A couple times a year, the MLS Player Union releases what each player’s base compensation and actual compensation (base + signing bonus annualized over contract length - agent fees annualized over contract length).
Focusing specifically on the Caps, let’s look at their entire roster:
Caps Salaries
| Last | First | 2017 Guaranteed | 2016 Guaranteed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Last | First | 2017 Guaranteed | 2016 Guaranteed |
| Adekugbe | Sam | 85,000.00 | 75,000.00 |
| Bolanos | Christian | 253,500.00 | 253,500.00 |
| Bustos | Marco | 70,475.00 | 67,350.00 |
| Davies | Alphonso | 65,000.00 | 62,499.96 |
| de Jong | Marcel | 140,000.00 | 62,499.96 |
| Dean | Christian | 202,000.00 | 191,000.00 |
| Edgar | David | 183,833.33 | 113,416.67 |
| Flores | Deybi | 71,885.00 | 68,385.00 |
| Greig | Kyle | 66,849.00 | ???? |
| Harvey | Jordan | 180,000.00 | 165,000.00 |
| Hurtado | Erik | 131,250.00 | 121,091.50 |
| Jacobson | Andrew | 175,000.00 | 87,500.08 |
| Laba | Matias | 885,500.00 | 720,500.00 |
| Levis | Brett | 67,500.00 | 64,999.96 |
| McKendry | Ben | 65,000.00 | 52,500.00 |
| Mezquida | Nicolas | 120,000.00 | 88,000.00 |
| Montero | Fredy | 1,800,000.04 | ???? |
| Nerwinski | Jake | 65,004.00 | ------ |
| Ousted | David | 378,933.33 | 378,933.33 |
| Parker | Tim | 99,600.00 | 84,750.00 |
| Reyna | Yordy | 533,700.04 | ----- |
| Richey | Spencer | 65,004.00 | ----- |
| Rosales | Mauro | 65,004.00 | 62,500.00 |
| Seiler | Cole | 54,075.00 | 51,500.00 |
| Shea | Brek | 670,000.00 | 595,000.00 |
| Tchani | Tony | 308,333.33 | 283,333.33 |
| Techera | Cristian | 377,000.00 | 345,000.00 |
| Teibert | Russell | 194,000.00 | 182,500.00 |
| Tornaghi | Paolo | 80,000.00 | 62,500.00 |
| Waston | Kendall | 368,125.00 | 318,125.00 |
| Williams | Sheanon | 184,000.00 | 171,500.00 |
A number of names and numbers pop out at me:
Christian Dean @ 202K
Marcel deJong @ 140K
Andrew Jacobson @ 185K
Christian Dean has been graduated from the Genaration Adidas program meaning that his full salary now counts against the cap. Might be a bit harsh to ask him to take a paycut, but wow....
deJong and Jacobson received major increases over last season. I can understand the increase for AJ, but Marcel’s is a little perplexing seeing as how he’s played the equivalent for 1 full game + 1 minute this season, and I don’t think he was anything special last season when he arrived.
Just for comparison sake, here’s the highest paid player for each team:
Highest Paid by Team
| Team | Player | 2017 Guaranteed |
|---|---|---|
| Team | Player | 2017 Guaranteed |
| Atlanta Utd | Miguel Almiron | $2,297,000.00 |
| Chicago Fire | Bastian Schweinsteiger | $5,400,000.00 |
| Colorado Rapids | Tim Howard | $2,475,000.00 |
| Columbus Crew | Federico Higuain | $1,050,000.00 |
| Dallas | Roland Lamah | $773,500.00 |
| DC United | Luciano Acosta | $602,000.00 |
| Houston | Erick Torres | $665,000.00 |
| Kansas City | Roger Espinoza | $850,000.00 |
| LA Galaxy | Gio Dos Santos | $5,500,000.00 |
| Minnesota Utd | Vadim Demidov | $555,008.00 |
| Montreal Impact | Matteo Mancuso | $719,541.75 |
| NE Revs | Kei Kamara | $800,000.00 |
| NYCFC | Andrea Pirlo | $5,915,690.00 |
| NYRB | Bradley Wright-Phillips | $1,635,000.00 |
| Orlando City | Kaka | $7,167,000.00 |
| Philadelphia Union | Alejandro Bedoya | $1,197,250.00 |
| Portland Timbers | Diego Valeri | $2,607,500.00 |
| Real Salt Lake | Yura Movsisyan | $1,973,750.00 |
| San Jose Earthquakes | Chris Wondolowski | $800,000.00 |
| Seattle Sounders | Clint Dempsey | $3,892,933.50 |
| Toronto FC | Sebastian Giovinco | $7,115,555.67 |
| Vancouver Whitecaps | Fredy Montero | $1,800,000.04 |
What does this all mean? You can use any sort of metric you want to and it’ll probably show something different. Let’s look at what usually are the 5 CONCACAF Champions League spots that North America (USSF gets 4, CSA gets 1) gets, for the last 5 years:
2016-2017 CCL spots:
Dallas (conference winner), NYRB (Shield and conference winner), Portland (2015 MLS Cup), SKC (Open Cup winner), Vancouver (Cdn Championship)
2015-2016 CCL spots:
LA Galaxy (2014 MLS Cup), Seattle (Shield & Open Cup), DC (conference winner opp SS), RSL (best placed team, not already in, got USOC slot), Vancouver (best placed Canadian team,no Championship tournament)
2014-2015 CCL spots:
SKC (2013 MLS Cup), NYRB (Supporters Shield), Portland (conference winner opp SS), DC United (Open Cup), Montreal (Cdn Championship)
2013-2014 CCL spots:
LA Galaxy (2012 MLS Cup), San Jose (Supporters Shield), Houston (MLS Cup runner-up), SKC (US Open Cup)
2012-2013 CCL spots:
LA Galaxy (2011 MLS Cup and Supporters Shield), Seattle (US Open Cup and SS runner-up), Houston (MLS Cup runner up), RSL (3rd place, best placed team, not already qualified)
What can you derive from all of this? I will let you draw your own conclusions.