbers. A move that has gotten him playing time and allowed a young man to live and play close to home and his family. He was also part of Generation Adidas, so he didn't need to be protected. Well that got tossed out today as the list of players who will be graduated from the GA program was announced:
- Eric Avila (FC Dallas)
- Nico Colaluca (New England Revolution)
- Roger Espinoza (Kansas City)
- Stefan Frei (Toronto FC)
- Bruno Guarda (FC Dallas)
- Baggio Husidic (Chicago Fire)
- Fuad Ibrahim (Toronto FC)
- Chance Myers (Kansas City)
- Alex Nimo (Real Salt Lake)
- Ciaran O'Brien (Colorado Rapids)
- Brek Shea (FC Dallas)
Then given that Alex made a statement that if he wasn't traded or selected by Portland, that he would retire from MLS. A rather bold statement from a 20 year old, but hopefully he has been saving some of his $100K plus a year salary, and would have time to take off and make some life decisions. I believe that while Alex has a year left on his current deal with MLS (and RSL) that it is unlikely that Portland would pick him up at that salary, I am not sure if the new CBA rules would allow for the renegotiation of a contract with a player who has graduated from Generation Adidas or not. I am still sticking to the hope that RSL will be able to work a deal for Alex with Portland, it would give them a hometown name to build around and hopefully allow RSL only lose one player in the expansion draft.
Next week is going to be interesting, as we will have a new MLS Cup Champions and likely know the future of Alvaro Saborio as well. The expansion draft is on Wednesday, and hopefully RSL will be able to come out of it without losing too many pieces of both the current and future RSL.
OFF MY SOAPBOX