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Ahead of Wednesday's MLS Expansion Draft where New York City FC and Orlando City SC will pick through the unwanted bones of their competitors, the other 18 teams have announced which players will be protected and which players are available to the draft.
There aren't many surprises from the Seattle Sounders camp. Here are the protected players:
- Osvaldo Alonso
- Chad Barrett
- Clint Dempsey
- Brad Evans
- Stefan Frei
- Chad Marshall
- Obafemi Martins
- Lamar Neagle
- Marco Pappa
- Gonzalo Pineda
- Andy Rose
Current Homegrown Players and GA players exempt from the draft are Aaron Kovar, Damion Lowe, Sean Okoli, and DeAndre Yedlin. For those counting, that's one goalie, one defender, six midfielders, and three forwards. According to the Protectinator Mark III, the only upset is Chad Barrett being protected over Leo Gonzalez. The rest is fairly straight forward.
Only two Sounders can possibly be selected during the Expansion Draft and after the first player is selected, Seattle is allowed to protect a 12th player. The two expansion teams will have the following players to choose from:
- Jalil Anibaba
- Michael Azira
- Tristan Bowen
- Kenny Cooper
- Josh Ford
- Leo Gonzalez
- Aaron Long
- Jimmy Ockford
- Kevin Parsemain
- Dylan Remick
- Zach Scott
- Cam Weaver
The protected and available lists for the remaining MLS teams can be found following this link.