SAN JOSE -- Earthquakes coach Dominic Kinnear sounded buoyant Tuesday as training camp for the 2016 Major League Soccer season got under way on the day the team announced a lucrative jersey sponsorship deal.

Then came a less-than-rosy roster assessment to cloud a beautiful Bay Area winter's day.

Midfielder Fatai Alashe: Out for at least a month after hernia surgery.

Forward Innocent: Not ready after suffering a setback recently from knee surgery in May.

Goalkeeper David Bingham: Training with the U.S. national team.

New signees Simon Dawkins and Andres Imperiale still are waiting to arrive because of the necessary paperwork. Midfielder Marc Pelosi made his first appearance Tuesday but isn't quite ready because of a minor injury, and defender Jordan Stewart also is a ways off while recovering from a torn Achilles tendon.

"We're only deep in theory," Kinnear said. "That tests you right away."

San Jose will need good fortune when it comes to health to end a three-year playoff drought. But they have time until the March 6 opener against the Colorado Rapids at Avaya Stadium.

The team opens its preseason schedule Wednesday at Avaya against the under-18 academy team in a game available only to season-ticket holders.

The Earthquakes play the first of five preseason games Feb. 3 in Tucson, Arizona, against the New England Revolution.

Kinnear doesn't plan to add any trialists despite the low numbers, which include 20 field players. The coach added the Quakes aren't close to signing any more players, but they also haven't stopped looking for help.


The team announced a three-year agreement with Sutter Health in a jersey sponsorship deal president Dave Kaval said was among the top five in the league. He declined to say how much the deal is worth.

Newcomer Chad Barrett, 30, has become a super sub in his well-traveled MLS career. The forward had more goals off the bench last year for Seattle Sounders FC than all of the Quakes reserves. But the former UCLA star came to San Jose to start. "I don't want any team to be thinking I'm on the bench," Barrett said. "I think I am a starter, I always thought I was a starter. If you think that you're coming in here to play a role, then you probably don't deserve to be here." The Earthquakes represent Barrett's sixth MLS stop, something he wished he could have avoided. He told the Sounders coaching staff as much. "I didn't think I deserved to be let go by Seattle," Barrett said "But they had a direction they wanted to go and I wasn't a part of that plan. I can accept that. Do I agree with it? Of course not." Barrett hopes the latest chapter in his well-worn book involves helping San Jose become playoff contenders with an attitude "that it doesn't matter if you give me 15 minutes, two minutes or 90 minutes, I'm going to score a goal. "That can be an infectious disease." Perhaps that explains why the Quakes recruited Sutter Health as a new sponsor.