The Portland Timbers will soon part ways with forward Lucas Melano and are close to permanently acquiring midfielder Tomas Conechny, sources told The Athletic on Thursday.



The sources didn’t elaborate on the exact manner in which Portland will remove Melano from their roster, but they confirmed that he’ll no longer count toward the team’s salary budget. According to the MLS Players Association, Melano, whose contract was set to expire at the end of the year, had a 2019 salary of $700,000. Shedding his contract will free up a decent amount of budget space for Portland, through salary coming off the books and in targeted allocation money (TAM) they no longer have to use to buy down his contract so he doesn’t count as a designated player.



The club will use some of that space to permanently acquire Conechny, who was initially signed on loan from Argentine club San Lorenzo last July. The 21-year-old former Argentine youth international has...