We all knew that Shalrie Joseph was done with Chivas USA. Left to be resolved was: where the veteran midfielder might land, and how two clubs could configure the numbers to get Joseph’s big salary number off Chivas USA’s cap.
The team from Southern California was desperate to do so.
So Seattle got a bunch in the swap. Yes, Seattle scored a virtual bag of loot to take Joseph, which is not the way these things usually work.
The Sounders received Chivas USA’s No. 3 allocation ranking, a second-round pick in the 2014 and 2015 draft and will pay a portion of Joseph’s salary this year.
All that so Joseph and his Designated Player tag could arrive in Seattle.
In a sense, Chivas didn’t give all that much. Given the team’s player development model, they were less likely than other clubs to exploit the allocation ranking or the draft picks, since the majority of those selections don’t come with Mexican or Mexican-American heritage.
For Seattle, this makes more sense if they want Joseph as a center back, or perhaps as a utility man who can fill in at center back or as Osvaldo Alonso’s backup at the holding midfield spot.
Because Joseph, with diminished range at age 35, is no threat unseat the Sounders busy incumbent in the screening midfield role.
Seattle is full up on Designated Players now. Sigi Schmid told me last week the team’s cap situation was already mighty tight; this is going to squeeze it even more.
All of that is to say, the roster is what it is. That means any dreams or signing Argentine star Javier Saviola this summer just went “poof!” Unless, that is, the Sounders write a big check to buy out one of their DPs, either Joseph, Mauro Rosales or Christian Tiffert.