Roster Reset: Revs currently at 24 players following SuperDraft; waiting on the promised acquisitions

As the Revolution have passed on selections in the third and fourth rounds of the 2019 MLS SuperDraft, it’s time to do a quickie check on the roster as it stands headed into the final week of the pre-preseason; preseason workouts begin next Monday, January 21 before the club heads to Spain for additional training.

Just a reminder that the roster becomes official just before the start of the season. As we did last month, we’ll consider this as an unofficial placeholder, just to show Revs supporters how everything should shake out; I based this off the 2018 Revolution roster.

Senior roster (1-20)
1. Juan Agudelo
2. Jalil Anibaba
3. Teal Bunbury
4. Luis Caicedo (INTL)
5. Cody Cropper
6. Antonio Delamea
7. Diego Fagundez (HG)
8. Andrew Farrell
9. Brad Knighton
10. Michael Mancienne (INTL)
11. Cristian Penilla (INTL)
12. Edgar Castillo
13. Gabriel Somi (INTL)
14. Brian Wright
15. Matt Turner
16. Wilfried Zahibo (INTL)
17. Juan Fernando Caicedo (INTL)
18. Vacant
19. Vacant
20. Vacant

Supplemental roster (21-24)
21. Isaac Angking (HG)
22. Scott Caldwell (HG)
23. Zachary Herivaux (HG)
24. Tajon Buchanan (GA)

Reserve roster (25-30)
25. Brandon Bye
26. DeJuan Jones
27. Vacant
28.
 Vacant
29. Nicolas Firmino (HG)
30. Vacant

As you notice, I have adjusted things from the last posting back on Dec. 20, yet kept Brian Bilello’s tweet from the day before that in mind as I’ve set this up.

On Dec. 20, I had Brandon Bye in the Supplemental, but with Tajon Buchanan sitting there as a Generation Adidas player, that would move him back to the Reserve Roster, where he was in 2018.

But why not the Senior? Again, remember Bilello’s tweet about signing 3 or 4 above maximum Salary Budget Charge players ($530,000 is the max SBC for 2019) before the season; the actual tweet said “Will add,” so we’re holding him to that. One of those “3-4” was signed the next day — Juan Fernando Caicedo — so we’ll reduce that to 2 or 3, which would be enough to fill the Senior Roster should those moves go through.

Right now, New England sits at 24 players on the roster.

BSJ Analysis

There are a few potential scenarios that I can see happening between now and the start of the season in regards to the roster.

Scenario 1: The Revolution fail to acquire any of the 2-3 above max SBC players. Bye moved to the Senior Roster, club stays pat at 24 going into the season, club promises to make moves during the Secondary Transfer Window.

Scenario 2: The Revolution acquire one of the 2-3 above max SBC players. Bye stays on the Reserve Roster, club at 25, club promises to make moves during the S.T.W.

Scenario 3: The Revolution acquire two of the 2-3, Bye stays on the Reserve, club at 26, Senior at 19, club promises to make moves during the S.T.W.

Scenario 4: The Revolution acquire all three by the start of the season. Club at 27, Senior at 20. Before the end of the Primary Transfer Window, club reaches agreements to transfer one, maybe two, Senior Roster players to other teams in/outside MLS. Club at 25 or 26, Senior at 18 or 19, club promises to make moves during the S.T.W. to improve the squad.

You’ll notice that the phrase “club promises to make moves during the S.T.W.” comes up in each of those scenarios — because it’s something the club says every year.

For reference, here’s a story quoting general manager Michael Burns about that from 2017. MLSSoccer.com's Jonathan Sigal wrote, “This methodology has been in the works, with Burns telling MLSsoccer.com back in February that the Revs would take a wait-and-see approach, leaving their options open come summertime.”

What happened in the summer window of 2017? They brought Gershon Koffie back to the club after transferring him to Sweden’s Hammarby in the preseason, took Claude Dielna on a free transfer, and executed a trade with Columbus for Krisztian Nemeth.

And here’s what Revolution manager Brad Friedel said after the transfer of midfielder Lee Nguyen to LAFC last May, with other wordage by in-house writer Jeff Lemieux: “The move strengthens New England by adding at least $700,000 of allocation money to the budget -- split evenly between Targeted Allocation Money and General Allocation Money -- with the potential for more based on certain conditions being met. Those funds will aid the Revs in their quest to bolster the squad when the transfer window re-opens in July.

“When the transfer window opens in July, we hope to add at least two more faces if we can get the deals over the line,” said Friedel.

And not like I need to remind you, but two of the three acquisitions the Revolution made during the 2018 Secondary Transfer Window played all of about 350 minutes (and that might be generous) during the second half of the season.

That’s two years’ worth of statements by the people in charge of the Revolution who say, should the team not go into the season with a full squad, that gives them wiggle room/options for the Secondary window. I’m sure if I looked deeper, I could find the same words, or a variant of the same, since 2011.

But look at those two years for me: how many of those players would make a difference in helping this Original Ten outfit get to the playoffs? None of the players brought in since 2016 during the Secondary Transfer Window have put the club over the top, and none have since Jermaine Jones’ arrival in 2014; the club made no moves in the S.T.W. in 2015. The only ones still here from recent S.T.W moves are Michael Mancienne (2018) and Cody Cropper (2016).

Anyway…

If we’re being 100 percent honest, the move that would make the most sense for this club and its supporters would be a mix of scenarios 3 and 4 above (call it Scenario 5), with one exception. Acquire the 2-3 above max SBCs as Bilello had tweeted about: two minimum, three maximum, done so before the beginning of March. Field offers and jettison the two Senior Roster players who aren’t going to make a difference in 2019 by the middle of April (see also: cutting the chaff), accepting whatever you can get for them. Acquire two quality players, preferably center backs, to go into the Senior Roster by the beginning of May, which will allow them to gel with their teammates by July; if they are center backs, to provide competition for Mancienne, Jalil Anibaba, and Antonio Delamea.

With that scenario, the club would have 19 or 20 Senior, plus 7 spread between the Supplemental and Reserve.

In addition, the club wouldn’t have to make a promise to make moves to improve the squad in the Secondary — because they would have already done so (#proactive). If the max players Bilello tweeted about and the two additionals are worth their contracts, there would be no need to add to the roster in the Secondary — unless there’s an Academy player worthy of first-team minutes that the club hasn’t signed to a Homegrown deal yet, or you only added two above max SBC players and really want to add a quality third.

In short, the club with Scenario 5 executed properly would be assaulting the rest of the Eastern Conference.

The move, of course, is in the hands of the Revolution front office. What will they do between now and March?