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Last Friday, September 13, was MLS’s Roster Freeze date. We assume no changes have been made to the rule as it has been in the past. Barring extreme hardship emergencies, rosters will remain unchanged until the day after MLS Cup. They will then unfreeze for a few hours to accommodate end-of-year roster decisions, and refreeze until early 2025.

Philadelphia’s active roster

Unofficially, we have guessed the Union’s active roster for the rest of the year. We place it at 26 players, including four goalkeepers. Players 27 through 32 are unavailable due to loans-away or injury. Roster are frozen until Sunday, December 8, since MLS CUP is Saturday, December 7.

Each MLS club’s next roster moves will be their end-of-year roster decisions. They will announce them after their seasons are over. If they do not make the playoffs, that occurs shortly after Decision Day (except for Orlando in the East). If they make the playoffs, the announcements will occur after they have been eliminated.

What happens next

End-of-year roster decision announcements will be followed closely by free agency, the re-entry draft two-step process, and waivers.

This year the end-of-season calendar will probably also feature new 2025 side San Diego’s expansion draft. No official information about the draft has been published yet, so what follows is a second round of speculation.

Before the start of each season, every new team in MLS has been given an expansion draft. Recently, current owners have reportedly increased their resistance against the event. We anticipate that the event will not be eliminated entirely.

When meaningful time has passed since the last one, a draft’s details usually change. In 2022, for St. Louis City, the details given below were the significant rules. We present them only as a starting point for thinking about expectations for San Diego’s, since they have yet to be announced.

• For St. Louis, and all previous clubs back to and including Philadelphia, only one player could be taken from any club.
• St Louis could take only five players in total.
• Clubs who had lost players the previous year to Austin were exempt from losing anyone.
• Vulnerable teams could protect 12 players.
• All Homegrown players and “ungraduated” Generation Adidas ones were exempt from selection.
• Players with no trade clauses had to be protected.
• Teams with players occupying international slots had to protect some of their internationals using a sliding scale. The scale’s top limit said that having four or more internationals meant that three must be protected, which was Philadelphia’s specific circumstance for St. Louis and probably would be again this year.

Previously announced end-of-year roster decisions to exercise or decline options or to waive players did not remove those players from a club’s roster for purposes of the expansion draft. A club’s designated players were not exempt from being chosen if they were not Homegrown or active Generation Adidas.

We assume that U22 Initiative players will be treated the same as Designated Players, as recent changes classify both as “special players.” However, we cannot confirm that assumption.

Below, we use the old rules to guess whom the Union will exempt, protect, and expose.

Appendix: Secondary Tools

We used internal tools to make estimations based on publicly observable behaviors. Information about free agents, options, and guarantees comes from reliable sources. It’s important to note that all this data is unofficial.

Depth chart, 10-Sep-24

*free agent

Last updated Thursday, September 12, 2024 11:20 AM ET.

The Union’s 2025 free agents, 2025 club options, and 2025 guaranteed contracts.

Notes:

• As a 25-year-old by rule, Matt Real was too old to be loaned out by the MLS. We anticipate Frank Westfield to join or potentially replace him next year. Isaiah LeFlore has been injured since before their trip to Clearwater and is therefore unknown and unpredictable.
• As a fourth first-team contracted goalkeeper, Holden Trent’s roster position is unprecedented in Union history. He also has a hand injury again. He is not the strong, experienced MLS-quality backup that Jim Curtin reportedly wants.
• We expect Neil Pierre to be preemptively signed to a homegrown contract before next season.
• Jamir Berdecio has first-team speed and quickness, but continues to make mistakes as a right back while playing for Union II.
• Jack McGlynn impacts games when playing against lesser MLS opponents. He does not do so against the elite.
• We expect the Union to make every effort to sign Leon Flach if he has any interest in continuing to play in Philadelphia. But as a free agent he is free to leave at the end of the year.
• There are rumors that free agent Alejandro Bedoya wants to return. He might serve as a mentor to three teenage midfielders: CJ Olney, Cavan Sullivan, and David Vazquez, in addition to Danley Jean Jacques, with whom he shares the French language. It’s uncertain whether the professional development roster slot that he occupies can be extended for a second season.
• We suspect Jeremy Rafanello has made himself into a valuable depth piece in the midfield for one more season.
• Recently Nick Pariano has shown quite well for Union II as a single six defensive midfielder. He is unlikely to be on season-long loan to Union II next season as he has been this.
• Joaquin Torres struggled to adapt to the Union’s system of play, and we anticipate his option for next season will not be renewed despite his commendable efforts.
• We remain unconvinced that Sam Adeniran has the endurance, agility, and quickness to defend as well as Jim Curtin’s strikers must. However, he did show improvement in his sense of defensive urgency in the recent Miami loss.
• Until his return to the U. S. and the Charlotte Independence, 2024 was a lost season for Nelson Pierre. He seems a candidate for further loans away even though he will probably remain on the Union’s books since his contract for next year is guaranteed. Charlotte Independence is USL League One, a division III league like MLS NEXT Pro.