Crew Addition: Lucas Zelarayan

Lucas Zelarayán, a CM from Argentina, has been a winner with Liga MX side Tigres for a number of years now. At 27, he is one of the more decorated players I've seen come to Columbus (in or out of MLS). Look at this:

CLUB WINNER
3x Liga MX Winner
2018/2019 Clausura, 2017/2018 Apertura, 2016/2017 Apertura
Runner-up
2016/2017 Clausura

3x Campeón de Campeones, Winner
2017/2018, 2016/2017, 2015/2016
Runner-up
2018/2019

CLUB INTERNATIONAL
3x Concacaf Champions League Runner-up 2019, 2016/2017, 2015/2016
Campeones Cup Winner 2018

Zelarayán appears to be Federico Higuain's replacement and will easily be the best player on the team. He also provides some continuity in regards to Argentines playing the CAM in Columbus that goes back about 13 years now (2007-2010 Guillermo Barros Schelotto, 2012-2019 Higuain).

Looking over his recent playing record at SofaScore, TransferMarket, FIFA 20, and FM20 the picture I am getting is a player similar to what Crew fans are used to in Higuain. He might be a bit more aggressive, but a lot of that depends on how Caleb Porter decides to deploy him.

His arrival means that Columbus will likely line back up in a 4231 formation.

Columbus has been busy this week! Zelarayan and Wormgoor additions keep the Crew in the MLS playoff picture and a bit better than what we saw last year. About the same if Valenzuela and Higuain had been healthy all season.

I'll have a post with the latest lineup projection in a few minutes, but one last thing here is that I don't think Columbus had to let Higuain go unless he is going to retire off the injury. He was only at $1m last season. Columbus needs another playmaker that is able to come on late or allow for greater lineup, tactical options.

Crew Sign Costa Rican International

Around midday Friday, Feb 21 the Columbus Crew announced the signing of Costa Rican Giancarlo Gonzalez.

Gonzalez joins the Crew from Vålerenga of the Norwegian top division Eliteserien where he started 20 of the 30 league games for them as a center back.

Perhaps the most impressive bit of info about Gonzalez is that he was also regular starting center back for Los Ticos during their World Cup qualifying campaign last cycle of which the finished 2nd only the the US in CONCACAF. All totaled he has made over 30 apps for the Costa Rican national team.

The Crew discovered him via Gregg Berhalter's playing days when the LA Galaxy played Alajuelense (Costa Rica) in CCL play.

EXPECTED CREW ROLE : CB

He will be considered a critical 1st eleven player starting at center back and will play next to either Micheal Parkhurst or Josh Williams.

This signing will put Tyson Wahl back as a gameday 18 bench player and push Eric Gehrig and Kevan George back into more of reserve type roles as CBs. It also creates some competition at RB between Chad Barson and Josh Williams.

ESTIMATED WAGE : $200-300k

Transfer Market has him up there right behind Parkhurst, Higuain and Clark. It would not be surprising if he is making something similar to Glauber's wage last year.

On the more abstract side, Gonzalez also shows up in EA's FIFA 14 as a decent CB with a 66 rating and 74 potential. This puts him above average for a MLS defender.

MY THOUGHTS

Gonzalez is a known quality player in the North American region and the Crew have check off one of their priorities in the offseason. He makes the backline better and will add spice to the Crew during the World Cup this summer.

Crew Sign Wahl, Roster/Cap Update

Busy day today as the Crew Operations staff must be back from their holiday breaks.

• Tyson Wahl Signed
Wahl is a serviceable and experienced MLS player. He first saw time when he was drafted 19th in the "2006 SuperDraft"+ to KC. From there he went on to have productive years with Seattle before falling into an expansion draft vortex last year that few return from.

Columbus view him as a solid backup to whomever they end up signing for the Left Back position. The club has made it known that they want an international player in that role. "We've got some things in the works, but sometimes things go afoul and don't work out. If they don't work out, Tyson is our guy at leftback." - Brian Bliss to Cody Sharrett on Crew.com

My Thought: Tyson seems to want a chance to start but the Crew outright told him he is a 2nd choice to, well... a player they sign later on. My prediction? Hindsight will probably prove that keeping Nemanja Vukovic was the better option. His performance metrics were good to above average, the coaching staff just had a problem with his personality. Bad business.

• Brian Bliss shoots down Mirosevic Rumors
Craig Merz also had an article today that attempted to shoot down any chatter about Milovan Mirosevic going back home to Chile. Bliss went as far to say that Mirosevic's agent called him to "refute the article" floating around. They don't state which article it was but did confirm that it was "on the internet and all that".

• Sebastian Miranda isn't coming back.

• Emilio Renteria's Contract expired. [+++UPDATED]
To my knowledge, most Major League Soccer contracts expire on December 31st. Renteria's is probably no different. With that, he is no longer officially a Columbus Crew player. Hard to tell where new contract negotiations are so for now I've taken him off the club roster (along with his salary).

CAP UPDATE!

Adjusting for expected annual salary increases (7-12%) the Crew now sit around $2.25++ million to the $2.95 million cap and a total roster size of a whopping 21. This leaves around $700k to round out the roster.

I still expect three local kids to sign Homegrown deals that don't hit the cap (league minimums, ~$44k) that will take the roster to 24. What this means is that the Crew have that $700k waiting for 3-6 players. So, either they are going to pay some draft picks big salaries or they are looking to make a couple high profile signings along the likes of Mirosevic, Olman Vargas or Jairo Arrieta last year.

We'll see, I guess. Either way, plenty of bank remaining, interesting now that so many were let go. What happened to that cap excuse? Seems remarkably false now.

"It's a casualty of how the League is set-up and structured." - Bliss, Nov. 28th.

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+Of note on the 2006 MLS SuperDraft: Columbus picked Jason Garey (with Carolina Railhawks), Kei Kamara (Sporting KC) and Jed Zayner (retired this year) ahead of Tyson Wahl.

++A few salaries are estimated as MLS does not make this information public until spring. Danny O'Rourke and Tony Tchani, estimated at 100k. Wil Trapp, $60k (Tchani's may be low, hard to tell. Not many examples of GA players getting restructured like his). If you want more salary info you can email me at ljbaby654 @ gmail.

+++[UPDATE]Per thecrew.com Renteria not coming back. HC Warzycha "...we offered him a contract and he didn't take it. We haven't had a conversation with him the last couple of weeks."