Chivas USA waive goalkeeper Tim Melia

Chivas USA made yet another roster move on Thursday, and this one was pretty puzzling. The team announced they waived goalkeeper Tim Melia, who was, believe it or not, one of the team's longest tenured players. Though he primarily served as backup to Dan Kennedy, he did see competitive game action for the Goats in each of the last three seasons, playing a total of nine games for Chivas USA in that span (three of those came in the 2012 U.S. Open Cup). To add insult to injury, his last game action for the Goats ended when he picked up a red card against the Houston Dynamo.

Here's what's puzzling about the move: Why waive a stable backup 'keeper midway through the season? It wouldn't normally make sense to move a backup GK on at all during a season, unless there was something going on behind the scenes. Perhaps that's the case, but it seems unlikely unless he's suddenly retiring or something. And if that was the case, one would think the team would have phrased it as such.

Unless they intend to sign a Homegrown GK, this move makes very little sense, from the outside anyway. Melia was on $70,000 base salary ($75,000 guaranteed compensation), which is relatively pricy for a backup GK, but the club signed him to a contract extension last season that put him on that salary. I know it's a new regime in charge, but if this is simply a cost-cutting move, and they're going to test their luck in only keeping two goalkeepers on the roster the rest of the way (Kennedy and rookie Trevor Spangenberg), well, that's really cold.

The move puts Chivas USA's active roster at 25 at the moment. Will they be adding players? Will any more surprises take place in the coming weeks? We'll find out soon.

And best of luck to Tim moving forward.

What do you think? Leave a comment below!