After a frantic start to the offseason things have gotten pretty quiet in terms of moves for the Columbus Crew but training camp is approaching fast. Time pull the roster into focus in front of what will be a busy next 60 days for the franchise.

Here is the budget snapshot as of the start of the new year...

Line $ (in millions) Description Players A. 3.60 2013 YE Guaranteed Salary Total 30 B. 2.94 2013 YE MLS Budget (Cap) Number 20 C. 1.52 2013 Out 10 D. 0.40 2014 In (estimate) 5 E. 2.85 2014 Current Est Salary Total (w increases) 25 F. 2.09 2014 Crew Budget Number (estimated) 15 G. 3.10 2014 MLS Budget number 20 H. 1.01 2014 Current Crew Budget (Cap) Space 5

Lines A. and B. are where the franchise ended 2013. From a league perspective it is 13th out of 19 MLS teams, which was slightly lower than previous years (11th in 2010, 7th in 2011, 12th in 2012). Overall, the team ranks 11th in median team wages since 2010.





The Crew currently stand at 25 players (line E.) on the roster and have a healthy amount (Line H. $1.01 million) of money to spend. Even if they are carrying some of Chad Marshall's contract, the team still stands to have >$750k to spend on just 5 spots. That's the most open space I've seen the Crew have in January since 2010.

With the college draft coming up in a couple weeks it appears the team will run out of roster space before the run out of money leading some to believe a decent sized summer signing is imminent.

An important note about 2014 figures is that they all include estimated pay increases which are based on general observations since the last MLS CBA in 2010.

PLAYERS OUT

2013 Salary Name 361,250 Chad Marshall 263,333 Glauber Berti 230,000 Matias Sanchez 195,000 Eddie Gaven 175,000 Danny O'Rourke 93,887 Andy Gruenebaum 80,500 Aaron Horton 46,500 Konrad Warzycha 35,125 Kyle Hyland 35,125 Drew Beckie

A few notes here: Chad Marshall was traded to Seattle, Eddie Gaven has retired, Andy Gruennebaum traded to Sporting KC and Kyle Hyland was picked up by new NASL side Indy Eleven.

PLAYERS IN (estimates)

Salary (estimate) Name 120,000 Waylon Francis 96,600 Daniel Paladini 84,000 Steve Clark 52,000 Matt Wiet 46,000 Brad Stuver

It's possible that I've got Waylon and Clark are swapped. Leaving it be for now.

CURRENT 2014 ROSTER

2014 Salary (estimates) 2014 Name Estimated Change from 2013 375,000 Federico Higuaín* (DP Cap Hit) 274,534 Dominic Oduro* 125% 202,838 Jairo Arrieta* -10% 162,750 Tony Tchani* 5% 142,200 Agustin Viana* 8% 133,350 Wil Trapp* 5% 120,000 Waylon Francis* 0% 115,000 Josh Williams* 121% 96,600 Daniel Paladini* 5% 87,151 Justin Meram* 8% 84,700 Tyson Wahl* 5% 84,000 Steve Clark* 12% 79,920 Ryan Finley* 8% 67,284 Ethan Finlay* 8% 66,960 Ben Speas* 8% 52,080 Aaron Schoenfeld 12% 52,080 Bernardo Anor 12% 52,080 Chad Barson 12% 52,080 Eric Gehrig 12% 52,080 Kevan George 12% 52,080 Matt Lampson 12% 52,000 Matt Wiet 0% 46,000 Brad Stuver 0% 42,150 Daniel Withrow 20% 42,150 Shawn Sloan 20%

* Indicates "on budget (cap)" players. MLS doesn't make HGP roster rules clear. To my knowledge, Trapp only HGP to make enough to hit budget number, keeping him on budget for now.

NEXT MOVES, WHAT TO EXPECT

Outside of one "big" and two or possibly three MLS quality (game day 18 type) signings, do not expect a whole lot. What you see above is likely what the first bit of 2014 will look like.

As mentioned above, the needs outweigh available roster slots so expect the roster to shuffle most of the year depending on which transaction window is open (MLS has many).

Here is a quick list of needs:

1. Goal Scorer, Forward

2. Starting Center Back

3. Central Midfield (box to box, able to score)

4. Back line depth

5. Defensive Midfield

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Important Reminder: This is a layman's summary. I am a hamfisted operations guy, not an accountant (nor do I have any inside info, just using publicly available MLS Players Union data). But! I've been keeping tabs on MLS budgets for a few years now so I'm confident these is close enough. Thanks for reading, please leave any comments / questions below or email me ljbaby654@gmail.