Most expected their to be very little, if any, movement in the first round of the MLS Re-Entry Draft and right they were. But instead of big names like Juan Pablo Angel and Jimmy Conrad going to LA and DC (as I predicted), Houston F Joseph Ngwenya and Crew D Aaron Hohlbein were the only two players selected.
What does this mean? Well, first those two players must be paid at or above their 2010 salary. Second, teams now have until Monday to re-negotiate deals with players eligible for the Re-Entry Draft that they have the rights to (that means the Sounders can re-negotiate with Tyrone Marshall and hope that he will take a huge pay cut).
If eligible players are unable to come to terms with their teams at new rates they will then be available to all teams via the second round of the draft. I think we will see some players renegotiate (Nick Garcia and Chris Seitz are two rumored), but the majority will probably value themselves higher than what their former team is willing to play.
Unless Marshall is willing to sign for about 85k, I doubt he will be back in rave green next year. I just have that feeling. I also tend to think that they won't be participating in selecting other players either. As first I was hoping for Schelotto, but with Montero back on the board with DP money and the acquisitions of both O'Brien White and Julien Baudet for Marshall-like money, I just don't see where the cap flexibility will be. And I think this is a similar situation for many teams. Let's face it - these players did not have their contract renewed for a reason - they were overpriced and unlike baseball where the Nationals can spend $126m on Jason Werth and have no side effects, MLS has a strick salary cap. Again, it all comes down to how low the teams can get the players to go with their contracts (Angel, Schelotto and Conrad excluded).
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