Offseason Guides: Miami & Vancouver look like good bets to keep it going

Hot Stove season is officially in gear, as trades are starting to happen and free agent signings are starting to trickle in. Here’s my contribution for the Mothership:

• MLS Free Agency Tiers: Top players available for 2026
• MLS Cup 2026: Top 5 way-early contenders
• Eastern Conference: 5 teams to watch in the winter transfer market
• Western Conference: 5 teams to watch in the winter transfer market

And here, today, are the final two entries in our offseason guide series. Still not entirely sure what comes next here over the holiday break – honestly, maybe nothing? I’m pretty beat. But we’ll see.

Ok, last two. In we go:

Vancouver Whitecaps

2025 finish: 2nd in the West on 63 points,1 and 2nd in CCC, and 2nd in the MLS Cup playoffs. And first in the Canadian Championship, which they won for the fourth straight time!

Biggest question: Will they lose any crucial pieces?

This is kind of a silly question given how great they were at managing without crucial pieces over the entirety of 2025. Ryan Gauld, obviously, and Sam Adekugbe. Remember when Ranko Veselinovic was the front-runner for Defender of the Year, but then got hurt? Remember when Tristan Blackmon was the front-runner for Defender of the Year,2 then got hurt? Remember when Brian White was in the running for the Golden Boot and maybe even MVP, but then got hurt? Did you realize White played just 1672 league minutes?

The ‘Caps suffered through a long and distinguished list of absences this past year but put together an all-timer of a season, making three finals, winning one an coming within four points of the Supporters’ Shield. It’d be kind of nuts to assume that they wouldn’t be able to afford a departure or two.

But the guys who are on the “yeah, they could actually leave this winter” radar are Andres Cubas (real interest from the biggest South American clubs), Sebastian Berhalter (entering his final guaranteed season and possessed of real European ambitions) and Yohei Takaoka (out of contract), who just so happen to be three of the ironmen of last year’s squad.3

I think they’d figure out a way to survive it. Jesper Sørensen just authored the most impressive debut season of any coach in MLS history, and the club collectively has a sort of “yeah, we can develop an answer” mindset that I really admire. They’d probably be fine.

But I’d be a lot more comfortable predicting another outstanding season from them if the core pieces were back.

Top winter priority: Make some cash in the transfer market.

My brain is very clever and able to hold “they’ve got to keep the gang together” and “they’ve got to sell someone to start raking in the GAM” – seemingly contradictory thoughts – together at the same time.

The point here is that every MLS team is a develop-and-sell team, because virtually every player in the world has European ambitions. In this case Ahmed is the obvious choice, because 1) any sale would be almost entirely converted to GAM, which gives the front office plenty of room to do the sort of cap gymnastics that allow a team to stay elite year after year, and 2) between Gauld’s return and the mid-season acquisition of Kenji Cabrera, Ahmed’s replacements are already in town.

This is a little bit tough to say after Ahmed was so great in MLS Cup. Taking him off at the hour mark was maybe the one mistake Sørensen made this year.

But he’s had European dreams for a while, and the iron is hot. For his sake, and for the sake of keeping the larger part of roster together, now’s the time to strike.

EDIT: Ok, I wrote all of that blurb before Tom broke the news on Thursday that they traded Jayden Nelson, who was fifth on the winger depth chart, to Austin for $1.25m GAM and the 17th pick4 in the first round of the SuperDraft (which turned into UW midfielder Zach Ramsey).

That is great work, and… I don’t think it kills their incentive to sell Ahmed if the right offer comes in – if he really wants to go, I’d bet they’ll find a way to get a deal done – but it certainly makes it easier to keep him if they determine that to be a priority.

State of the roster: Deep and awesome because Sørensen did such a great job of developing the down-roster players. That includes young veterans like Berhalter, supplemental roster guys like Ahmed and Ralph Priso, draft picks like Tate Johnson, and academy guys like Jeevan Badwal and Rayan Elloumi.

That’s how you play 53 games over the course of 10 months and keep the level high basically the entire time.

• 2026 TAM players: Adekugbe, Blackmon, Laborda, Pupe, Sabbi, Schlonau, White
• 2026 U-22 players: Cabrera, Ocampo
• 2026 DPs: Cubas, Gauld, Müller

Where the XI stands now: I’m going by-the-numbers here – Ahmed is coming back, Gauld’s at full health, Takaoka’s out of contract and Thomas Müller is still pulling the strings in front of Cubas and Berhalter.

But we know that other than Müller, the rest of this is all a little bit questionable.

4-2-3-1

• GK: ???
• LB: Johnson
• CB: Priso
• CB: Blackmon
• RB: Ocampo
• DM: Cubas
• CM: Berhalter
• LW: Ahmed
• AM: Müller
• RW: Gauld
• FW: White

Things to know:

• They spent a lot of money mid-season on a pair of center backs in Joedrick Pupe and Sebastian Schonlau, neither of whom look like starters. So not everything was a hit (though this gives them flexibility to make some moves this winter, I guess. And it’s worth mentioning that Laborda is a hot trade/cashfer target).

• Ralph Priso was excellent at CB down the stretch and into the playoffs. If Cubas is sold, does he get a look at his natural d-mid spot?

• Right now Elloumi5 is the only back-up for White on the roster. That’s not enough, so I’d expect them to add a third-stringer either from the lower divisions or the SuperDraft.

Inter Miami

2025 finish: 3rd in the East, but just one point behind the Shield-winning Union. And also MLS Cup champions, and Leagues Cup finalists, and Club World Cup knockout round cannon fodder (complimentary).

Biggest question: How will they use their open premium roster slot(s)?

Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba got their storybook ending, walking off the pitch for the final time as 3-1 winners in MLS Cup (the one trophy both had dreamed of winning their entire lives, I am certain).

Miami, for their troubles, got two open DP slots. One of those is already filled: they exercised their purchase agreement for Rodrigo de Paul, which means he’s hitting the roster as a DP next year. My suspicion is they’ve also opened a ton of GAM budget as fellow legend Luis Suarez first became surplus to requirements6 in the playoffs – Javier Mascherano decided to play Leo Messi as a false 9 with young runners on either side of him – and now is about to re-sign to, essentially, become a super-sub. Suarez was on a max TAM slot last year, and I can’t imagine he’d command the same number in 2026.

So that’s some real flexibility. Then there’s Tomás Avilés, the U-22 center back who’s entering the final year of his deal and certainly looks like he could use a change of scenery. We’ve seen Miami’s ownership have zero problem eating a loss to move off of underperforming U-22s in the past, and I’d be kind of surprised if they didn’t do the same here.

Now, between de Paul and the addition of left back Sergio Reguilón (not a DP, but it’s a good bet he’s max TAM) they’re making the moves they need to in order to load up for another run. But I question whether they’re actually going to bring in another de Paul-style DP, or if they found religion on the “young runners” thing and are instead going to shift to the 2 DPs/4 U22s/$2m GAM model.

That would actually seem to make more sense to me.

Top winter priority: Figure out the d-mid balance.

de Paul is a hard-man No. 8 more than an orchestrating No. 6, so it’s not like he’s a like-for-like for Busquets. And while I love Yannick Bright, who’ll get another 2000 minutes across all competitions next year (almost all of those will be good ones) he’s no orchestrator, either.

If Leandro Paredes hadn’t just signed for Boca Juniors over the summer I’d say he was the perfect third DP for this team, roster-building advantages of the 2/4/2 model be damned. But he did, so he’s not. And the job, then, is to find a Paredes or a Busquets-type, but on a much different kind of budget.

The other top winter priority is to re-sign winger Tadeo Allende, who was up-and-down in the regular-season but then achieved transcendent brilliance in the playoffs. I think it’s a given that they’ll get him back, but until the ink is dry… you never know.

EDIT: As above, I actually wrote this a couple of days in advance, not expecting Miami to go full SuperClub shit in MLS itself and sign Dayne St. Clair via free agency.

I mean, he’s the reigning Goalkeeper of the Year in his prime. He’d be an upgrade for literally 29 teams, with the Herons being one of them.

They still need to figure out the d-mid balance, but man… this team’s loaded. I can already tell you I’ll be picking them to do the Shield/Cup double next year.

State of the roster: Undergoing some surgery but still in excellent shape. And because they’ve been good about selling players on,7 they’ve had a constant influx of new GAM. Which means they have the flexibility to get deals done.

• 2026 TAM players: Falcón, Luján (my guess is St. Clair’s here too, though that hasn’t been reported out yet)
• 2026 U-22 players: Avilés, Segovia, Silvetti
• 2026 DPs: De Paul, Messi

Where the XI stands now: Mostly intact but with the absences/needs I’ve already mentioned. That includes bringing back both goalkeeper Rocco Rios Novo (who’s now a back-up again) and midfielder Baltasar Rodriguez.

The extra GAM from the 2/4/2 roster build model would make that much easier, obviously. And I do expect Rodriguez – like Allende – to be back,8 but for the sake of this exercise, they’re currently not on the roster. So that means they’re currently not going to be listed below.

4-3-3

• GK: St. Clair
• LB: Reguilón
• CB: Allen
• CB: Falcón
• RB: Fray
• DM: ???
• CM: De Paul
• CM: ???
• LW: Silvetti
• FW: Messi
• RW: ???

Things to know:

• It looks like right back Facundo Mura is also on the way. You’ll be shocked to learn he’s Argentinean. But yeah, this was a need that’s now filled.
• Could they end Cremaschi’s loan early and give him a shot at real minutes? I’m guessing that’s not likely, but I wouldn’t entirely rule it out. He’d be a nice fit as one of the free 8s.
• Whether they keep Avilés or not they need to add depth at center back. Some size and physicality could be very useful.