Christmas in May: What the new MLSPA Salary Guide numbers tell us about Austin FC
The MLS Players Association released salary numbers on Tuesday. We learned some details about the high and low ends of the salary spectrum, and what that might mean going forward.
Merry MLSPA Christmas (No. 1) to all who celebrate.
On Tuesday, the MLS Players Association once again performed their twice-annual service to journalists and roster nerds across the U.S. and Canada, publishing salary information for all the MLS players — this time, signed to contracts at the start of the 2026 season.
Another one comes later in the year to include summer transfer window signings, but this data confirms some of what we knew when the club roster profiles came out in late February — only now we know, for example, just what Verde's two TAM players are making — while introducing some other questions.
First, let's talk about the designated players and Under 22 Initiative players (or U22s for short) — among the team's most expensive, salarywise. And to be clear, this isn't an exercise in gawking at players' salaries and seeing who is outearning who. It's to try to figure out how Austin FC sporting director Rodolfo Borrell is fitting the player salaries under the $6.425 million budget limit alloted each MLS club.
DPs and U22s
Currently, Borrell is using all three designated player spots on the following:
Facundo Torres, $3.36 million base salary, $4.405 million guaranteed compensation
Myrto Uzuni, $1.6 million base salary, $2.305 million guaranteed compensation
Brandon Váqzuez, $3.35 million base salary, $3,701,778 guaranteed compensation
By $10,000, Torres is the highest-paid player on the team just counting base salaries. Each player counts at the maximum salary budget charge for a player, which is $803,125.
The U22s can also be paid more than the $150,000 salary budget charge for a player 20 and younger, and $200,000 for a player 21 to 25. (Yes, depending on when you sign your U22 contract – and you have to start under 22 – you can be a U22 player until you're 25.)
Those players are:
Mateja Đorđević, $325,000 base salary, $335,000 guaranteed compensation
Nicolás Dubersarsky, $325,000 base salary, $335,000 guaranteed compensation
Owen Wolff, $750,000 base salary, $750,000 guaranteed compensation
The TAM players
Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) players are those whose salaries plus acquisition charges go beyond the $803,125 amount, and can be bought down to below the threshold using some of the $2.125 million in TAM allotted each team. Verde has two of these, including Dani Pereira, who got a considerable raise considering he was on $475,000 last year.
Dani Pereira, $750,000 base salary, $793,750 guaranteed compensation
Joseph Rosales, $500,000 base salary, $529,875 guaranteed compensation
Possibly supplemental players?
When we were talking about the Christian Ramírez acquisition, the magic number that Borrell wanted to get to on the bid was $225,000, which is at the cusp of the salary level that can be bought down with GAM to make that player qualify as a supplemental rather than a senior player.
For roster-building purposes, this is good, because each MLS team only gets 20 senior roster player — meaning that unless all 20 senior players stay healthy the entire year, a team typically needs to dip into the supplemental roster at some point. Homegrown players can qualify as supplemental until age 24 if I'm reading the roster rules right, which explains why Owen Wolff was supplemental even though he was getting considerable first-team minutes with that designation.
The salary drop on Tuesday revealed that two players are now at that magical $225,000 number: Jon Bell and Ilie Sánchez. Bell was a supplemental player in Seattle last year, making $135,000, so what he's getting at Austin constitutes a considerable raise. Sánchez, though, is a surprise, given that he was getting $600,000 last year, and that was a considerable drop from his last year at LAFC in 2024.
While the club hasn't yet provided an answer to my question about whether Bell and/or Ilie are now supplemental players — which would free up one or two senior roster spots — their lower budget numbers would help the team should a spendy player contributing relatively little.
(Say, a Besard Šabović at $650,000 in base salary, up from $550,000 the year before, or a Robert Taylor, making $575,000 in base salary, equal to last year).
Other unknowns now known
Here's what else jumped out reviewing what was released Tuesday (and I'm using BS and GC for base salary and guaranteed compensation the rest of the way):
A totally-deserving-of-it Brad Stuver is now up to $600,000 BS ($631,667 GC), from last year's BS of $484,500. He already has 62 saves this season, on pace for 176 saves this season, with the internet telling me the record for a season was the Dallas Burn's Mark Dodd with 191 back in 1997. Stuver's 176 would therefore be $3,409 per save. Harkening back to our article where we looked at a goal being worth a car or a house per goal to determine player value, that's a premium (but not quite high-end) e-bike per save!
Jayden Nelson is here on a very specific BS of $499,999.92 (eight cents shy of $500k) and a GC of $554,000.
Christian Ramírez has a $525,000 BS and a $575,000 GC, but Verde's on the hook for just $225,000 of that, meaning that the Galaxy is on hook for over half of that.
Thanks to a really great American Soccer Analysis posse member's project called mlsrosterview.com, here's how much Borrell's spending per position and roster mechanism.
The average spend, per the site creator, is 43.4% on attackers, 31.7% on midfielders, 19.9% on defenders, and 4.8% on goalkeepers.
Here's what LAFC looks like:
As you can see, proportionally similar by position, but considerably more TAM player spending. But, then again, it's not unusual to be outspending Verde in TAM — at 6.7% of its salary going to TAM players, Verde is dead last in MLS there.
Verde All Day is a reader-supported online publication covering Austin FC. Additional support is provided by Austin Telco Federal Credit Union. For more coverage, check out Emergency Podcast! (an Austin FC Podcast) wherever you get your podcasts.
A minutes restriction on two midfielders kept Austin FC head coach Nico Estévez from making a move earlier to match James. Still, his team grabbed a point away in a travel-heavy week.
Verde got out to a 1-0 halftime lead on a Myrto Uzuni penalty kick, James had two assists to give Verde the lead, and then a former Loons legend provided Austin FC the equalizer.
Austin FC and Minnesota United FC resume what's been a fun series to follow on Sunday night. We get some intel about the Loons, including insights on why James didn't work out.
Both Christian Ramírez and Myrto Uzuni are approaching their 2025 goal contribution totals this season. How does that compare to what the underlying per-90 numbers say?
Merry MLSPA Christmas (No. 1) to all who celebrate.
On Tuesday, the MLS Players Association once again performed their twice-annual service to journalists and roster nerds across the U.S. and Canada, publishing salary information for all the MLS players — this time, signed to contracts at the start of the 2026 season.
Another one comes later in the year to include summer transfer window signings, but this data confirms some of what we knew when the club roster profiles came out in late February — only now we know, for example, just what Verde's two TAM players are making — while introducing some other questions.
First, let's talk about the designated players and Under 22 Initiative players (or U22s for short) — among the team's most expensive, salarywise. And to be clear, this isn't an exercise in gawking at players' salaries and seeing who is outearning who. It's to try to figure out how Austin FC sporting director Rodolfo Borrell is fitting the player salaries under the $6.425 million budget limit alloted each MLS club.
DPs and U22s
Currently, Borrell is using all three designated player spots on the following:
By $10,000, Torres is the highest-paid player on the team just counting base salaries. Each player counts at the maximum salary budget charge for a player, which is $803,125.
The U22s can also be paid more than the $150,000 salary budget charge for a player 20 and younger, and $200,000 for a player 21 to 25. (Yes, depending on when you sign your U22 contract – and you have to start under 22 – you can be a U22 player until you're 25.)
Those players are:
The TAM players
Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) players are those whose salaries plus acquisition charges go beyond the $803,125 amount, and can be bought down to below the threshold using some of the $2.125 million in TAM allotted each team. Verde has two of these, including Dani Pereira, who got a considerable raise considering he was on $475,000 last year.
Possibly supplemental players?
When we were talking about the Christian Ramírez acquisition, the magic number that Borrell wanted to get to on the bid was $225,000, which is at the cusp of the salary level that can be bought down with GAM to make that player qualify as a supplemental rather than a senior player.
For roster-building purposes, this is good, because each MLS team only gets 20 senior roster player — meaning that unless all 20 senior players stay healthy the entire year, a team typically needs to dip into the supplemental roster at some point. Homegrown players can qualify as supplemental until age 24 if I'm reading the roster rules right, which explains why Owen Wolff was supplemental even though he was getting considerable first-team minutes with that designation.
The salary drop on Tuesday revealed that two players are now at that magical $225,000 number: Jon Bell and Ilie Sánchez. Bell was a supplemental player in Seattle last year, making $135,000, so what he's getting at Austin constitutes a considerable raise. Sánchez, though, is a surprise, given that he was getting $600,000 last year, and that was a considerable drop from his last year at LAFC in 2024.
While the club hasn't yet provided an answer to my question about whether Bell and/or Ilie are now supplemental players — which would free up one or two senior roster spots — their lower budget numbers would help the team should a spendy player contributing relatively little.
(Say, a Besard Šabović at $650,000 in base salary, up from $550,000 the year before, or a Robert Taylor, making $575,000 in base salary, equal to last year).
Other unknowns now known
Here's what else jumped out reviewing what was released Tuesday (and I'm using BS and GC for base salary and guaranteed compensation the rest of the way):
A totally-deserving-of-it Brad Stuver is now up to $600,000 BS ($631,667 GC), from last year's BS of $484,500. He already has 62 saves this season, on pace for 176 saves this season, with the internet telling me the record for a season was the Dallas Burn's Mark Dodd with 191 back in 1997. Stuver's 176 would therefore be $3,409 per save. Harkening back to our article where we looked at a goal being worth a car or a house per goal to determine player value, that's a premium (but not quite high-end) e-bike per save!
Jayden Nelson is here on a very specific BS of $499,999.92 (eight cents shy of $500k) and a GC of $554,000.
Christian Ramírez has a $525,000 BS and a $575,000 GC, but Verde's on the hook for just $225,000 of that, meaning that the Galaxy is on hook for over half of that.
Thanks to a really great American Soccer Analysis posse member's project called mlsrosterview.com, here's how much Borrell's spending per position and roster mechanism.
The average spend, per the site creator, is 43.4% on attackers, 31.7% on midfielders, 19.9% on defenders, and 4.8% on goalkeepers.
Here's what LAFC looks like:
As you can see, proportionally similar by position, but considerably more TAM player spending. But, then again, it's not unusual to be outspending Verde in TAM — at 6.7% of its salary going to TAM players, Verde is dead last in MLS there.
Verde All Day is a reader-supported online publication covering Austin FC. Additional support is provided by Austin Telco Federal Credit Union. For more coverage, check out Emergency Podcast! (an Austin FC Podcast) wherever you get your podcasts.
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