Clearing the deck for a 2025 FC Dallas roster build

It’s simple, FC Dallas missed the playoffs. The team needs to improve. So let’s talk about how that can be accomplished.

Sure, get a new coach, bring in some new tactics, and coach ’em up. Evaluate your medical/health/training/conditioning to help reduce and prevent injuries. Both are easier said than done.

Importantly, the biggest part of improving play is done by improving the roster. How can FC Dallas do that?

Let’s begin with the basics.

Note: All salary numbers in this article are current 2024 numbers of guaranteed compensation, just to keep it simple.

Cap Cleanup

On the podcast, I did a bit on the FCD salary cap. I did my best guess at what the cap would be like if FCD left the roster like it is and brought everyone back. By my (probably only kind of accurate) calculation, they would be somewhere between $1 mil and $1.5 over with the exact same roster.

Of course, between options, contracts ending, and loans ending FC Dallas could drop 19 of the club’s 36 first-team players. I expect 10 or more of them will be gone just to reduce the size of the roster and to add from North Texas SC or the Academy.

So the reality is, they don’t have to be proactive to fix the cap. It will happen naturally.

But that doesn’t get you better. Getting better likely requires clearing off some large salaries and bringing in different higher-profile players.

Small Swings – One (or Two) to One Swaps

This is a pretty basic idea. You drop a player and replace them with someone “better.”

As a “make the defense better” example, Sebastien Ibeagha‘s 2025 option will probably escalate him to next year’s TAM/GAM threshold ($743,750) – his salary went up $100k from ’23 to ’24 – that’s a max-salary slot. With some TAM/GAM you could get a top-level CB well above that salary threshold and buy them down like they do with Sebastian Lletget and Paxton Pomykal.

Yet I think the club wants to keep Ibby. In that case, they should try hard to get him to contract at a lower number, like a 2+1 deal at $400k-$500k or something.

So perhaps FCD can combine player drops to make a larger salary slot? Replace the bodies with homegrowns or other minimum-salary players to create a max-salary slot.

Randon, non-specific example; dropping Nkosi Tafari ($347k), Liam Fraser ($227k), and Sam Junqua ($212K) opens up a max-salary slot in the cap by sacrificing depth.

Look, you can play with the roster this was all day. Want to try it yourself? Check our Roster Dance and go to town.

Most of the highest-paid players are under contract for 2025 so something big has to change to add impactful players.

Large Swing – Move Paul Arriola

Paul Arriola is a terrific asset. He’s a great leader as Captain and he can play all over the field. The current technical team loves them some versatility and flexibility. Everyone at the club loves the guy. In a no-salary-cap league, he’d be fantastic.

But in a salary cap league, Arriola is problematic.

In 2025, Arriola probably isn’t a starter at his natural wing position. Multiple players block his path (Alan Velasco, Jesus Ferreira, Logan Farrington… maybe even a revitalized Bernie Kamungo). This year, the club has been using Arriola “out of position” at outside back. And he turns 30 before next season.

But most of all, his contract is an albatross at $1.7 million.

That’s a DP salary and FCD has three other DPs. So they will need to use $1 million in TAM to buy that salary down in 2025. That is a boatload of TAM, almost half the club’s base allotment of $2.225 mil for next year wrapped up in one player.

That $1 mil could go toward signing a new center back, for example.

FC Dallas could remove Arriola from the roster by a trade inside MLS (his hometown San Diego maybe?), a sale/loan to a club outside the league (Mexico, Xolos?), or via the one-per-season buyout (the Hunts would have to pay it out of their pocket).

You might not get much in return for the trade, perhaps even needing to send some GAM along with Arriola.

It would be preferable for the Hunts to not do the buyout though. They need to save that buyout in case Paxton Pomykal is never the same and they need to clear his $1 mil salary off the cap.

The Big Swing – Sell Jesus Ferreira

Last winter, MLS blocked a $13 million sale of Jesus Ferreira to Spartak Moscow. Then this summer, a move to UD Las Palmas died at the last minute. (I have independently confirmed both since.)

Clearly, as deals keep getting lined up, Ferreira wants to go.

Sure, you could sell one of your other DPs, but the time is right for FC Dallas to sell because of Logan Farrington. When a cheap, young player is producing (4 goals, 8 assists) at the same level as a DP (6 goals, 6 assists) you have the luxury to part with the high-priced player in the same position.

A Ferreira sale would create lots of options for the Huntsmen.

First, it opens a DP spot.
Second, FCD would pocket 95% off the sale price to use in the organization.
Third, they can convert $3 mil of the sale into GAM.

Thus,
Paul Arriola could convert to DP status, saving the club $1 mil in TAM on his buydown.
OR…
FCD could go after a new DP. Perhaps for the midfield or back line?
OR…
FCD could change to the Two DPs / Four U22 Initiative roster in which the club would receive an additional $2 mil in GAM.

In Conclusion

So which one should FC Dallas do?

All three.

Selling Ferreira and moving out Arriola nets the club an open DP slot plus a max-salary slot plus $4 to $5 million in TAM/GAM. On top of that, decline and move on from underperforming (relative to salary) players. Not to mention the bonus GAM for missing the playoffs and for it being an expansion year.

We could be looking at a one-winter complete rebuild into a competitive team.

Up Next – Roster Building

As soon as FC Dallas announces their end-of-season roster moves – I made predictions here – I’ll write something on roster building for 2025. Digging into their needs and where FCD can improve.