2015 Offseason Megathread
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Not sure that was particularly likely to begin with.
It's not a terrible trade IMO because he's only 24, doesn't make a ton of money, and a 4th round pick in next year's draft is basically worthless. However, expecting this particular 24 yr old to have much growth left in his game is probably expecting too much. Yes, he's 24 but he has been in the league since 2011 with DC United. He began last season as a starter at CB for the Union but was quickly moved to the bench. He will compete with Mena, Hernandez, hopefully Teixeira and Facey at CB and should be nothing more than depth.
Paul said it all for me. 4th round pick next year is a high probability to be worth 2 sticks of Winterfresh. We got CB depth for free.
Seems like a reasonable gamble considering we gave up next to nothing. Going off playing time and experience White seems like a considerable upgrade over Kwame. White is 24 with 64 MLS appearances. Kwame is 29 with 41 MLS appearances.
This is the kind of trade that savvy MLS teams make. It doesn't cost you much and helps to build out the tail end of your roster.
And I know that at 24 you've mostly developed as an attacker, but as a defender, there's still some room to grow. You can be in your prime a little later at CB.
There are plenty of players that converted to CD later in their career and flourished.... the first that comes to mind is Peter Vermes. He was dreadful as an attacker when he entered MLS, and then he converted to CD and voila, he was a top defender in the league. Maurice Edu also did it for the MNT and I believe at times for his club. 24 is still young for a CD in regard to the learning curve.
Everyone in this thread is getting way ahead of themselves. We just signed a guy that worked his way down to the 4th CB on the depth chart in Philly, and they were worse than us. And we are paying 50% more than last year's 4th string CB, KWS.
I wouldn't even call this a "reasonable gamble" at $125k. At $75k, sure, whatever. But out of the entire league, this was our first trade target? Yuck.
Didn't realize he's making more than Kwame. Jeez.
Building that FIFA chemistry link up.
He was part of the youth national team setup so he still has potential. It's a very good depth move, especially if we end up signing Jorge Teixiera.
I tried like hell to nail this down 1-2 months ago. At one point I thought we knew it was Pirlo's option but now I think we have no confirmed info at all. I believe all we know is that it was reported in multiple venues (wich probably all copied from each other) that the delay in the deal was over a third-year option. When I did my careful look, I found that maybe 20% said it was Pirlo's option, 20% said it was the team's option, and the rest said neither. Then when the deal was made the time period and option issue were left open. The official announcement was silent and nobody reported that some source told them anything.
I'm not arguing that he's a starter, by any means. In fact, (whether I've said it here or elsewhere) I've said that if this guy's starting for us, we're in trouble.
But he's an MLS veteran with some level of talent, isn't outrageously expensive, and has provided some level of value to an MLS team in the last few years. Each of those is an improvement over what we have in depth. If you see him as a Kwame replacement, he's an upgrade (albeit one that costs more.)
Edit: I also don't know that I was effusive in my praise. My initial reaction was that it's a move "I don't mind". The upside is pretty good, and the downside is some cap space. Granted, you know better than anyone we don't have a ton of it, but we were desperate for defensive depth last year.
Edit 2: I'm thinking the "first trade target" thing is just a victim of Philly's timing, more than anything. They're looking to shed cap space at the start of free agency, so I wouldn't equate being "the first target we got" to "he was at the top of the list." Heck - weren't Jeb and Kwame two of our first four signings?
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And judging by his rate of grwth, the kid will be roster eligible in about 7 more weeks.Here's the level of talent we have: Tony Taylor and Jason Hernandez had a kid together and Pirlo delivered it:
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