Sporting KC’s Roster Overhaul May Not Come this Offseason

If you’ve listened to my podcast, For the Glory KC, recently, then you’ve no doubt heard this topic of conversation. Peter Vermes and new Sporting Director Mike Burns have pointed towards the 2024-25 MLS offseason for a rebuild of sorts for Sporting Kansas City. The team is coming off back-to-back years of poor results, rescued slightly by sneaking into the playoffs last year and making a US Open Cup run this year.

It’s now three seasons in a row that have started abysmally bad, and things need to change. While the manager’s job appears safe, many players jobs are not. The roster will change. And Vermes and Burns are promising just that (though PV did hedge a little at his recent Town Hall). It doesn’t seem particularly likely Sporting KC are going to rebuild the team in one offseason.

To add some context, it feels useful to lay out the numbers. The team has 16 players that are either fully out of contract or on option years after this season. That number is down slightly with the transfers of Marinos Tzionis and Kayden Pierre.

Just four of those players, Johnny Russell, Tim Melia, Remi Walter and Andreu Fontas are fully out of contract. Of the remaining 12 players, six of them are on what is called the Supplemental Roster. It’s the final 10 roster spots and they are minimum salary guys. That means limited flexibility if you move on from them as their replacements will be in that salary range or Homegrown signings (see the table at bottom of story for every contract length and option year).

Let’s Talk about Money – Part 1: Who Leaves?

First, a caveat. We don’t know new signing, Joaquin Fernandez’s salary. That should come out shortly in the fall MLSPA salary release. Also, just because a number is one thing in 2024, doesn’t mean it won’t be set to change in 2025. Sporting KC have been known to front-load contracts before and it’s not uncommon to have raises built in either.

Additionally, total pay to a player can be misleading. Alan Pulido’s known salary is $3.6 million, but he only counts for the senior maximum against the cap ($743,750 in 2025), but he does take up one of two (or three) DP slots teams are able to use. However, the higher a non-DP’s budget charge, the more General Allocation Money (GAM) or Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) that needs to be used to stay within the salary budget. (If you are interested in such things, here an exercise of how SKC may have spent money between 2022-23.)

All of this is to say, the numbers get a big fat asterisk, but it provides some context.

Total* Guaranteed Compensation: $15,153,425

Of that $15 million, let’s look at the four players out of contract:

• Johnny Russell: $1,000,000
• Remi Walter: $900,000
• Tim Melia: $637,500
• Andreu Fontas: $450,000

Total from purely out of contract players: $2,987,500

When you look at it against the total spend, it’s pretty minimal. No DPs are being cleared from the books, so it doesn’t open up an unlimited spend signing. But surely a portion of GAM/TAM is cleared if all four of these guys leave. But that’s a big IF. Fontas is surely gone. But does the team move on from Russell, Melia and Walter in the same offseason? One of the best wingers and perhaps the best GK (based on his time in KC) in club history? They did it last year with Graham Zusi and Roger Espinoza, but I have my doubts.

The only other players who the team can move on (barring using their one-time buyout) that have substantial salaries are:

• Erik Thommy: $1,106,250
• William Agada: $521,875
• Robert Voloder: $477,860^
• Logan Ndenbe: $405,000^

If all eight of these players are gone, of which most of them could be argued as starters, then the total relief jumps to $4,498,485. But Sporting KC aren’t going to clear out eight potential starters. Maybe some guys return on lower deals, but it’s impossible to know right now. The problem is the largest salaries are tied to players who are still here in 2025 and perhaps beyond.

*Joaquin Fernandez’s salary is not yet known. Remaining salaries based on the most recent 2024 data.

^Voloder and Ndenbe are U-22 initiative players and only count for $200,000 against the actual salary budget.

Let’s Talk about Money – Part 2: Who is Staying

Perhaps a better way of looking at how hamstrung Sporting KC may be this offseason, is to look at who almost certainly aren’t leaving (though, KC could buyout one contract if they choose to use their internal budget that way).

• Alan Pulido: $3,600,000
• Nemanja Radoja: $1,530,000
• Daniel Salloi: $1,300,000
• Khiry Shelton: $750,000
• Tim Leibold: $601,050

That’s the three highest paid players on the team, along with Shelton (7th) and Leibold (9th). They account for $7,781,050 of Kansas City’s internal budget, not to mention all the Designated Player spots on the roster. The team has said they have the ability to add another DP, but that means using extensive TAM/GAM on Salloi and potentially Radoja too if they go with the 2 DPs/4 U22 roster model.

Pulido and Salloi are guaranteed through 2026 and Shelton, Radoja and Leibold are guaranteed through 2025 with 2026 options. Ignoring the fact that salary doesn’t equal a player’s budget charge, Sporting KC are going to be limited in how much they can do this offseason.

Pure salaries as a percentage of roster spend. Pulido actually only accounts for 12.5% of next year’s MLS salary budget.

What Kind of Turnover to Expect

The rebuild may be slower than anyone, including Vermes, wants. PV was very limited by ownership’s complete lack of a budget and tight purse strings around adding players since 2020. The ownership group has promised the largest budget ever, which will go a long way. But that doesn’t fix bad contracts and signings from the past, that may have been partially spurred on but spending restrictions around acquiring new, younger players. And with new signings, some will surely be misses too, as it’s an inexact science.

In addition to the largest budget, there is an injection of more GAM from the Kayden Pierre sale, qualifying for the CONCACAF Champions Cup and by (almost certainly) missing the playoffs. The Pierre money can be used all at once or spread across multiple seasons. And hopefully his sale is the first of many in the coming years, as it’s one of the only ways to stay competitive with these teams that will spend massively to bring in superstars.

Between 2023 and 2024, only four minimum contract players were signed. The team will be more active than that, without a doubt. How much more active is going to depend heavily on how many players, including quite a few fan favorites, the team moves on from.

Sporting KC’s Roster and Contract Options Near 2024’s End

Here is the full roster, as it stands today, after the 2024 roster freeze deadline.

Key:

• HG = Homegrown Player
• DP = Designated Player
• U22 = U-22 Initiative Signing
• INT = International roster spot