Atlanta United midfielder Eric Remedi #5 dribbles the ball during the first half of the match against Inter Miami CF at Inter Miami CF Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, FL, on Wednesday September 9, 2020. This is part of the first phase of the continuation of MLS’ 25th season. (Photo by Jacob Gonzalez/Atlanta United)
This will be an offseason like no other, given that the global pandemic continues, the transfer window has been expanded, and the season won’t start until at least a month and a half later than usual. We also don’t have reliable salary data since September 2019, the last time the MLSPA published their salary surveys. Add it all up, along with the twice-revised CBA, and there’s a fair bit of uncertainty left.
I personally have gotten impatient and decided to just dive in with a review of how I rate the performance of San Jose Earthquakes General Manager Jesse Fioranelli so far, and how I would personally like to see the team proceed. As always, you can reference my famous spreadsheet, but it’s even more guesswork than usual given how long it’s been since we’ve gotten an MLSPA report.
Note: This article has been updated to reflect the Kikanovic and Abecasis signings that took place during the patreon preview period
Options and Declines
Nothing particularly surprising happened here: Danny Hoesen, Guram Kashia, and Vako, all of whom were on quite a bit of money and not getting any younger, were allowed to leave. JT Marcinkowski and Chris Wondolowski were brought back. Some youngsters were extended.
One slightly curious one was picking up Daniel Vega’s option, given that he’s an international slot taker but not a starter. I don’t mind it, per se, but I would feel a lot better about it if he acquired a green card. He’s a valuable veteran presence and bridge between Almeyda and the English speakers. I was also of course sad to lose Luis Felipe, who was an excellent defensive midfielder in USL and for the Quakes in 2018 but who simply didn’t fit in under Almeyda.
Grade: B
Sold Nick Lima
This hurts, and there’s no way around it. Nick Lima was a homegrown and fan-favorite, in no small part because he was the team’s best performer in 2018 when the Quakes were otherwise dreadful. He played with a blue-collar ethic that resonated, and he always ran hard.
But he clearly never clicked with Matías Almeyda, whether it be his management style or his tactics. He appeared to regress heavily from a promising 2019 spring where he played some excellent games for the national team, and never looked particularly comfortable or happy. Quite frankly, his performances weren’t very good. As others have reported, he wanted out, and Fioranelli worked with him to find an exit option that appealed to him.
Given that he wanted out anyway, snagging $500k in GAM (plus incentives) for a solid but not spectacular 26-year-old right back is actually a good price, all things considered. For me, the thing to hold against the Front Office is not creating a situation between player and coach where a talented homegrown wants to stay in the first place.
Grade In Isolation: A-
Grade for the Situation: Dropped/No Credit
Chofis Lopez
Javier Eduardo “Chofis” López is a pretty big get, in terms of name and profile: 5 or 10 years ago, grabbing a 26 year old who has played more than 100 times for Chivas would be unthinkable. He’s got a lot of technical ability, too, which showed at times, although disappeared at others. He’s short, and small, so will profile quite differently than the left-footed number 10 he’s ostensibly replacing (Magnus Eriksson). More refinement, less physical imposition.
The reason that he was available in the first place, of course, is the problem: his performances declined at the same time he had somewhat vaguely described “discipline” issues. What we do know is the last straw appeared to be a party Chofis attended where a teammate was accused of sexual assault. Forgive me, but those are serious red flags. And not to put too fine a point on it, but most clubs around the world don’t hold their footballers to particularly high standards of behavior, so to be transfer-listed because of it is notable. Of course, cynicism is warranted: if his performances hadn’t also declined, the club may well not have made that move.
The “upside” case, if you’re looking for one, is that he’s still in the middle of his prime years, was previously a productive Liga MX player, and has a long history under Almeyda. Chivas is arguably the biggest club in North America, and it can be a pressure cooker. San Jose might provide a welcome change of environment for the player, and reuniting with an old mentor after being chastened might be what he needs to get back on track.
If he does find his form, it is a pretty important “get” for the Quakes. The Football Manager database implies he’s already the third best player on the Quakes, and there was a gaping hole of creativity in the number 10 role last year. Vako did actually contribute nicely in certain ways last year, but getting a player of similar quality who Almeyda trusts to execute his system is an improvement, particularly if his play is more selfless than the Georgian. We don’t know what his salary is precisely, but FM says it’s in the $600k/year range, which is well below half of Vako.
Overall, it’s fairly risky, but it’s ambitious, and if it pans out, would be an important addition to the starting XI
Grade: C+
Superdraft
Jesse Fioranelli deserves the benefit of the doubt with the SuperDraft, since his first pick was the magnificent Jackson Yueill with just the 6th slot, and he’s mined two viable MLS backups (Tanner Beason and Paul Marie) in the teens, where most clubs struggle to find even that. His final first-round pick, Siad Haji, has only just turned 21 and is still my favorite prospect at the club outside of Cade Cowell.
The other huge caveat? MLS drafts are increasingly impossible for amateurs like me to get a good feel for, particularly during the pandemic. There’s very little expert media coverage of it (unlike the NFL or NBA), very few of the college games are televised, and there wasn’t even a combine this year.
That being said, Tommy Williamson was on literally nobody’s radar as a first-round pick. The only mock draft that went enough rounds to mention him had him 54th, rather than 12th, where he went. He wasn’t even really a top player in his own conference in 2019, according to Top Drawer Soccer. Moreover, a backup left back would’ve seemed to fit a natural need, and the top three left backs were all on the board when the Quakes were on the clock. So it’s a surprising pick for us armchair analysts. But because of how little we know, I hesitate to form too strong of an opinion. We’ll have to wait and see.
I will give a big shout for their second round pick, however, the Ghanaian George Asomani from NC State. My sources familiar with ACC soccer love that kid’s game, and think he’d be an excellent fit as a pivot man in Almeyda’s system, vaguely similar to Judson but perhaps a bit more passing and a bit less physicality. He apparently covers every blade of grass in the middle of the park. The only knock on him is that he would take up a valuable international slot, which you typically wouldn’t want to use on a guy way down the roster. This is exactly the kind of guy you wish you had a USL affiliate for, because I don’t doubt he’d have shone under Ian Russell with Reno 1868 in the past few years.
Final thing to note: neither of these guys has a guaranteed contract, which limits the already-low risk level associated with the draft. They’re only going to be on the team if they impress Almeyda. So while it’s certainly not a home-run draft, the downside is quite literally zero. For the purposes of my spreadsheet, I’m going to assume they do sign Williamson but pass on Asomani due to the international slot issue.
Grade: Incomplete (obviously), but if I had to give one, C+ I guess?
Eric Remedi
I love this signing in every way. At last report, Remedi was making a modest $300k/year salary, and the trade cost the club $200k GAM up front plus $300k GAM in incentives. More importantly, we’re talking about a 25 year old with a green card who fits into a major roster gap: the third central midfielder who steps in when one of Yueill or Judson isn’t available. Oh yeah, and as has been much noted, he made his debut under Almeyda 5 years ago with Banfield. Add it all up, and it’s a strong transaction.
One thing I’ve seen a bit of online is the misconception that he’s a direct replacement for Judson, implying that he’s a combative true defensive midfielder. Not exactly. He’s more of a midfield metronome, with high passing volume and completion percentage. His defensive stats aren’t necessarily super impressive, but if you dig in a bit, you’ll notice strengths in tackling in the middle third, pressuring, and interrupting dribblers, all things that would seem to fit Almeyda’s system. I would encourage interested parties to check out his FB Ref stats under the excellent Tata Martino in 2018 (here), rather than his mediocre 2020 stats under the dreadful Frank de Boer, for an idea of what he looks like when played in a suitable role. Fun oddity? The statistically most similar player to Remedi in 2018 was Jackson Yueill. So mentally compare those two rather than him and Judson.
Regardless, the Quakes don’t need an improvement on Judson or Yueill for this transaction to work out: they just need him to be better than Eric Calvillo, Luis Felipe, or out-of-position Magnus Eriksson, the three guys who backed the starting pivot up last year. I’m willing to bet Remedi will clear that bar in 2021 with ease.
Grade: A
Benji Kikanović
Jesse Fioranelli and the Front Office deserve some credit on this deal: Kikanović is a local lad whom they’ve been tracking for years, and they managed to sign him directly. He only just turned 21 years old, and has a bit of professional soccer under his belt after registering 490 minutes of play for Reno 1868 last season in USL.
I watched him several times for the now-defunct Azules, and have gotten some feedback on him from coaches and scouts. The upside is that he’s got a lot of the raw attributes that you look for in a striker: reasonably tall (6’1″) and strong, athletic and pacy, with flashes of good touch/technique. His ceiling is therefore quite high. The problem, of course, is that he is not a sure thing: he did not dominate at the USL level nor at Sacramento State, particularly when it comes to goal return.
In some ways, he’s the opposite of Danny Musovski, the USL striker and former Quakes draftee that the club allowed to leave for LAFC, where he bagged 5 MLS goals in just 600 minutes. Musovski is a finisher with pure goalscoring instinct, but doesn’t have the physical or athletic profile you’d want at the MLS level. Kikanovic has exactly the physical profile you’d want, but it may take a few years for him to refine his game and learn how to impose himself as a scorer. His ceiling is way higher, but his floor is lower.
The transaction is highly team-friendly (rolling options through 2024), and he will take up neither an international nor senior roster spot. Hard to argue with signing a high-upside prospect under those conditions.
Grade: B–
Luciano Abecasis
This one came well and truly out of nowhere, with no one rumoring his name, and the team account only cryptically alluding to a further signing to come. As such, I knew nothing about the 30-year-old Argentine, and had to check in on the film via Wyscout and the info the Football Manager database had on him, as well as inimitable South American football scout/Quakes fan Andre Martins.
He fits in on the Quakes as a flying right back, exactly in the Almeyda mold. He’s pacy, a bit bigger and more defensively rugged than Tommy Thompson, although his offense appears to be more centered on crosses than carrying the ball on his own or coming inside for interplay. The tape indicates he’s extremely comfortable with his weaker left foot, allowing him to play on the left as well. He also, perhaps unsurprisingly at this point, previously played for Almeyda (making him the remarkable 7th out of 10 senior transfers under Almeyda to have done so), which should indicate confidence that he’s a scheme fit. In terms of overall quality, it’s of course hard to assess, but the FM database (as well as FIFA 21) both imply he’d be amongst the better players on the team straight away. Martins seemed to like the pickup as well.
The Quakes did certainly have a need at right back, with the departure of Nick Lima, and if he wasn’t replaced directly, that would also limit their overall depth on the left as well. Abecasis was most recently on $320k/year in the FM database, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a bit less than that for the Quakes. The reported contract is one year with an option for a second, and he will take up an international slot. Oh, and he’s a free transfer. Overall, that’s a fairly small commitment, with fairly small risk, for a player that could well improve the starting XI.
Grade: B+
Remaining Needs
You can see how I saw this window in advance in my offseason preview article here, and my thinking is still largely the same.
Blessedly, a potential starting number 10 and another strong option in central midfield have been addressed. That leaves the two other major holes I identified: a starting center-back and a DP-level striker. As things stand, I haven’t heard any reliable info on potential targets.
The need for a center-back isn’t necessarily make-or-break, since Flo Jungwirth and Oswaldo Alanís have put in some decent performances together. But adding a high quality option, ideally to take the starting role from Flo, would have the potential to both improve the first XI (which struggled defensively last year) and the depth the Quakes have at the position, since two of their options (Akanyirige and Walls) have barely been tested at the senior level. I personally would’ve loved it if they had gone out and won the bidding war for Tim Parker, although the price did get quite high in the end. We’ll see what Jesse and Matías can cook up.
Striker is a bit of a different ballgame: the Quakes have two open DP slots still, and striker is one of the highest-impact positions to use it on. The other problem is that a line-leading, 90-minutes, day-in-and-day-out striker is not something the Quakes currently have on roster: Andy Ríos struggled in that role, and it’s not a natural fit for club legend Chris Wondolowski’s game either. Imagine if the Quakes had someone like Lucas Cavallini in that role: it would make everyone else on the pitch better, particularly given Almeyda’s preferences. There are of course different types of DP, too, to consider: my personal dream fit would be veteran Croatian Mario Mandžukić, but his salary would be in the millions, and Milan could well decide to keep him past his June contract expiry. FC Cincinnati went a very different direction, spending huge money to get a young Brazilian prospect. You could also imagine a more modest investment in a player with a profile more similar to Cristian Espinoza. Regardless, you’d imagine this might be a slot easier to fill in the summer transfer window.
Beyond the positions of need, one name to keep an eye on is the Argentine Matko Miljevic (no diacritic on the “c” since he’s Hispanic), whom I recommended for the Quakes in an article a year ago. Sources indicate there is genuine interest in the player from the San Jose side, and that the player wants out of his current situation. The new U-22 roster benefit that MLS is expected to roll out this year may provide a perfect opportunity to slot him in. The price will probably be palatable, he’s just 19 years old, and he holds a US passport. I would imagine he currently fits in as a left winger, so he doesn’t represent an area of dramatic need, but high-upside prospects (with domestic status) don’t come around every day, so it could well be worth a shot.
Finally, watch for potential green cards or trades for international slots. By my count, the Quakes are already one over the limit, and those slots have not been used particularly efficiently. Of those 9 internationals, Daniel Vega is the only player that I know of to have resided in the US for at least 3 years, which generally makes it easier to acquire a green card. That being said, lots and lots of other circumstances go into these things, so who knows what we’ll see. If they can’t free up space on their own, they’ll have to spend $150-200k in GAM to buy one off another team.
Current Status
That leaves us, using my spreadsheet and all of its assumptions, with the following:
Designated Player slots filled: 1 of 3
International slots filled: 9 of 8
Roster slots filled: 18 of 20 senior slots, 4 of 4 supplemental slots, 6 of 6 reserve slots (28 of 30 total)
Approximate GAM/TAM/Cap space utilized: $7.483M of $9.250M
Median Age of Senior Roster (on 8/1/21): 26.9
Current Depth Chart:
| Position | Starter | Backup | Developmental |
| GK | JT Marcinkowski | Daniel Vega | Emi Ochoa |
| RB | Lucho Abecasis | Paul Marie | |
| CB | Proposed Acquisition | Flo Jungwirth | Jacob Akanyirige |
| CB | Oswaldo Alanís | Tanner Beason | Casey Walls |
| LB | Marcos López | Tommy Thompson | |
| CM | Judson | Eric Remedi | |
| CM | Jackson Yueill | Eric Calvillo | Jack Skahan |
| RW | Cristian Espinoza | Cade Cowell | Siad Haji |
| CAM | Chofis López | Andy Ríos | Gilbert Fuentes |
| LW | Carlos Fierro | Shea Salinas | |
| ST | Proposed Acquisition | Chris Wondolowski | Tommy Williamson Benji Kikanovic |
Another great take on all things Earthquakes