Last week was an exciting one for nerds fans of salary cap minutiae like me, as Major League Soccer (MLS) released the club roster profiles for all 30 teams. Every sports league has its own set of intricate rules and regulations, and MLS is no different. For a league that seemingly embraced a lack of transparency for years, it has been a breath of fresh air that MLS is starting to share more information. Later this year, we will find out each player’s salary for the 2026 season, but for now, we know the status of every player as of Feb. 26, plus the few official transfers that are listed on the transfer tracker on the MLS website.
If you click on that link you will note that the transfer tracker is not accurate for Orlando City, as it neglects to mention that Alex Freeman was transferred to Villarreal. As far as I am concerned, that means that Freeman can suit up for the Lions on Saturday, so Alex, get on that yellow submarine and head west to the Bronx. We will see you there, in a baseball stadium. Sigh.
Freeman could use the minutes, having played only 31 across six games since joining Villarreal, but Griffin Dorsey is doing a great job out on the right side in his stead, and if not for bad luck, he would have a goal and an assist in his first two games as a Lion. Dorsey was acquired in late February in a GAM-for-player deal with the Houston Dynamo, and that brings us back to the club roster profiles which were released a week ago.
I went through each club’s profile and aggregated the counts of players in each roster designation, and the results are in the table below. The long list of rules for roster construction can be found here, and I will remind you that reading these rules is only slightly less effective than counting sheep if you are trying to grab some sleep. And now, without another peep, let us plunge into the end that is deep and take a look at the table that my aggregation reaped.
Roster DesignationOrlando CityMLS Avg.MLS Max.MLS Min.TotalSenior Roster1817.92014536Supplemental Roster67.9123237Active Roster Total2425.82921773International Slots Used67.3112219Designated Players32.33169MLS U22 Initiative32.44071TAM Players35.092151Homegrowns*6 (4)5.6 (3.4)14 (8)2 (0)103Generation Adidas00.42011
A few notes on this table:
These counts come directly from the club roster profiles on Feb. 26 but also include the few official transactions that have occurred since then.
The max and min columns reflect the number of players that at least one team has in that category, not the allowable maximum or minimum.
The Homegrowns row has an asterisk because, frankly, the rules are a little complicated with how teams can use and pay players they either developed themselves or acquired from another club’s youth setup. That said, I put two numbers in each column to try to simplify it: the first value is the total number of players listed as a Homegrown Player and the number inside the parentheses is the number of Homegrowns who are on the active roster. Orlando City, for example, has six total Homegrowns but only four (Gustavo Caraballo, Colin Guske, Javier Otero, and Zakaria Taifi) on the active roster. Justin Ellis and Tahir Reid-Brown are Homegrowns but are not on the active roster, even though both were dressed against Miami and Reid-Brown went the full 90, while Caraballo did not dress for either of the first two games. That is how MLS rolls.
I did not count, but dozens of players are listed on rosters but are currently unavailable due to being on loan, on the injured list, or in one case due to visa issues. I excluded all of these players from the counts in the table.
All right, enough of that, what does this mean for Orlando City?
First and foremost, it means that the Lions have room on their roster for acquisitions. The maximum number of players on an active roster is 30 (Senior Roster + Supplemental Roster), and Orlando City is only using 24 of those 30 spots. That leaves six spots available for roster maneuvering, and it is overwhelmingly likely that the front office will sign a few more players before the season ends.
No team is using all 30 active roster spots at the moment, which makes sense as it is early in the season and teams want roster flexibility, but the 24 spots currently being used by Orlando City ranks 22nd in the league. Our David Rohe wrote about the team’s depth issues in the latest edition of our weekly newsletter, which you too can receive by signing up here, and while playing the kids will help in the long run, in the short run Orlando City needs to get some points, and using those available spots to sign some proven veterans could help.
Another interesting item to note is that Orlando City went big on Ojedas, with both Braian and Martín occupying Designated Player spots on the roster at the moment. The third Designated Player, Marco Pašalić, is the only one of the three who cannot be bought down to become a TAM player, however, and so if Orlando City is able to acquire a certain French player, or another player of his ilk, the team can easily convert one of the Ojedas (most likely Braian) to a TAM player and offer that third Designated Player slot to an incoming player.
It is not shown in the table above, but it also appears from the club profiles that the Lions have one international slot available to them that they have yet to use, which would fit very nicely on that theoretical Designated Player signing.
Moving on, I am not here to tattle on anyone but…Orlando City’s opponent this weekend landed one too many Pigeons on its Supplemental Roster, as league rules state that “a club may have no more than 11 players on its Supplemental Roster, subject to the Season-Ending Injury, Injured List, and Loan exceptions.” NYCFC shows none of those as it relates to its Supplemental Roster players, and as the official league document shows that the Pigeons have 12 players on their Supplemental Roster, I think their punishment should be an automatic forfeit, with three points going to Orlando City. Who is with me?
Nothing will happen, of course, as NYCFC is owned by City Football Group, which has a vast amount of experience with (allegedly) flouting league rules (*cough* Manchester City *cough*). And realistically, that Supplemental Roster oversight has already been addressed and fixed, but until MLS issues an updated document, NYCFC appears to be out of compliance and the only games on baseball fields in New York City this weekend should be, you know, baseball games.
That will not be the case, and there will be soccer in Yankee Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The Lions have not fared well on the road against NYCFC this decade, and are on a run of five straight losses when playing away against the Pigeons. Preferably they do not match those six open active roster spots with a sixth straight loss, and they take their 24 players plus the extra Homegrowns up to the Big Apple and give NYCFC a little of the old “how do you like them apples?” and come back with all three points.
And then maybe go out next week and sign three more players.
Vamos Orlando!