The 29 existing Major League Soccer franchises released the names eligible for Wednesday’s expansion draft by San Diego FC, and one immediately jumped out among the 360-odd unprotected players:

Paul Arriola from FC Dallas.

He is 29, a team captain, a winger who energizes crowds with his attacking verve, a national team veteran … and a Chula Vista native.

But what might seem like an obvious fit for SDFC comes with one caveat. Arriola made $1.72 million in guaranteed compensation last season, and the question becomes whether that expenditure computes under the league’s strict salary cap for a new team committed to youth development.

These are the kinds of decisions SDFC General Manager Tyler Heaps and his staff must make in the 34½ hours from the Tuesday morning’s release of the unprotected lists to Wednesday night’s draft.

The other 29 teams can protect 12 players, plus a few other auto-protects mandated allowed by the league. SDFC can then select up to five players and no more than one per team. It is also allowed to trade their picks to other teams.

The draft will be held on the patio outside Eighteen Threads, the club’s apparel store in the Mission Valley mall. The 30-minute selection show begins at 7:30 p.m. and will be televised locally on Fox 5.

There are all sorts of options. Three starters from the recent MLS Cup are available: Japanese defender Maya Yoshid, Uruguayan midfielder Gaston Brugman from the LA Galaxy, and Belgian winger Dante Vanzier from the New York Red Bulls. Three subs from the game are unprotected as well.

Vanzier is 26 but made $1.48 million last season. Yoshida and Brugman are both in their 30s.

At the other end of the spectrum are players like Jovan Mijatovic, a 19-year-old Serbian attacker whom New York City FC paid a reported $8.6 million to pry from Red Star Belgrade a year earlier but never broke into the starting 11. His salary is a more reasonable $650,000.

An even cheaper forward is promising 23-year-old Iuri Tavares from Charlotte FC. He made $101,769 last season, according to salary data provided annually by the MLS Players Association.

Also available is 27-year-old forward Miguel Berry, a Poway High School and USD alum who played 31 times for the Galaxy last season and also had a stint with the now-defunct San Diego Loyal of the second-division USL.

The biggest name left unprotected — with the biggest salary — is Toronto FC’s Lorenzo Insigne, who fills one of the club’s designated player slots that don’t count against the salary cap. The 33-year-old Italian maestro made $15.4 million last season, second in the league only to Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi.

Toronto’s strategy is to expose Insigne, banking that SDFC won’t want his salary, while protecting a younger player with a more favorable contract. LAFC took a similar approach with star Mexican forward Carlos Vela, who turns 36 in March and may simply retire if he doesn’t return to LAFC for the 2025 season.

SDFC will add an additional five players in the Dec. 20 MLS SuperDraft, which is for college players and other young prospects. The club has its four picks plus a second-rounder acquired from the Galaxy on Monday along with Colombian forward Tomas Angel in exchange for $200,000 in general allocation money.

Originally Published: December 10, 2024 at 1:46 PM PST