Editorial (February 19, 2018) – The Colorado Rapids have been busy this off-season. They’ve added a bunch of players who play all over the pitch. The one position they haven’t made a big move at is at forward. There are reasons to believe they have a good amount of Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) available. Here’s a look at the Colorado Rapids TAM amount and a deep dive into the striker signing situation.
Calculating the Colorado Rapids TAM Amount and the Impact on the Void at Striker
TAM was introduced to the league back in July 2015. The league has renewed/modified TAM, the rules for it, and the amount available to MLS clubs on a yearly/bi-yearly basis ever since. The 2018 season marks a new reset for TAM (no TAM from prior years is available or in affect).
MLS clubs will have $1.2 million available to spend in both 2018 and 2019 as well as an addition $2.8 million in discretionary TAM (read: out of ownership’s pocket and not free money from the league office) each of the next two years. When signing or re-signing a player, TAM cannot be combined with General Allocation Money (GAM).
Full disclosure, MLS rules are clear as mud. Everything in this article is based on my understanding of the rules as written and available to the public. There is a non-zero possibility I got something wrong in all this. Additionally, a number of my assumptions are conjecture based on incomplete information or unreliable/imperfect sources such as Transfer Market or European football tabloids that should be taken with a grain of salt.
Hit me up in the comments section if you feel I got something wrong. In general, things will be much clearer once salaries for the 2018 season are available. Ok, now on to the good stuff.
Book Keeping on Existing 2018 Contracts:
As previously mentioned, 2018 is the start of a reset for TAM. No left over TAM from 2016 or 2017 is available to any MLS club. For the sake of completeness, the Rapids used TAM in two signings last season: Nana Boateng and Stefan Aigner.
Boateng’s guaranteed compensation for 2017 was $341,000. Aigner’s was $471,000 for the half season. Prorate that for a full year and it’s $942,000. Remember, if a club “signs a player with TAM,” that can mean the club used TAM on the transfer fee, salary, or both. A player must be making $150,000 minimum for TAM to be used in any way to acquire them. For TAM to be used on their salary, they must be making above the max budget player cap hit ($480,625 in 2018).
So TAM was probably used on Boateng’s transfer fee but not his 2017 salary. Aigner came on a free transfer, so TAM was used on his salary for 2017. Assuming he’s on the same wages, he’ll be above the max budget player salary this year.
The Rapids can either make him a Designated Player (DP), or use a little less than $450,000 in TAM to buy him down.
The Rapids have Shkelzen Gashi and Tim Howard listed as DPs as of now. Their 2017 guaranteed compensations were $1.67 million and $2.4 million, respectively. A player can only be TAMed down if they make $1.5 million or less. Gashi and Howard are above that so, unlike Aigner, they cannot be turned into TAM players.
Howard and Gashi will take up DP slots for Colorado in 2018.
For the sake of completeness, Edgar Castillo is not a factor in any of this. It has been reported that for his 2018 season loan, no TAM nor a DP slot will be needed for him. The Rapids do have an option to buy him later, so that could be a factor depending on the transfer fee.
How much TAM the Rapids have (probably?) spent:
Based on the above, there are only three newly signed players who could be taking up 2018 TAM in some way: Jack Price, Tommy Smith, and Danny Wilson. The Rapids press release stated clearly that Price was signed using TAM. There was no reference of TAM in the announcement of the other two.
This is where things get foggy. MLS has become more transparent the last several years, but immediately available contract and acquisition details are still lacking. Confirmation of transfer fees (or even a ballpark estimate) can also be difficult.
Based on Transfer Market and a few other sources, here are the open market values of these three players: $817,000 for Price, $219,000 for Smith, and $618,000 for Wilson. The only source I could find any wage history/estimations for had Price making $635,000 annually. I couldn’t find a source that listed a transfer fee for Smith. Transfer Market has a fee for Wilson at $428,000.
I cannot emphasize this enough: Take these numbers with a grain of salt.
So based on all of this, we know TAM was used on Price, probably on both a transfer fee and his salary in some amount. If there was any used on Smith or Wilson, it wasn’t a lot. Once we get salary information, we’ll be able to dig a bit deeper.
For the sake of completeness, the Rapids have made no official trades to acquire or give up any 2018 or 2019 TAM at this time.
So, they could potentially use $442,000 in TAM on Aigner to open up their third DP spot. I doubt they had to break the bank to get Wolverhampton Wanderers to give up Price. Based on that, the Rapids could very well have ~ $300,000 in 2018 TAM in the bank. It is highly unlikely they’ve used any discretionary TAM as well.
So about that striker:
As discussed on a recent episode of Holding The High Line, the Rapids have been linked with several strikers this off-season, domestically and abroad. None of them came to fruition. The biggest hole relative to other moves they’ve made recently is at striker.
Just last week, a new rumor surfaced with Price’s former teammate, forward Joe Mason.
The Rapids have some TAM available and an available DP slot. They could open up some more by making Aigner a DP. They’re not yet compliant on International Slots, but the roster compliance date isn’t for a few weeks now (it was March 1st last year) and they could already be working on that.
General Manager Padraig Smith said something enlightening to me in December on this:
“The most important thing is about getting the right player. We won’t panic and bring somebody that we feel we need for six months rather than bringing in someone that we feel will be good for the club in the long term.”
Hudson and Smith have been on the record saying they wanted the team in tact for the preseason. The Rapids start CONCACAF Champions League tomorrow. The MLS season is less than two weeks away.
They absolutely have the capacity to get a striker. But based on all the other moving parts from this off-season, they might be waiting for the summer transfer window. There will be more options in terms of European-based players.
They can also take stock of where they are at. Perhaps the offense will be ok with Dominique Badji, Stefan Aigner, Shkelzen Gashi, and Jack McBean. If not, they can make a move to reset in the summer. It just seems to make more sense given the context of the situation.
