Major League Soccer will hold the 2015 Expansion Draft for new clubs Orlando City SC and New York City FC on Wednesday afternoon. To set the stage for that draft, clubs were required to submit their available and protected player lists to both expansion clubs as well as the league on Monday afternoon.
There are some players who were exempt from either list, those players were Generation Adidas players who did not graduate at the end of the 2014 season and Homegrown players on a club’s supplemental roster. Any player who fell into one of those categories was automatically protected and did not count against a team’s 11 protected roster spots.
After all was said and done, there is a pool of 240 players ranging from rookies to designated players for their respective clubs. As expected there were some surprising names on the list and some not so surprising names. Players like Tim Cahill and Thierry Henry were left exposed but they were both likely to leave the league anyway.
The biggest surprise on the list in this writer’s opinion was the inclusion of Diego Fagundez on the unprotected list for the New England Revolution. The 19-year-old from Uruguay appeared in 31 matches for the Revolution this season with 25 starts. He scored five goals, a sharp decline from his 13 last season. His struggles saw him lose out on the left midfield spot to Kelyn Rowe, Fagundez started once in October and has seen just three starts since the beginning of September.
A very interesting development though in the case of Diego Fagundez as Revolution President Brian Bilello tweeted out on Monday evening that, “We [New England] executed a trade with Orlando and NYCFC which will result in Diego not being taken in the expansion draft. He’ll be with #NERevs next year.”
That tweet was later confirmed by Orlando Sentinel reporter Paul Tenorio who stated that both expansion franchises received allocation money in exchange for not taking Diego Fagundez. Well, there goes that surprise pick.
Here is a list of the 20 players who should be drafted, this is factoring in age and salary as well. It is not listed in the position that the players would be drafted, it is compiled by team name alphabetically. (Salary listed is the 2014 Guaranteed Compensation from the September 2014 MLS Players’ Union Salary Chart)
| Name | Age | Position | Salary | Club |
| Greg Cochrane | 24 | D | $48,500 | Chicago Fire |
| Jose Mari | 27 | M | $261,000 | Colorado Rapids |
| Thomas Piermayr | 25 | D | $74,429 | Colorado Rapids |
| Adam Bedell | 23 | F | $36,504 | Columbus Crew |
| Aaron Schoenfeld | 24 | F | $48,825 | Columbus Crew |
| Eddie Johnson | 30 | F | $613,333 | DC United |
| Servando Carrasco | 26 | M | $48,825 | Houston Dynamo |
| Darrius Barnes | 27 | D | $86,666 | New England Revolution |
| Patrick Mullins | 22 | F | $100,000 | New England Revolution |
| Peguy Luyindula | 35 | F | $90,000 | New York Red Bulls |
| Danny Cruz | 24 | M/D | $131,666 | Philadelphia Union |
| Zac MacMath | 23 | GK | $120,000 | Philadelphia Union |
| Gaston Fernandez | 31 | M | $150,000 | Portland Timbers |
| Jorge Villafana | 25 | D | $74,431 | Portland Timbers |
| Ned Grabavoy | 31 | M | $175,000 | Real Salt Lake |
| Sebastian Velasquez | 23 | M | $48,825 | Real Salt Lake |
| Cordell Cato | 22 | M | $50,400 | San Jose Earthquakes |
| Dylan Remick | 23 | D | $36,500 | Seattle Sounders FC |
| Mark Bloom | 27 | D | $48,825 | Toronto FC |
| Jackson | 26 | M | $202,500 | Toronto FC |
The fans will want to see a big name star like a Tim Cahill but that will not happen in New York as they already have two designated players signed in David Villa and Frank Lampard. The big name may not be needed in Orlando after their moves earlier Monday picking up Aurelien Collin and Amobi Okogu to help add some veteran strength to their backline.
There will likely be a surprise or two so make sure that you tune in with VAVEL USA’s live coverage of the 2015 MLS Expansion Draft.
You can view a full list of the available players here.
