Chivas USA Send Four Players to Re-Entry Draft

MLS recently released the list of players eligible for the Re-Entry Draft, which will begin on Friday. Four Chivas USA players, Juan Pablo Angel, Danny Califf, Alejandro Moreno, and Peter Vagenas, are on the list. According to the list, Angel and Vagenas are out of contract, while the contract options for Califf and Moreno were declined.

What does this mean? It means that all four players could be gone from Chivas USA, but not necessarily. Last season, Ante Jazic was included in that year's list before coming to contract terms with the club ahead of the Re-Entry draft. Basically, this gives clubs several days to attempt to renegotiate with players (if they want to) for a lower contract. It is entirely possible that any of these four players could be in that situation.

If a club does not remove a player's name from the group prior to the start of the Re-Entry draft, then there is a two-stage draft, where MLS clubs have the option of selecting eligible players. The first option of the draft, on Friday, is one in which if a player is selected, the club is on the hook for the player's most recent salary figures and bonuses. All of Chivas' players, except Vagenas, were paid well in excess of $100,000 in 2012, and so teams may not automatically select them. That's because in the second phase of the draft, which takes place a week from Friday, teams have more flexibility to negotiate contract terms with players.

An important factor to keep in mind: all of the eligible players in the Re-Entry draft are either out of contract or have an unfulfilled contract option. As a result, players selected are not automatically members of the team that selects them. If no team selects those players in the Re-Entry draft, those players become free agents.

It is perhaps surprising to see these four names on the list, but they all have something in common: they are well into their 30s. Again, Chivas may seek to bring some (or even all) of these players back, or they may be cutting ties permanently with them. Chivas will also be releasing more players who won't be eligible for the Re-Entry draft. In all of these matters, we'll update the news when we learn it.

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