Galaxy have little time to celebrate championship before making 2025 roster changes
The Galaxy won their sixth MLS Cup on Saturday and celebrated the achievement long into Sunday afternoon.
Then on Monday, shortly after the champagne sprays in the locker room had dried, the team began tweaking its roster for next season, letting players know who would be coming back and who might be moving on.
Not because it wanted to, but because the league’s rules demanded it do so.
“It’s a function of the league’s calendar and the players association rules about when players must be notified,” general manager Will Kuntz said Tuesday. “It’s really difficult and it’s obviously much less times than any other domestic league [has] with respect to these kinds of conversations.
Exactly 10 years to the day after their last MLS Cup win on the same field, the Galaxy became the first team in 23 years to go from eight or fewer wins to a title.
“No league finishes their season with the championship game on Saturday and then is already doing offseason stuff on Monday.”
That Kuntz, in his first full season as a general manager, built something special with the Galaxy is undeniable. He signed 10 of the 14 players who appeared in Saturday’s 2-1 win over the New York Red Bulls in the MLS Cup final, setting the foundation for one of the greatest single-season turnarounds in league history.
But his latest trick may be even more impressive because he’s already got 13 of those players under contract for next season. He did that by exercising contract options on midfielder Mark Delgado and defender Jalen Neal. And if he can reach terms on a new deal with captain Maya Yoshida — a big if since Yoshida made $893,000 this season in the final year of his contract — the Galaxy will have the entire band back together for a reunion tour.
In a league with a salary cap and Byzantine roster rules even a brain surgeon couldn’t understand, that’s quite an accomplishment. But there may be more heavy lifting to come. The Galaxy left 11 players unprotected for Wednesday’s expansion draft, meaning any of them could be selected by San Diego FC. And the team took a $1.1-million hit to the salary cap because Gabriel Pec aged out of his status as a young designated player and Dejan Joveljic went from being a U22 initiative player to a roster-budget one.
Loyal fans had seen enough of the Galaxy’s mediocrity and an orchestrated boycott got the attention of the team’s ownership, which made critical changes.
“We’ll have work to do,” said Kuntz, whose payroll was $21.96 million, fourth highest in MLS, according to figures released by the players association. “All the same players do not fit under the salary budget.
“We lose 20% of our salary cap for those two guys. That’s a million dollars less than you have for the rest of the squad. And then some players might have bonuses that become substantial when you win MLS Cup. Now those get either added to their budget charges next year or [get] deducted from your allocation pool.”
The league’s pay structure is built to produce parity, not dynasties. And winning is supposed to stress that structure; players who produce and win merit raises, which overwhelm the modest salary cap. That’s why no team has repeated as champion since the 2011-12 Galaxy.
Yet Kuntz managed to keep the Galaxy’s core together, aided by the fact that the roster is mostly new — just six of the 17 men who played more than 350 minutes this season were on the team when Kuntz was hired 20 months ago.
While the Galaxy and Red Bulls lacked the starpower of Lionel Messi and Inter Miami, the MLS Cup finalists are emblematic of model franchises.
“We were fortunate the way things lined up,” Kuntz said. “That’s not always going to be the case.”
The Galaxy on Monday declined options on two players, defender Martín Cáceres, who had his season end early because of an injury for the second year in a row, and backup goalkeeper Brady Scott. In addition to Yoshida, defender Eriq Zavaleta is also out of contract.
Cáceres, 37, who played in four World Cups with Uruguay, is expected to retire after Saturday’s win gave him his eighth league title in three countries. But the team is in talks with Zavaleta and Scott on new deals. Everyone else is back.
For many teams, the immediate aftermath of an MLS Cup win has been far more complicated. In 2016 the Seattle Sounders, in order to meet the deadline for announcing roster moves, told players on the flight home that their contracts were not being renewed. Three years later, when they repeated as champions, many players at the victory parade already had been given pink slips.
Greg Vanney has harnessed the potential of his talented lineup through a calm coaching approach that has Galaxy one win away from a sixth MLS Cup title.
“That’s what we live in, in this world,” said midfielder Diego Fagúndez, who has one year left on his contract with the Galaxy, his third team in the last five seasons. “Sometimes we’re here, the next day you’re not. So you have to enjoy the moments right now.”
So if Saturday’s victory — which came on the 10th anniversary of the team’s last MLS Cup win — brought an end to some players’ stay with the Galaxy, at least they’ll get a championship ring as a parting gift.
“We know we left our legacy here, every single one of these players,” Fagúndez said. “Their names [are] going to be here for history.”
⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.
