Portland Timbers Offseason To-Do List: Part 4

Most people celebrate another lap around the Sun on New Year’s Day. However, two major sporting events take center stage during this annual festival. The first is the Rose Bowl. I’m still angry at the College Football Playoff’s decision to rob Washington of a spot in Pasadena (Pac-12 solidarity), but Michigan-Alabama should be a great way to end Jim Harbaugh’s tenure at his alma mater before he takes his rightful place as the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders (he’s not going to the Chargers). Aside from the Granddaddy of Them All, the transfer window opens in Europe. Which means it’s time to take a look at possible transfer targets for the winter transfer window. This is not a list of players that I know the club will be targeting, but a list of players that would be excellent acquisitions. Before I get into any transfer speculation, there are some legitimate pieces of news I need to cover first.

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The US Open Cup

If you’ve been paying attention to the MLS offseason, you have definitely heard the horrific decisions that the MLS Board of Governors have been making. Chief among them is the choice to not let MLS first-teams participate in the Open Cup next season. In a prepared statement, the league said that they were worried about too much “fixture congestion” and it made sense to pull their first-team players from the oldest tournament in American sports. MLS teams will still participate in name, but only players from their second teams (playing in MLS NEXTPRO) will play in the Open Cup. Obviously this is a terrible move from the league, and it’s very interesting that they specifically cited “fixture congestion” as a reason why they were opting out. The same Board of Governors who made the Open Cup choice made a curious decision only a couple days before the Open Cup verdict went public. They decided to not make any significant changes to the league’s salary cap. They had the power to raise the salary cap to allow for deeper and more competitive squads around the league and they chose not to. This is also the same Board of Governors who changed the playoff format to the current monstrosity and the same Board of Governors who expanded Leagues Cup into a full tournament rather than a couple of cash-grab friendlies. For the record, I do not believe Leagues Cup is to blame for this Open Cup debacle. There is a world where both of them can co-exist, and I would like to live in the world where that is possible. However, Leagues Cup is controlled entirely by Apple, and the Open Cup is broadcast on CBS. FOX still has rights to MLS games, but it’s usually one game per week. CBS has no MLS broadcast rights, and the league obviously wants to keep any additional revenue to themselves and Apple. That’s the driving factor behind this decision. “Fixture congestion” is such a lazy excuse. It’s also incredibly disrespectful towards fans of MLS, who by and large love the Open Cup. Openly lying to your fans who are the literal customers of your product is a terrible way of running a business. A final decision hasn’t been made on this Open Cup fiasco because US Soccer is trying to reach a deal with MLS about letting their first-teams play. To put a Portland perspective into play, we’ve already seen the Timbers over multiple seasons rotate heavily for Open Cup play. I think the right decision is to give coaches the final say for who to play and who to rest for Open Cup games. Also no MLS team should host a USL team in the first round. Let the lower league teams collect gate receipts for what is probably their biggest game of the year. It’ll never happen because MLS only cares about MLS, but it’s the best way to keep this historic tournament relevant. Just a really disillusioning offseason so far for the league, and it’s nowhere close to over. I wonder how Miami was able to convince Luis Suarez to take non-DP money, but it’s something that is just gonna happen and we will never get a straight answer until the salary table drops in May. Sigh.

That’s a lot of words on the state of the league, and as you can probably tell I’m not too happy with the decisions that have been made. Speaking of making decisions, Merritt Paulson is on the same Board of Governors who approved this. I don’t know which way he voted, but his presence on that committee really means he’s taking the step back he told all of us he was going to. Tired of people not being held accountable for their words and actions. 

Contrary to popular belief, the Timbers’ front office hasn’t just been spending all of December counting their legs. They have been active in MLS free agency, and there are a couple new goalkeepers who are set to come to Portland. Let’s take a look at them.

James Pantemis

After an excellent 2022, Pantemis got injured at the start of the 2023 season. His replacement, Jonathan Sirois, ended up holding on to the starting job. As a result, the graph above this paragraph is from 2022. But make no mistake about it: this is an excellent acquisition. Despite my thorough scour of the free agency list, I allowed Pantemis to slip through my fingers. I would even argue he is a better signing for value than Maxime Crepeau (keyword: value). He’s a starting quality GK and is an upgrade on both Ivacic and Bingham.

Trey Muse

Muse finished 7th in the USL Championship in saves last season. The former Sounders Academy player is only 24, but does have serious potential. He tied for the league lead in clean sheets, and is good enough to start in MLS. Competition is very healthy for the goalkeeping positions (provided both competitors actually want to compete) and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Muse start a couple of games this season. 

Neither of those deals have been confirmed, but I’m expecting both Pantemis and Muse to be in Green-and-Gold next season. There have also been rumors of the Timbers pursuing another international keeper, but I think Pantemis and Muse are more than good enough to start this season. 

A TRADE!!!!!

Not only did the Timbers complete a trade, they pulled off a heist.

Please ignore the defensive stats. Yes, they’re not pretty, but Kamal Miller is still an excellent defender. The Timbers took care of two birds with one stone; adding a left-footed center back who is also elite on the ball. Before I talk about the price the Timbers paid for this Canadian international and top-tier MLS center back, I would like to remind you of the price Charlotte FC paid for Bill Tuiloma at the beginning of last season. Charlotte gave up $800K GAM ($500K in 2023 and $300K in 2024) with an additional $100K GAM if certain performance metrics were met. Miller is much better than Tuiloma and he only cost the Timbers $625K GAM and an international roster slot (plus an additional $150K GAM in add-ons based on performance). That is what we call a fleece. Miami was desperate for more allocation money and more international slots so they can keep building their roster like the LA Galaxy of yore. Their short-sightedness is the Timbers’ benefit, because Kamal Miller brings the type of center back play that Portland fans haven’t seen since Liam Ridgewell. It is also worth noting the Phil Neville connection. Miller initially arrived in Miami via a trade with Montreal last season while Neville was still in charge. During Neville’s break between the Miami and Portland jobs he was an assistant with the Canadian Men’s National Team. This means that Neville has coached Miller with three separate teams. If it’s not obvious already, I love this move. This is a trophy-winning trade, and it’s an excellent way for the Timbers’ front office to awake from their slumber. 

Rumors, Rumors, Rumors 

You’ve probably seen the whispers about a possible return to Brazil for Evander. I am here to tell you that it’s not going to happen. Per my sources, Flamengo have made a bid of $5.5 million for the midfielder.  I would undoubtedly be a little anxious if any bids were remotely serious, but that’s just laughable. Getting rid of a new centerpiece player shouldn’t even be considered by the Timbers’ front office, especially one that the new head coach is very excited about.

However, since it is a possibility, I’ve also heard that the Timbers’ asking price is $15 million. That’s way too low, especially because a good year could see bids of twice that appear on Ned Grabavoy’s desk. Anyhow, all talk of a potential move away is hogwash. There’s been no signs that Evander is unhappy in Portland, so while it might have made your heart skip a beat, there is absolutely no story here.

Farewell, Yimmi

I’ve already spoken about Yimmi Chara’s contributions in previous articles, so I’m going to use this section to rant about roster rules. It is unbelievably asinine that the Timbers have to move Yimmi on just to open a Designated Player slot. When you look at Yimmi’s stats, you see a player who can still contribute. However, when you compare his stats to other Designated Players around the league, he’s obviously not as impactful as his peers (DP-wise). His 2023 salary was just above the TAM threshold. This is a move solely done to open a DP slot. If Yimmi was TAM-able, he would still be here. Just another day in the life of an MLS fan: being constantly disappointed at the rules.

So what position should the Timbers use the senior DP slot vacated by Yimmi Chara? There are two schools of thought: striker and winger. The Timbers have two open DP slots, but they’re not equal. One is a senior DP spot (vacated by Yimmi) and the second can be used for either a Young DP or a TAM player who can be classified as a DP to save allocation money (Niezgoda occupied this slot last season). I think the senior DP spot should be occupied by a player who fills a bigger need on the roster. The Timbers have been lacking a true match-winning winger since Sebastian Blanco took his talents to the 10 role. Marvin Loria, Santiago Moreno, Antony, and Dairon Asprilla are the only true wingers remaining on the roster at this time. I personally view Moreno as an 8, and even if he plays out wide under Neville the Timbers will still need serious reinforcement on the flanks. But the Timbers only have two strikers on the roster (Felipe Mora and Nathan Fogaca) while Tega Ikoba could do with another full year with T2. So the Timbers have serious needs at two key attacking positions and two DP slots to accomplish it. For the record, I believe that the senior DP spot should go to a winger while a Young DP/Fake DP (that’s what I’m calling it) should be the top priority at striker. I will present options for both DP spots with each position. Center back is no longer a need with Miller’s arrival, but the Timbers also need depth at both fullback spots. You will see targets for all positions listed below.