Big Names Highlight Full List Of MLS Players Participating In Re-Entry Draft

There’s no question about it: The most intriguing name currently in the Re-Entry Draft pool is Juan Pablo Angel. Over four MLS seasons, he’s scored 58 goals in 102 regular season matches. That’s easily the best total over that stretch.

Even at 35, he’s coming off a season in which he scored 13 goals and had four assists. He could probably start for almost any team in MLS right now.

As has been pointed out numerous times, Wednesday’s first-ever MLS Re-Entry Draft includes lots of recognizable names. A team merely interested in grabbing some headlines in the local media, could probably do so rather easily during the draft.

The question, obviously, is how many of these big-name players are really worth their prices. Every player available is there for a reason, and that’s generally because their former teams didn’t feel like paying them what they were owed.

This is the first year of the Re-Entry Draft, so it’s hard to say how active teams are planning to be. An early reading of the tealeaves suggests this first stage, at least, might not be particularly interesting as teams are still trying to assess what they intend to do with whatever payroll freedom they have.

But even Olsen’s boss cautioned against expecting too much, pointing out most of the players in this draft pool are there because they were deemed too expensive by their former team.