First kick is just over three weeks away, which means that teams around the league are starting to scramble to fill some roster holes (or, in some cases, to create new roster holes that will subsequently need to be filled).
Eastern Conference today, Western Conference tomorrow.
Here are a few of the teams I’m keeping an eye on at the moment, and the questions that need answering:
Can Toronto FC get the Josh Sargent deal done (and if so, then what?)?
Here’s how I opened this blurb in last year’s version of this story:
“TFC are in the throes of a very, very, very slow-moving rebuild.”
Well, guess what? They’re still in the throes, and it’s still pretty slow-moving, all things considered. Which is not to say that general manager Jason Hernandez and his front office haven’t done some good things – they clearly have. It’s just that most of them came over the course of last season, and came in the form of shipping old players out.
Things haven’t been so comprehensive on the “bringing new players in” front. They did get Djordje Mihailovic and José Cifuentes last summer, and they did sign Walker Zimmerman as a free agent this winter, along with a few other, smaller moves. And that’s all a very good start.
But it’s been… methodical. Ever since Federico Bernardeschi and Lorenzo Insigne were shown the door, I think everybody’s been waiting for the Reds to make a big splash, one that would help drive them into a new, successful era in the way that acquiring Michael Bradley, Jozy Altidore and, eventually, Sebastian Giovinco did back in the mid-2010s.
To that end, they seem to have focused on Sargent for the first of those big moves. On paper, he checks a lot of boxes as a domestic, in-his-prime, proven goalscorer in a good league – a lot like Jozy was, as a matter of fact (though Sargent doesn’t have anything close to Jozy’s national team resume). On the face of it, I like this signing, and hope it gets done.
But it can’t be the only one. If they make Djordje a No. 10, then they’re light on wingers. If they keep Djordje as a left winger, they’re light on midfield playmaking (at this point in his career, Jonathan Osorio is a super-sub for a team with title aspirations, not a starter). Plus, they need another starting center back, I think?
They have two open DP slots, and potentially three open U22 Initiatives. That’s a lot of top-end quality to add and integrate in three weeks.
Clock’s ticking.
Do Charlotte have a big new CB signing on the way?
I’m a big Andrew Privett fan, and think he can be a high-end starting CB in this league. Hell, I actually think he was a high-end starting CB in this league for most of the 2024 season.
Nonetheless, I understood why he was moved to the bench about halfway into 2025, a personnel choice that allowed Dean Smith to pair veteran Tim Ream with the now-departed Adilson Malanda. Not only did that allow Ream – the best-passing CB in the league, and the best the US has ever produced – to his natural position, it also produced a pretty natural pairing. Those two guys just fit together.
Malanda is gone now, a record sale to Middlesbrough of the EFL Championship. And thus far, there’s no high-profile replacement. It looks like it’s Privett’s job to lose.
In a way, that’s a very good thing, as internal development is a must for any MLS team, and Charlotte could easily make a worse choice than betting on Privett to not only hit his 2025 level, but to exceed it.
But there’s also some risk here, as Privett is a different kind of CB than Malanda. The latter was a pure old-fashioned center back who was a monster in his own box and merely functional in terms of ball progression and the like. Privett, on the other hand, is a converted midfielder who can and does break lines with his passing (and sometimes with his ball-carrying; I’d like to see more of that in 2026), while being a good but less-dominant box presence defensively. I don’t think the fit with Ream would be awkward, per se, but definitely not as natural as the Ream/Malanda pairing was.
Tied up in all of this: Charlotte have a third DP (Liel Abada) who doesn’t play and is possibly on his way out. If he’s moved, I feel like it’d be a pretty natural decision to shift to the 2 DPs/4 U22s/$2 million extra General Allocation Money (GAM) roster build and bring in a young, high-upside U22 center back.
Maybe that guy doesn’t start right away, but in the short term, a U22 signing would provide needed depth, and in the long term, who knows? Maybe they’ll find another Malanda.
Is there a DP No. 9 coming to Orlando?
This one’s simple: Duncan McGuire was awesome as a rookie and pretty good in his second year, but struggled badly last season (for clarity, injuries were a big part of that). With Luis Muriel gone, McGuire is, as of now, the presumptive starter at center forward for a team with an open DP slot and real title aspirations.
McGuire’s career strike rate is impressive: 27 goals (none from the penalty spot) in a touch over 3,700 minutes in league play, and 30 in about 4,700 minutes across all competitions. That’s legit – better than the per-90 numbers put up by guys like Sam Surridge, Brian White or Hugo Cuypers. All three of those guys play for teams with real title aspirations, too.
But 1) McGuire’s pretty significantly overperformed his xG over the course of his career, and you know how we feel about regression to the mean in this column, and 2) there’s simply no question that the Lions looked their best last year during that six-week stretch when Muriel was locked in. And Muriel, of course, is much more of a playmaking No. 9 than a true target-man like McGuire.
I don’t really have a feel for what direction Orlando are leaning in here.
Here’s where we are:
- Red Bull New York are shifting, under new head coach Michael Bradley (and ultimately under head of global soccer Jürgen Klopp), away from Energy Drink Soccer into a more possession-based 4-3-3.
- They have adjusted their roster construction with that model in mind.
- The adjustment seems to suit their two holdover, veteran Designated Players: playmaker Emil Forsberg and center forward Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting.
- They desperately need a high-level right winger to balance the attack and perhaps add a dose of wide playmaking.
- They once again have an open DP slot.
I am a fan of the adjustment to the game model, actually like a lot of this roster, and Bradley was impressive in his half-season in charge of RBNYII in MLS NEXT Pro. There’s reason to be at least a little bit optimistic here if you’re a Red Bull fan.
A third DP would, obviously, give them a little bit more.
Is a buyout coming to Atlanta?
Nobody in Concacaf spent more on transfers, from the middle of 2024 to the end of 2025, than Atlanta United. Not Cruz Azul, not Monterrey, not Club América, not Tigres. Not LAFC or Cincy or Miami.
Nobody. And in fact, nobody in MLS history spent more on transfers in any two-year span than Atlanta did over all of 2024 and 2025. Nobody really came close.
All that spending got the Five Stripes, as you probably recall, 14th in the East last year on just 28 points. They were lackluster in almost every phase of play. Arguably none of the moves they made met expectations, and it felt like the entire ship was pointed at another potentially very expensive offseason rebuild.
It hasn’t been that way, though. It’s been the other way, as Atlanta’s front office has largely kept the roster intact and, instead, parted ways with head coach Ronny Deila in order to bring in old friend Tata Martino. As of now, there is only one probable new starter (I’m thinking Tomás Jacob will get the nod at right back), with maybe a second (there are credible Guido Rodríguez reports) on the way.
That’s hardly an overhaul. And look, Tata has always been very… I’ll say “hands-on” as a manager, in terms of shaping the roster. So while I haven’t heard anything about Atlanta talking about a buyout with one of their DPs, I wouldn’t be totally blown away if there was a big, outgoing move simmering somewhere.
He’ll want to put his stamp on the team. He can do that by getting last year’s 28-point team to be this year’s 58-point team, of course. But it would be surprising if Tata didn’t want at least one high-end acquisition he could point to and say: that one’s mine.
