San Diego Expansion Draft Night

San Diego Expansion Draft Night

The MLS expansion draft will be held at 10:30 p.m. ET on SanDiegoFC.com. This will give the team up to five picks to pick an unprotected player from any team. The teams released their protected Players and unprotected players on Tuesday, December 10.  During the draft night, San Diego will have five rounds and three minutes per pick with no timeouts and no trades. Clubs that have a player picked will be paid 50,000 in GAM. The 29 teams that competed during the 2024 season can protect up to 12 players on their team and their homegrowns will already be safe from being picked. Only one player can be picked from one team so if you have someone picked from your team they will no longer be able to pick anyone else from the team. San Diego has the right to negotiate with the player's wages to either go up or down without having to place the player on a waiver.  

Who Should San Diego Pick

San Diego only has five people on their roster heading into the draft that they have claimed. They have one goalkeeper, three forwards, one defender, and two midfielders. From the unprotected players for Atlanta united the best players San Diego should consider is Ronald Herandez and Xande Silva. Ronald Hernadez stood out for Atlanta United after Brooks Lennon left with an injury and before when he played. He played 17 games only starting 10 of them but he had one assist and if you watch his film he looked like he could keep up. Xande Silva played 23 games scoring 2 goals and 1 assist. He didn’t put up the numbers everyone thought he would but when he played the way he moved he looked very fast and agile on the ball. Some big-time players aren’t protected for the Houston Dynamo Hector Herrera isn’t a protected player for the Dynamo along with Steve Clark. Hector Herrera played 28 games this year with 2 goals and 3 assists but last year he played 44 games with 6 goals and 15 assists. Steve Clark played 31 games this season with 8 clean sheets. Clark has been a starter for the past three years after coming over from Portland. Sporting KC decided not to protect Johnny Russell who has played the majority of the games since 2018 helping them reach multiple playoff berths and helping win games. For LAFC Carlos Vela will be unprotected after LAFC signed him back after letting him go and leave the team. Carlos Vela only played one game this past season but before then he played 49 games in 2023 with 14 goals and 11 assists and he averaged around 25 or more goals a season with double-digit assists in almost every season. Inter Miami will most likely have a player picked more than any other team. Julian Gressel is an unprotected player and if I had to assume I would guess he will be picked. He played 32 games with 1 goal and 9 assists. Matias Rojas has been unbelievable for not only Inter Miami but for Paraguay. He will also be up for selection. For Montreal Josef Martinez is unprotected but since leaving Atlanta he hasn’t been very productive he is still a very dangerous guy to play against. For NYRB Dante Vanzeir will be available and is a very dangerous attacker who scored 4 goals and 9 assists in 32 games. Ultimentaly, only five players are going to be picked tonight but whoever San Diego decides to pick they will have great options and will have a fantastic draft night.