San Diego FC enters offseason with salary cap flexibility to get better

The real indoctrination into Major League Soccer for San Diego FC sporting director Tyler Heaps came last February, in the club’s inaugural match against the Los Angeles Galaxy at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson.

Heaps walked onto the field behind Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber, who was greeted with a cascade of boos from home fans after MLS’s byzantine salary cap rules compelled the defending champs, as Heaps put it, “to blow up their roster.”

“A really interesting moment,” Heaps said.

And an impactful one. The league’s youngest sporting director admittedly worked with one eye on making the expansion club as competitive as possible in its first season and the other eye on future ones.

This is a 30-team league built for parity. On Saturday, Inter Miami became the eighth different MLS Cup champion in the nine years. Of the 10 participants in the last five MLS Cups, nine are different.

“We’re trying to make something sustainable,” coach Mikey Varas said, “where you don’t have to blow it up every couple years.”

In that regard, SDFC is in better shape than most expansion clubs entering their second season, resisting the win-at-all-costs urge at the risk of burdening the books with unfavorable contracts and little roster flexibility to offset them. Heaps still has one unused Designated Player spot, plenty of TAM (targeted allocation money) for the next tier of talent, a few under-22 slots and a fair amount of salary cap room.

It’s one reason why, he explained last summer, the club opted against signing 26-year-old forward Milan Iloski when his loan deal expired in July and why SDFC acquired Amahl Pellegrino, a 35-year-old forward on an expiring contract, in August instead.

“We have a ton of flexibility,” Heaps said. “I think we go into Year 2 with the ability to get better. Sometimes that means you shed contracts. Sometimes that means you have to move players. But I think we have a lot of ability to go out and get really good players with the way we’re set up.

“We won’t see a ton of turnover.”

What they don’t have is a ton of time.

Teams that didn’t qualify for the MLS playoffs have been off since mid-October and have three months before training camp opens. SDFC, by reaching the conference finals, will have less than six weeks, needing to start camp in early January to accommodate CONCACAF Champions Cup games expected to begin before the MLS opener on Feb. 21.

Heaps also needs to add more roster depth, given the prospect of between seven and 12 midweek games – nearly triple last season – with a more congested schedule and a midseason break for the World Cup.

The first decision is who to keep or jettison from the 2025 roster that won the Western Conference regular-season title (and an automatic berth into the Champions Cup). The club holds contract options on Anibal Godoy, Corey Baird, Franco Negri and Pablo Sisniega. Loan deals for Luca de la Torre, Onni Valakari, David Vazquez and Aiden Harangi are expiring, but some have purchase options.

Others, like Pelligrino, have seen their contracts expire. But Heaps indicated the club is in “active conversations” to keep him next season.

The two biggest needs are forward and right back, although that was largely a function of injuries.

Marcus Ingvartsen was signed to a three-year deal from Danish sister club FC Nordsjaelland with the intention of being the starting striker but was limited to just five starts and two goals despite being the club’s third-highest paid player at $1.7 million. Right back was a revolving door until rookie Ian Pilcher, a center back in college, grabbed hold of the position late in the season.

The other question is what happens with the three Designated Player slots, typically occupied by foreign stars who don’t count against the salary cap. SDFC has two under contract for next season, wingers Hirving “Chucky” Lozano and Anders Dreyer, but Heaps could entertain offers for both for different reasons.

Lozano was suspended for two games after a locker room incident in early October and didn’t start any of the final four playoff games. He desperately wants to make Mexico’s World Cup roster and may need to go elsewhere, perhaps on a short-term loan to Liga MX, to enhance those chances.

Dreyer was the MLS Newcomer of the Year with 19 goals and 19 assists, and, at age 27, could offer a handsome return on investment from the $5 million transfer fee that SDFC paid to get him from Belgium’s Anderlecht last January.

“People always want to come and take good players,” Heaps said. “We’re always open to listen to any offer that does come. I don’t think any player is untouchable in our organization, but of course we have players who were very successful here that we’d like to keep around for a long time.”

And what of the vacant third DP spot?

“There are a lot of factors that go into it,” said Heaps, who indicated he’d use it on a central striker or playmaking midfielder. “Is the budget there? We’re fortunate to have a really supportive ownership group, but we also need to look at financials. We are making sure that short list is always ready to go so that, if we get the green light, we’re ready to capitalize on it.

“We talk about the budget every single day. We had a lot of playoff games this year that were able to bring in some revenue to the club.”

Things will move quickly. SDFC, as all MLS clubs do, is expected to announce which players it is keeping early in the week. Free agency begins Wednesday, the MLS re-entry process for players not under contract starts Thursday, and the MLS SuperDraft for college players is Dec. 18.

Training camp opens in early January. Games start in mid-February.

“We think we have a lot of really good pieces,” Varas said. “We have a really great foundation. We’ve got young guys, we’ve got veteran guys. … We have a lot of pieces that we really like, but we’re an ambitious club.

“We’ll make all the efforts possible to improve the roster and make it even more competitive.”