With Minnesota United FC possibly starting Major League Soccer play in 2017, the Loons have placed Manny Lagos in charge of the front office and named Carl Craig head coach.

Those leadership changes are two of many moves the professional soccer club has made as it ramps up its transition to the top domestic league.

If MLS picks United to join in 2017, the club is vetting Target Field and TCF Bank Stadium as possible venues to play its first season in the league; United’s St. Paul stadium is scheduled to be completed for the 2018 season. An MLS decision on United’s start date is expected within weeks.

“We were constantly thinking about the organization and what it should look like,” said United President Nick Rogers, who has been with the club for three years. “It’s been a very rapidly evolving competitive landscape of professional soccer in North America.”

Lagos’ first move as full-time sporting director was signing forward Stefano Pinho from the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, a fellow North American Soccer League team, according to a source. Pinho won the NASL’s Golden Boot for most goals scored (16) during the 2015 season.

With Minnesota since 2010, Lagos had been both head coach and sporting director, the equivalent to general managers in other sports.

In the past two seasons combined, Minnesota United has a record of 30 wins, 18 draws and nine losses. The team advanced to the NASL semifinals each season.

Craig will become head coach for the 2016 season. He has been an assistant to Lagos since 2010, including associate head coach in recent seasons.

“He really provided me with a lot of hard work, and loyalty, technical and tactical ability to help us be competitive on the field,” Lagos said.

United believes this separation of head coach and front-office duties is important for the franchise to compete in its transition from the second-tier NASL to MLS.

Lagos declined to say how many current players would be able to make the transition to MLS, adding that they have a “unique core of players.”

United also will be adding scouts.

“The game is too big and being played by too many people in too many countries” not to, Rogers said.

Craig is from Newcastle upon Tyne, England, and moved to the U.S. in 1994. He has an “A” license from the UEFA, the governing body of European soccer.

“It’s not unproven,” Rogers said of Craig’s coaching chops. “He has been an important part of the on-field success already.”

The rest of Craig’s coaching staff will be determined in the next few weeks.

Craig and Lagos together have navigated the lean years of the club, mainly in 2012 when they didn’t know if the Stars, as the club was known then, would fold under NASL ownership.

Former UnitedHealth Group executive Bill McGuire bought the team after the 2012 season and rebranded it United in 2013. United was awarded an MLS expansion franchise in March 2015.

If United were to play at Target Field, the team’s schedule would overlap with that of the Minnesota Twins, but the Pohlad family is a part-owner in United. Most soccer purists believe the game should be played on natural grass.

United played a game at TCF Bank Stadium as part of the International Champions Cup in August 2014, but the grass turf that was placed over the artificial turf was widely criticized.

“That’s what we need to get on the same page with Major League Soccer about,” Rogers said. “We need to have a plan for 2017 that we are comfortable with and that they are comfortable with.”

Some people believed United’s start date could have been announced as soon as Saturday in conjunction with the MLS Cup.

“We have not yet determined a start date for Minnesota,” MLS Commissioner Don Garber said Tuesday on SI.com.

United’s stadium in St. Paul’s Hamline-Midway neighborhood will have natural grass and is expected to be ready in early 2018, Rogers said. The stadium will be about two miles from where Lagos grew up.

“It’s surreal,” Lagos said. “I’m humbled and exciting to evolve in the club.”

Follow Andy Greder at twitter.com/andygreder.