Exceeding replacement level

Entering a period of time without four former or current Designated Players, the Seattle Sounders seem to be able to shrug off their wave of injuries. Praised during preseason for their depth, after acquiring two former DPs from Dallas and re-signing João Paulo while bringing back Kim Kee-hee, it was the top end of the roster that seemed key to Seattle's ability to push for a trophy after a long-for-them, short-for-everyone-else two-year gap.

Instead, it is the freely available talent that's stepped up.

Danny Musovski's been on the club a year and a half now. After some time as a journeyman MLS player, it's easy to get that he was available to anyone and everyone from USL. He was good there, but not great (his second best goal-scoring season is this one). LAFC found him for free out in Reno.

There's plenty of this talent available. Some teams find it. Most do not.

The other thing I’ve pointed out before: with how guys like Osaze, Musovski, White, Ilovski, Tani and a few others have translated their lower tier productivity to MLS… if your front office is not scouting the hell out of Next PRO & USL, they’re not doing their jobs.
— Matthew Doyle (@mattdoyle.bsky.social) 2025-08-07T11:15:19.538Z

Doyle mentions two Sounders doing well right now. Osaze De Rosario is another example of freely available talent, the replacement level player, who is greatly exceeding expectations, proving Waibel & Co.'s ability to find depth in the lower divisions.

Replacement-level players aren't supposed to be key cogs on a team. Most are just dudes – draftees or Homegrown Players. They don't manage to do much.

Seattle's MLS history is filling up with freely available talent punching well above their expectations. They mine the lower division well, transfer them into Tukwila/Tacoma/Renton to grow in the culture, and then they become great.

Nouhou and Jordy Delem helped earn trophies. They were available to anyone in MLS. They chose Seattle as Seattle chose them.

Paul Rothrock and Jackson Ragen went from discarded by the org to key components. Bathed in the Sounders culture and driven by being overlooked, they are now the field-energizer and MLS Defender of the Year candidate you love. Every team passed on both multiple times. Dysfunctional Toronto and Chicago cast them aside, burning resources to eventually sign worse players for more money.

The list goes on with players who performed at replacement level, but required no magic MLS monies or other expenditures. Those players, like MLS Cup winner Justin Dhillon, put in the work at Defiance to prove their opportunity. Galaxy gave up on their prospect for nothing. Seattle gave him a chance.

Then Dhillon, like Delem, Nouhou, De Ro the Younger, Thomas and others before him took in the culture of the club.

It's a pattern, built by a group of coaches and talent evaluators who know that if they bring someone into the culture there's a good chance they'll adopt what it means to be a Sounder.

They're confident that when surrounded by the development system these players will become "one of us." It's easy to see why they have that confidence.

Thirteen of the 16 lowest paid players on the MLS roster came through the development system. One of those that didn't is returnee Kim, also one of us.

Then there's also the top end of the roster, firmly cemented in the culture – it includes a couple other products of the pipeline (Morris, Ragen), but it also includes players who spent nearly a decade here (Frei, the Roldans).

A team can only become a culture when those brought in from outside trust their opportunities and when those built through the system are given their chances.

That's happened in Seattle, where another org's replacement level player is this organization's savior.

Sometimes, it’s fun to compare Danny Musovski to other forwards…
— Jeremiah Oshan (@jeremiah.sounderatheart.com) 2025-08-09T15:20:53.332Z

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