Major League Soccer has released its list of players available for the upcoming expansion draft on Wednesday, and in turn the league’s 16 current clubs have released their list of protected players. Here’s how the D.C. United roster breaks down:
Protected
Branko Boskovic
Marc Burch
Junior Carreiro
Dejan Jakovic
Julius James
Stephen King
Chris Pontius
Santino Quaranta
Clyde Simms
Rodney Wallace
Jed Zayner
Homegrown (and thus ineligible for the Expansion Draft)
Bill Hamid
Andy Najar
Conor Shanosky
Eligible/Unprotected
Brandon Barklage
Adam Cristman
Jordan Graye
Pablo Hernandez
Devon McTavish
Jaime Moreno
Kurt Morsink
Juan Manuel Pena
Troy Perkins
Barry Rice
Carlos Varela
What jumps out? Keep in mind that the Expansion Draft is best used for modest pick-ups, as clubs prefer to do their own scouting and signing of big-name players. With that said, the decision to leave Troy Perkins unprotected still looks pretty significant, given his status within the team. But both his salary ($205,000) and his less than stellar season (1.68 goals against average) don’t necessarily make for an attractive acquisition.
D.C. also is keeping the cabinet full of central midfielders, with Clyde Simms, Steven King and Conor Shanosky all coming back next year.
United has also chosen Junior Carreiro over Jordan Graye as the “project player most worthy of not losing unexpectedly.” D.C. has invested a lot of time in Junior and clearly doesn’t want to see that effort wasted. A similar argument could be made for Graye, but his upside may not be as great. At the other end of the spectrum, Devon McTavish is one of D.C.’s longest currently tenured player, but he’s not as essential to the team’s plans going forward.
