most of those players worked out by chance and wouldn't deserve DP money to begin with.
Maxi was a great player for Atalanta, and to bring someone like him you have to pay more. and he's been doing very well for us regardless of what he's being paid. hes paid to be one of our best players, and thats what he is doing
Adi- he played like 30 games since 2011 before joining portland... they're just diamonds in the rough.
josef martinez played a good amount but only scored 7 goals in 3 years....
the only player id consider giving DP money to would be Lodeiro from that list only because he played on the uruguay national team and was always pretty solid...
any of those players could've easily turned into a calle or alvarez and just been a waste.
"Maxi 'was' a great player for Atalanta, and 'to bring someone like him you have to pay more.'"
Maxi was sitting on a bench in Mexico when we signed him. With Atalanta, he was getting around 11 goals+assists per year (goal/assist in every third game). He was competitive in Italy, but great?
And my whole point is that you don't have to pay more to bring in someone like him. You just need to scout halfway decently. If you want a better comp, look at Victor Vazquez. Same age as Maxi, same position. He was playing in a worse league (Belgium) but with better results (goal/assist in every other game). Went to Mexico for a year, then to MLS.
There are a number of good examples of Maxi-esque talent at TAM prices in this league. There are multiple examples of lower-cost DPs that outperform him.
I'm not saying he's a bad player, in fact he's a pretty good fit on our roster. It's just not great roster management to slot his caliber in the DP spot.