After the release of my 2025 MLS Offseason Mega-Guide, the league has announced each club's unprotected lists for the Expansion Draft, an event that will be taking place tomorrow night at 10:30 EST. In this draft, the league's newest franchise San Diego FC will select five players from opposing clubs. Each team can only lose 1 player maximum, and there's quite a few valuable names able to be selected. For the full list of players unprotected, you can check it out here.
Jumping into my list, I think it's important to look at 1) the player acquisitions San Diego FC has made so far and 2) the past expansion draft strategies. Let's start with 1.
Current Roster
The club has announced six signings so far: San Diego native goalkeeper Duran Ferree, Northern Irish center back Paddy McNair, Danish center midfielder Jeppe Tverskov and striker Marcus Ingvartsen, Hartford, Connecticut native winger Alex Mighten, and Mexican attacking midfielder Hirving "Chucky" Lozano. Lozano, signed for around $12 million from PSV, will be the face of the expansion franchise representing as their first ever Designated Player. It is probable to say they have three, maybe four starters on their roster right now in Chucky, Ingvartsen, McNair, and Tverskov. The club also acquired the negotiating rights of center back Christopher McVey, whose 2025 option was declined by DC United. They have plenty of holes left, and the expansion draft will be their first avenue to begin filling them.
Expansion Draft History
Lorenzo Insigne and Karol Swiderski available? Those are two slam dunk picks for San Diego, right? Not so fast... let's see how clubs have approached the Expansion Draft since 2018. Seeing the history of FC Cincinnati, Inter Miami, Nashville SC, Charlotte FC, Austin FC, and St. Louis CITY SC, they mostly have used their drafts to either fill their depth slots or select a player and immediately trade them to another MLS club for allocation resources. I would be mildly surprised if San Diego FC took a different approach.
Handshake Deals
The last thing I feel like is important to highlight is the work behind the scenes that current MLS clubs will take to make sure unprotected players are not selected in these drafts. For example, yesterday the Columbus Crew traded San Diego an international slot for $100k in General Allocation Money (GAM). Normally, international slots go for $175k-$250k in the offseason. Columbus, trading a slot away for noticeably less than that range, is giving all signs of them cutting San Diego a deal in return of them not taking a player from their unprotected list on draft night. Similar with San Diego trading $200k in GAM to LAFC for forward Tomas Angel, and to a lesser extent the same may be in place for the McVey trade with DC United, although I think this is more of a situation of San Diego valuing the player and wanting his rights to negotiate a new contract prior to other teams getting the chance to.
My Predictions
Here's the fun part, let's dive in:
Julian Gressel, Inter Miami, RM
Through eight seasons of his MLS career, Julian Gressel has 26 goals and 78 assists in 245 regular season matches. The 2017 MLS Rookie of the Year has won two MLS Cups (Atlanta 2018, Columbus 2023), a US Open Cup (Atlanta 2019), and a Supporters Shield in Miami this past season. He is still one of the best crossers in the league, accounting for 12 assists this year. I can't think of a better first selection of the draft for an expansion franchise. Even if San Diego's front office doesn't view him as a fit, I am sure MLS clubs will be calling them to see if a trade can be done through this selection. Miami leaving him unprotected means they would be comfortable to lose him in this spot, where Gressel did not play a single minute in any of Miami's three postseason matches. If he was selected, his $1,092,000 salary would be off the books, and Miami would love that money to put towards the defensive side of the field.
A quick note, I would definitely feel for Gressel if this happened. This would be his sixth MLS club in nine seasons, and his fifth in the past five seasons. I know the move to Miami was for his family to get back to the east coast, and I know this wouldn't be easy on them.
Sam Junqua, FC Dallas, LB
Junqua, who was originally brought into Dallas to be the backup left back for Marco Farfan in 2023, ended up starting 26 games in 2024 as Farfan transitioned to left center back. In five MLS seasons split in Texas between Houston and Dallas, Junqua has 99 appearances and 59 starts, including 4 goals and 4 assists. The 28-year-old fullback has a base salary of just $200k. Under team control for just one more season, this free acquisition cost would fill a role for this San Diego roster on a low salary, competing for the starting LB job with a chance to win it beyond next season as he enters the back part of his prime.
Zac MacMath, Real Salt Lake, GK
I can see San Diego eventually wanting Duran Ferree to develop and be the goalkeeper of his local club, but at 18 years old I think he won't be ready for it in 2025. I was a little shocked to see Zac MacMath available for selection from Real Sale Lake, who made some great saves this season and in the first round of the playoffs against Minnesota. Either the club doesn't feel he will be selected, they are ready to give the keys to 19-year-old Gavin Beavers, or they already have a replacement in mind. For San Diego, I get similar vibes of what MacMath can be for them as Joe Willis was for Nashville as an expansion franchise. He can give you a few solid seasons and his contract is outside the top 20 in terms of base salary ($350k in 2024). Another no-brainer for me with a club needing a GK1.
Elias Manoel, New York Red Bulls, ST
I was between two players in this spot, Manoel and Atlanta's Xande Silva. The similarities between the two are their cap hits (Silva $604k, Manoel $557k) and their roster designation (international spots). The differences between the two are Manoel is only 23 years old and can play across all three forward spots more effectively. He comes from a great South American club in Gremio, and has 13 goals, 10 assists in 67 appearances in his MLS career. I am not sure how many international slots they plan to use, but they can invest the one they just got from Columbus into Manoel and see if there's anything there with him when combining in an attack with Lozano (and by my pick of Gressel) feeding him balls in.
Ethan Bartlow, Houston Dynamo FC, CB
This one I like for a variety of reasons. Bartlow is a versatile center back and is only 24 years old. Over the past three seasons for Houston, he has over 3,700 minutes in 58 appearances, making 21 starts in a 2023 season where the Dynamo finished 4th in the West, made the conference finals, and won the US Open Cup. FBRef has him in the 98th percentile in successful take-ons and in the 99th percentile in blocks. With a $250,000 cap hit and under team control through 2026, this would be a smart add to round out the center back room.
Recap
In my eyes, San Diego FC should draft Gressel, Junqua, MacMath, Manoel, and Bristow. This would round out some depth along the back line with a potential starter at left back, a strong starting goalkeeper, one of the best crossers in the league, and a young attacker that could flourish in a new system. Even if San Diego doesn't choose to keep all five, some of these pieces will have trade value around the league.
What do you think? What would you do different? Let's see how many I got right when San Diego FC announces their selections Wednesday night, December 11th at 10:30 PM EST.
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