A Starting XI of free agents: Who Austin FC (and other teams) could choose from
There are some names you wouldn't believe on the current list of available MLS free agents. But how many of those names would be good on the back of a Heartbeat Kit?
So far, it's been a quiet offseason for Austin FC. All the team has done since announcing its option pickups was, on Wednesday, make official the Stefan Cleveland for GAM trade to Sporting Kansas City that we learned about earlier in the week.
Thursday's first stage of the Re-Entry Draft came and went without a single MLS team picking from what is admittedly an unimpressive list of players, though SuperDraft fans will notice that Generation Adidas forward Stephen Annor Gyamfi, who was drafted by Houston, is on this list after mostly toiling with Dynamo 2.
But as it turns out, there are gems to be had in this year's free agency list, though some are likely too expensive to land, despite what you might think about Austin FC sporting director Rodolfo Borrell's negotiation skills and knack for getting value out of players in the $250,000 to $500,000 salary range.
And even though the MLS Players Association free agent list has many more players on it than will actually be available, a quick perusal reveals that not only are there servicable pieces on it, but there's enough to build a competitive Starting XI.
So let's go ahead and build one — while keeping potential Verde prospects in the mix over better and more expensive option, to keep the "what if" offseason fires burning.
Goalkeeper
Dayne St. Clair, Minnesota United FC
There are likely more realistic options for teams (Carlos Coronel, out of contract with the Red Bulls, Sean Johnson possibly gone from Toronto FC, and even Zac MacMath out of RSL), but St. Clair is an All-Star touted as the best in the league everywhere but Austin, and he'd instantly elevate a number of teams. I believe it's likely that St. Clair and the Loons' front office work something out, but as set as you might believe some teams to be at goalkeeper, they'd jump at the chance to get an available St. Clair. Can you imagine Miami with a first-rate keeper? Let's maybe not imagine that.
Center backs
Walker Zimmerman, Nashville SC
He's certainly a free agent name you know, for being a U.S. Men's National Team mainstay, as well as the anchor for a Nashville team that built its initial reputation on stifling defense. He's 32 now, so it's likely that his next destination is his final one (or, at least, his final one where he's a significant contributor before he moves into the Matt Hedges zone).
He reportedly has two suitors that will further remind you of Matt Hedges: Toronto FC and FC Dallas. Of the two, Frisco makes the most sense, meaning we'll all still see what he has in the tank for two Copa Tejas games a year.
Henry Kessler, St. Louis City SC
Certainly, Kessler's not a star-crossed, injury-riddled talent, but then you look at his MLS games played stats over the last three seasons, and they're alarming: 17 in 2023, 25 in 2024, split between New England and St. Louis, and 17 in 2025. A lot of muscle injuries in his history, particularly with hamstrings — including a 2023 injury requiring surgery and four months of recovery. But if he can stay healthy, a huge if here, he's an intriguing defender who's still just 27 and could start for quite a few teams around the league.
Fullbacks
Brandon Bye, New England Revolution
Bye has been a solid contributor to the Revs since launching his career with them in 2018, meaning he's enjoyed the highs of the Shield-record-setting 2021 as well as the recent doldrums brought about in the Caleb Porter Era.
He did, as a cautionary note, suffer an ACL injury in 2023 but did come back, and logged about 1100 minutes in 2025 (26 appearances, 12 starts). Alas, no goal contributions. He's also 30, but if you're an MLS GM looking for fullback depth, he's an option.
Sam Junqua, Real Salt Lake
So, as it turns out, not a lot of fullbacks on this free agent list, and Junqua is still in negotiations with Real Salt Lake, but I bring him up for two reasons. First, he was a decent contributor, appearing in 32 matches with 17 starts and logging over 1800 minutes, with a goal and an assist. (I said decent contributor.)
Second, from a purely fun Verde-centric perspective, Junqua could achieve the career Maxi Urruti, as he's previously played with both Dallas and Houston, and could complete the Texas trifecta while giving Verde some possibly necessary fullback depth.
Midfielders
Justin Haak, New York City FC
Haak really belongs with NYCFC, but he's reportedly testing the market, and he's an intriguing defensive midfielder on the rise. As a native New Yorker who is the team's third academy-to-homegrown player, he's been contributing on a supplemental roster spot, and at 24, is rounding into the place where he can get his first sizable MLS contract (hence the testing the market). Though Austin seems set at defensive midfielder by reupping Ilie Sánchez and developing Nicolás Dubersarsky, Verde has rehomed an NYCFC d-mid before (though it was a very different time)
Diego Fagúndez, LA Galaxy
Two things can be true: Fagúndez can be named the Galaxy's Player of the Year (in a season they'd rather forget and a season in which its rightful best player sat out the whole season), and the Galaxy front office can decline a 2026 option on a contract that was such an albatross around Borrell's neck — a gift from the former "I do what I want" sporting director — that Borrell jumped at the chance to trade away the immensely popular Verde legend for a third of a season of Memo Rodriguez.
I feel like our favorite footgolf player and the Galaxy will arrive at a new, more realistic contract, and I don't think his return would fix what currently ails Austin ... but with his name on the list, I have to broach the topic.
Hassani Dotson, Minnesota United FC
Though Robin Lod's also a free agent, I find it likely that the front office will find a way to bring back such a key player. (A Loons team without both St. Clair and Lod would be a much worse Loons team.) Dotson, though, is 28, coming off a meniscus injury that kept him out of most of 2025.
But he came into the league with promise, he's versatile, and given a change of scenery, could be at the very least a more centrally deployable version of Jon Gallagher. (Dotson can be a central midfielder, a winger, or a defensive midfielder, depending on the situation.)
Wingers
Paul Rothrock, Seattle Sounders FC
MLS writer Matt Doyle has a theory that Rothrock, who emerged as a folk hero in Seattle this past season, is ideal on a team where he's a fourth attacker, and would be less effective if he became the focal point of an offense.
His current free agency availability is a classic test-the-market move to see if he can get a bigger contract from a team that maybe doesn't agree with Doyle. I still think he ends up returning to Seattle on more of a Toyota number than a Lexus number, but is happy there and wins some trophies.
Also, just for fun, here's how Rothrock compared to Osman Bukari last year, should you be buying into the Rothrock hype.
He's good, but he's not transcendentally good. (Making him like the wingers Austin FC currently has.)
Cristian Espinoza, San Jose Earthquakes
Cristian Espinoza, however, is another matter entirely.
It's weird that he's on this list and not the core piece that the San Jose front office is building around. Missing the reportedly sneaky summer deadline to activate his 2026 option might have cost the Quakes' sporting director his job, since he exited several days by "mutual agreement" after the Espinoza news got out. Curious, that.
As you can probably glean from his chart, he's a designated player who will be at best amenable to a max TAM deal with the right team. Even if Verde could work out a deal to have Bukari, Espinoza, Brandon Vázquez, and Myrto Uzuni on the team, that's one expensive starting frontline player too many, and you'd have to do other roster maneuvers to make it work.
But, wow, is this enticing.
Center forward
Josef Martínez, San Jose Earthquakes
There was a time when this would have been really enticing to me, as he was my favorite forward when he burst into MLS in 2017 and scored 77 goals in his first three seasons.
But I don't think the 2026 season is an enticing time to take him, and Martínez hasn't been quite the same since suffering a massive knee injury in Atlanta United's 2020 opening match before COVID swallowed the entire sports calendar for the better part of a year.
Also, Borrell isn't likely in the one-dimensional striker market, and if he is, it's for a short-term holdover while Vázquez reintegrates to MLS (which is what the Kei Kamara shout was about, but also makes free agent Willy Agada at least worth consideration).
But Martínez, at 32, is sixth on the all-time MLS goalscoring list with 130, and with just five more goals, moves up to fourth on the all-time list, and if he gets 15 more, he's tied with Landon Donovan for third. Given that he scored 14 last season and 11 the season before, scoring a goal every 130 minutes played in that two-year stretch, he's still got goals in him. Certainly, some MLS team will talk itself into bringing him in. I just can't imagine it would be Austin.
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.
Austin FC's backup goalkeeper the previous two season appears to be out the door. That means a new opportunity — though it may involve a lot of observation from the bench — for Damian Las.
Based on the 16 MLS teams in the field, Austin FC is an early favorite to win the trophy. Verde will enter the tournament as millions of Americans rush to file their taxes.
Maybe it's not ideal to sign a 41-year-old forward who didn't score for one of MLS' best teams last season. But he could play a helpful role for Austin FC in 2026 if dropped into a supplemental roster slot.
So far, it's been a quiet offseason for Austin FC. All the team has done since announcing its option pickups was, on Wednesday, make official the Stefan Cleveland for GAM trade to Sporting Kansas City that we learned about earlier in the week.
Thursday's first stage of the Re-Entry Draft came and went without a single MLS team picking from what is admittedly an unimpressive list of players, though SuperDraft fans will notice that Generation Adidas forward Stephen Annor Gyamfi, who was drafted by Houston, is on this list after mostly toiling with Dynamo 2.
But as it turns out, there are gems to be had in this year's free agency list, though some are likely too expensive to land, despite what you might think about Austin FC sporting director Rodolfo Borrell's negotiation skills and knack for getting value out of players in the $250,000 to $500,000 salary range.
And even though the MLS Players Association free agent list has many more players on it than will actually be available, a quick perusal reveals that not only are there servicable pieces on it, but there's enough to build a competitive Starting XI.
So let's go ahead and build one — while keeping potential Verde prospects in the mix over better and more expensive option, to keep the "what if" offseason fires burning.
Goalkeeper
Dayne St. Clair, Minnesota United FC
There are likely more realistic options for teams (Carlos Coronel, out of contract with the Red Bulls, Sean Johnson possibly gone from Toronto FC, and even Zac MacMath out of RSL), but St. Clair is an All-Star touted as the best in the league everywhere but Austin, and he'd instantly elevate a number of teams. I believe it's likely that St. Clair and the Loons' front office work something out, but as set as you might believe some teams to be at goalkeeper, they'd jump at the chance to get an available St. Clair. Can you imagine Miami with a first-rate keeper? Let's maybe not imagine that.
Center backs
Walker Zimmerman, Nashville SC
He's certainly a free agent name you know, for being a U.S. Men's National Team mainstay, as well as the anchor for a Nashville team that built its initial reputation on stifling defense. He's 32 now, so it's likely that his next destination is his final one (or, at least, his final one where he's a significant contributor before he moves into the Matt Hedges zone).
He reportedly has two suitors that will further remind you of Matt Hedges: Toronto FC and FC Dallas. Of the two, Frisco makes the most sense, meaning we'll all still see what he has in the tank for two Copa Tejas games a year.
Henry Kessler, St. Louis City SC
Certainly, Kessler's not a star-crossed, injury-riddled talent, but then you look at his MLS games played stats over the last three seasons, and they're alarming: 17 in 2023, 25 in 2024, split between New England and St. Louis, and 17 in 2025. A lot of muscle injuries in his history, particularly with hamstrings — including a 2023 injury requiring surgery and four months of recovery. But if he can stay healthy, a huge if here, he's an intriguing defender who's still just 27 and could start for quite a few teams around the league.
Fullbacks
Brandon Bye, New England Revolution
Bye has been a solid contributor to the Revs since launching his career with them in 2018, meaning he's enjoyed the highs of the Shield-record-setting 2021 as well as the recent doldrums brought about in the Caleb Porter Era.
He did, as a cautionary note, suffer an ACL injury in 2023 but did come back, and logged about 1100 minutes in 2025 (26 appearances, 12 starts). Alas, no goal contributions. He's also 30, but if you're an MLS GM looking for fullback depth, he's an option.
Sam Junqua, Real Salt Lake
So, as it turns out, not a lot of fullbacks on this free agent list, and Junqua is still in negotiations with Real Salt Lake, but I bring him up for two reasons. First, he was a decent contributor, appearing in 32 matches with 17 starts and logging over 1800 minutes, with a goal and an assist. (I said decent contributor.)
Second, from a purely fun Verde-centric perspective, Junqua could achieve the career Maxi Urruti, as he's previously played with both Dallas and Houston, and could complete the Texas trifecta while giving Verde some possibly necessary fullback depth.
Midfielders
Justin Haak, New York City FC
Haak really belongs with NYCFC, but he's reportedly testing the market, and he's an intriguing defensive midfielder on the rise. As a native New Yorker who is the team's third academy-to-homegrown player, he's been contributing on a supplemental roster spot, and at 24, is rounding into the place where he can get his first sizable MLS contract (hence the testing the market). Though Austin seems set at defensive midfielder by reupping Ilie Sánchez and developing Nicolás Dubersarsky, Verde has rehomed an NYCFC d-mid before (though it was a very different time)
Diego Fagúndez, LA Galaxy
Two things can be true: Fagúndez can be named the Galaxy's Player of the Year (in a season they'd rather forget and a season in which its rightful best player sat out the whole season), and the Galaxy front office can decline a 2026 option on a contract that was such an albatross around Borrell's neck — a gift from the former "I do what I want" sporting director — that Borrell jumped at the chance to trade away the immensely popular Verde legend for a third of a season of Memo Rodriguez.
I feel like our favorite footgolf player and the Galaxy will arrive at a new, more realistic contract, and I don't think his return would fix what currently ails Austin ... but with his name on the list, I have to broach the topic.
Hassani Dotson, Minnesota United FC
Though Robin Lod's also a free agent, I find it likely that the front office will find a way to bring back such a key player. (A Loons team without both St. Clair and Lod would be a much worse Loons team.) Dotson, though, is 28, coming off a meniscus injury that kept him out of most of 2025.
But he came into the league with promise, he's versatile, and given a change of scenery, could be at the very least a more centrally deployable version of Jon Gallagher. (Dotson can be a central midfielder, a winger, or a defensive midfielder, depending on the situation.)
Wingers
Paul Rothrock, Seattle Sounders FC
MLS writer Matt Doyle has a theory that Rothrock, who emerged as a folk hero in Seattle this past season, is ideal on a team where he's a fourth attacker, and would be less effective if he became the focal point of an offense.
His current free agency availability is a classic test-the-market move to see if he can get a bigger contract from a team that maybe doesn't agree with Doyle. I still think he ends up returning to Seattle on more of a Toyota number than a Lexus number, but is happy there and wins some trophies.
Also, just for fun, here's how Rothrock compared to Osman Bukari last year, should you be buying into the Rothrock hype.
He's good, but he's not transcendentally good. (Making him like the wingers Austin FC currently has.)
Cristian Espinoza, San Jose Earthquakes
Cristian Espinoza, however, is another matter entirely.
It's weird that he's on this list and not the core piece that the San Jose front office is building around. Missing the reportedly sneaky summer deadline to activate his 2026 option might have cost the Quakes' sporting director his job, since he exited several days by "mutual agreement" after the Espinoza news got out. Curious, that.
As you can probably glean from his chart, he's a designated player who will be at best amenable to a max TAM deal with the right team. Even if Verde could work out a deal to have Bukari, Espinoza, Brandon Vázquez, and Myrto Uzuni on the team, that's one expensive starting frontline player too many, and you'd have to do other roster maneuvers to make it work.
But, wow, is this enticing.
Center forward
Josef Martínez, San Jose Earthquakes
There was a time when this would have been really enticing to me, as he was my favorite forward when he burst into MLS in 2017 and scored 77 goals in his first three seasons.
But I don't think the 2026 season is an enticing time to take him, and Martínez hasn't been quite the same since suffering a massive knee injury in Atlanta United's 2020 opening match before COVID swallowed the entire sports calendar for the better part of a year.
Also, Borrell isn't likely in the one-dimensional striker market, and if he is, it's for a short-term holdover while Vázquez reintegrates to MLS (which is what the Kei Kamara shout was about, but also makes free agent Willy Agada at least worth consideration).
But Martínez, at 32, is sixth on the all-time MLS goalscoring list with 130, and with just five more goals, moves up to fourth on the all-time list, and if he gets 15 more, he's tied with Landon Donovan for third. Given that he scored 14 last season and 11 the season before, scoring a goal every 130 minutes played in that two-year stretch, he's still got goals in him. Certainly, some MLS team will talk itself into bringing him in. I just can't imagine it would be Austin.
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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