The Major League Soccer Players Association (MLSPA) released its biannual list of salary data on Wednesday morning, giving fans, media members and players alike an eagerly-anticipated glimpse at the financial inner workings of every MLS roster. It’s the 13th year the MLSPA has released this information to the public, largely in order to provide more leverage to its players and the agents representing them during contract negotiations. Prior to that, contracts between the league and its players were kept confidential and even contained a clause that prohibited players from discussing their pay with each other.



The salary list also serves an entirely different, unintended purpose: a jumping off point for punditry. Fans and journalists cobble together compilations of which players offer the best bang for the buck and which are draining their teams dry. General managers, too, get put under the microscope as their off-or-mid-season spending gets truly scrutinized for the...