:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72286921/SEA_LAFC_HCS_Recap5.0.jpg)
Twice a year the MLS Players’ Association releases salary information. The early release can give some perspective about how much space teams have available for the secondary transfer window — the Seattle Sounders do not have much room. Based on Sounder at Heart’s calculations, the team is about $950k over the salary budget and the amount of allocation money they are known to have received in trades and annual allotments. There are unknown allocation disbursements from missing the playoffs and an expansion disbursement.
Several players got large increases, even a few on substantial contracts. Nouhou, Cristian Roldan and Alex Roldan were all rewarded for their strong 2022 seasons. None of the three DPs saw a bump in salary.
Spring 2023 Seattle Sounders Salaries
| Player | Position | 2023 Base salary | 2023 Guaranteed compensation | 2022 Base salary | 2022 Guaranteed compensation | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Position | 2023 Base salary | 2023 Guaranteed compensation | 2022 Base salary | 2022 Guaranteed compensation | % Change |
| $19,076,886.00 | $16,983,746.00 | 12.32% | ||||
| Nicolas Lodeiro | M | $2,640,000.00 | $3,256,667.00 | $2,640,000.00 | $3,256,667.00 | 0.00% |
| Raul Ruidiaz | F | $2,472,000.00 | $3,201,120.00 | $2,472,000.00 | $3,201,120.00 | 0.00% |
| Albert Rusnák | M | $1,800,000.00 | $1,871,667.00 | $1,800,000.00 | $1,871,667.00 | 0.00% |
| Jordan Morris | F | $1,550,000.00 | $1,560,000.00 | $1,250,000.00 | $1,370,100.00 | 13.86% |
| Joao Paulo Mior | M | $1,300,000.00 | $1,383,333.00 | $1,200,000.00 | $1,283,333.00 | 7.79% |
| Cristian Roldan | M | $1,320,000.00 | $1,441,000.00 | $860,000.00 | $981,542.00 | 46.81% |
| Heber | F | $930,000.00 | $1,019,000.00 | $825,000.00 | $914,000.00 | 11.49% |
| Yeimar Gomez Andrade | D | $672,732.00 | $741,820.00 | $650,004.00 | $719,092.00 | 3.16% |
| Xavier Arreaga | D | $750,000.00 | $750,000.00 | $700,000.00 | $700,000.00 | 7.14% |
| Leo Chu | M-F | $550,000.00 | $550,000.00 | $550,000.00 | $550,000.00 | 0.00% |
| Stefan Frei | GK | $650,000.00 | $650,000.00 | $500,000.00 | $500,000.00 | 30.00% |
| Nouhou Tolo | D | $550,000.00 | $571,875.00 | $300,000.00 | $344,274.00 | 66.11% |
| Kelyn Rowe | M | $300,000.00 | $300,000.00 | $275,000.00 | $275,000.00 | 9.09% |
| Alex Roldan | M-D | $300,000.00 | $332,500.00 | $200,000.00 | $232,500.00 | 43.01% |
| Stefan Cleveland | GK | $200,000.00 | $217,500.00 | $150,000.00 | $167,500.00 | 29.85% |
| Danny Leyva | M | $110,000.00 | $129,423.00 | $110,000.00 | $129,423.00 | 0.00% |
| Fredy Montero | F | $195,000.00 | $195,000.00 | $110,000.00 | $110,000.00 | 77.27% |
| Ethan Dobbelaere | M | $104,000.00 | $118,000.00 | $89,716.00 | $103,716.00 | 13.77% |
| Andrew Thomas | GK | $125,000.00 | $132,500.00 | $84,000.00 | $91,500.00 | 44.81% |
| Joshua Atencio | M | $92,400.00 | $96,762.00 | $84,000.00 | $88,557.00 | 9.27% |
| Reed Baker-Whiting | M | $85,444.00 | $105,444.00 | $65,500.00 | $85,500.00 | 23.33% |
| Obed Vargas | M | $67,360.00 | $76,392.00 | $65,500.00 | $74,531.00 | 2.50% |
| Abdoule Cissoko | D | $85,444.00 | $85,444.00 | $66,724.00 | $66,724.00 | 28.06% |
| Jackson Ragen | D | $85,444.00 | $85,444.00 | $65,500.00 | $65,500.00 | 30.45% |
| Dylan Teves | M | $68,775.00 | $68,775.00 | $65,500.00 | $65,500.00 | 5.00% |
| Sota Kitahara | M | $67,360.00 | $69,860.00 | n/a | ||
| Jacob Castro | GK | $67,360.00 | $67,360.00 | n/a |
Other takeaways using 2023 guaranteed incomes
- Seven Sounders make more than a million dollars — Nicolás Lodeiro, Raúl Ruidíaz, Albert Rusnák, Jordan Morris, João Paulo, Cristian Roldan, and Héber.
- At full health, the ideal XI makes over $15 million. This assumes that Léo Chú is on the bench. That’s more than 14 full rosters in the league.
- A typical Sounders bench will be worth about 3 million dollars, roughly same as Raúl or Nico.
- The highest paid current HGP is Danny Leyva, who is on loan to Colorado Rapids. Ethan Dobbelaere is the highest with the current team. Cody Baker is not on the list as he was signed this morning. His information will be in the fall release.
- Jackson Ragen took over the starting role from a player earning nearly 9 times what he does (8.77x for the precise people).
As others have noted, looking at salaries alone is only a partial look at club spending. It's still super interesting.
— Ben Wright (@benwright) May 16, 2023
Also worth noting that the bottom team just beat the top team twice in one week. pic.twitter.com/zUXZyJ4rJM
- Seattle has the 7th highest base salary in the league, ahead of Inter Miami and LAFC.
Ben’s math uses base salary, but as the MLS salary budget is based upon guaranteed income most of the stats in story use that information.
Loading comments...