The MLS Players Association has released its salary information for 2026, and as usual, it contains some interesting — if not entirely surprising — news for the Seattle Sounders.
As a team, the Sounders are spending $19,092,219, which is a 4.63% increase from the last salary release. As a league, spending increased by about 7.74%. The Sounders’ team spending ranks 18th in the 30-team league, four spots lower than they were at the end of last year and 11 spots lower than they were as recently as 2023.
The biggest news surrounds the players who signed new contracts. While most of these were very much in line with Sounder at Heart's earlier projections (we were off by about $165,000 in total), there were a few outliers.
- Nouhou received a raise of about 46%, going from a guaranteed compensation of $571,875 to $800,000. He had been going into a contract year and signed a three-year extension a few months ago.
- Osaze De Rosario got a raise of nearly 300% when he signed his new contract, which is due mostly to the supplemental deal he had previously been on. He now makes $315,000 in guaranteed compensation.
Other Sounders who signed new deals had contracts much more in line with our projections. Paul Rothrock got a massive raise – he now makes $525,000 in guaranteed compensation, a 400% increase; and Danny Muosvski got bumped to $712,924 after his breakout season, a more modest 22% raise.
The only player to take a pay cut was Stefan Frei, which was largely as expected. He now makes $390,750, which is a 35% reduction from last year and about half of what he was making at his peak in 2023.
Among new signings, Hassani Dotson is the highest earner at $828,125, which was the maximum amount he was allowed to make as a free agent.
