Half-day trade window winners and losers

One of Major League Soccer’s stranger mechanisms (of which there are a few) is the half-day trade window the day following the MLS Cup. It allows clubs four hours to trade players because why not? While not usually very active compared to other trade deadlines, a few players did wind up moving from club to club yesterday.

D.C. United traded $75,000 of general allocation money and a 2018 international slot to New York City FC for French center back Frederic Brillant. D.C. shored up their back line which was a sore spot for them in 2017, but Brillant made an exorbitant $280,000 in base salary. NYCFC on the other hand gets some GAM and an international slot that they always seem to need.

Winner: New York City FC

Minnesota United traded a fourth-round pick in the 2019 SuperDraft to fellow expansion side Atlanta United for midfielder Harrison Heath, who just happens to be the son of MNUFC coach Adrian Heath. Still, any time you can give up a fourth-round pick and get an MLS-level player in return you made a good trade.

Winner: Minnesota United

The Vancouver Whitecaps traded their first-round pick in the 2019 SuperDraft and a conditional second-round pick in the 2020 SuperDraft to the New England Revolution for forward Kei Kamara. While Kamara is one of the top forwards in MLS when he’s in-form, he hasn’t been in-form since he was with Columbus Crew SC back in 2015. Vancouver gave up a lot to get him, and given that both the player and draft picks are crap shoots, no one really won this one.

Winner: Draw

FC Dallas sent Walker Zimmerman and the 11th position in the Allocation Ranking to Los Angeles FC for $250,000 in General Allocation Money, $250,000 in Targeted Allocation Money, and the number-one position in the Allocation Ranking. Walker Zimmerman is a good player, but half a million in allocation money and the first position in Allocation is a steep price.

Winner: FC Dallas

Atlanta United sent an international slot to LAFC in return for a fourth-round pick in the 2018 SuperDraft. Unless you’re for sure not going to need an international spot, trading it is a bad idea in my opinion.

Winner: Los Angeles FC

The Chicago Fire sent Arturo Alvarez to the Houston Dynamo for a second-round pick in the 2019 SuperDraft. Alvarez comes home for a draft pick.

Winner: Houston Dynamo

Atlanta United traded the rights to Kenwyne Jones, Alex Tambakis, and a fourth-round pick in 2021 to Sporting Kansas City for Kevin Oliveira, Tyler Pasher, and a second-round pick in the 2018 SuperDraft. Atlanta got USL prospects while SKC got the rights to a player who is retiring. When asked if he would be coming out of retirement to play for SKC, Jones tweeted:

While it was suggested that this was due to Jones’ international status and would allow SKC to protect another international player (MLS rules say you must protect all of your international players minus three), Jones doesn’t count as an international player since he received his Green Card earlier this year.

Winner: Atlanta United

D.C. United sent an international roster spot to the Portland Timbers for Darren Mattocks. I know what I said earlier about trading international slots but the 27 year old Mattocks is a solid MLS veteran and should be eligible for a Green Card soon. He’s a good pickup for D.C.

Winner: D.C. United