The worst trades in Metro history
May 1, 2025
With Brian White terrorizing MLS offenses, we have to ask, was giving him away for a pittance of allocation money the worst trade in Metro history? For that, we decided to go back and time, find all bad* trades and rank them on a scale: Bad, Awful, Disastrous, or Apocalyptic. So, remembering that trades were much more common in early MLS, let's get to it! (*We will forego the merely bad trades, which are, sadly, too many to mention...)
Matthew Olson, 1st round (1st overall) supplemental pick (Nicola Caricola), 2nd round supplemental pick (Juninho), 3rd round supplemental pick (Tulio), 2nd round college pick (Scott Lamphear) from DC United for a 1st round (2nd overall) college pick (Eddie Pope) and 1st round supplemental pick (Mario Gori), 1996
This was not the first trade in Metro history (that would be Troy Dayak for Rhett Harty and a draft pick), but this is the one to set the wheels in motion for DC's early dominance and Metro's early ineptitude. A ridiculous barrage of trades on the day of the original supplemental and college drafts saw Metro stockpile six supplemental picks, with two of them being used on useless Brazilians with famous names. They never played a minute in MLS; neither did Lamphear and Olson. Caricola's story is well known, and the necessity of grabbing the first overall pick to take an over-the-hill player who would not have played for any other MLS team is questionable at best. However, the big travesty of the day was dealing the second overall college pick, who ended up being Eddie Pope to DC. We're not off to a good start. Apocalyptic.
Peter Vermes to Colorado for Kerry Zavagnin, 1997
Yes, Zavagnin had remade himself into a solid player, but this is after two horrible years with the Metros and one in what was then the A-League. The trade baffled even when it was made; the lameness of Zavagnin in his Metro stint might have been hard to predict, but the trading of a captain for an unknown player (who was just picked in the third round of the supplemental draft) reeked from the onset. Vermes, converted to a defender, peaked after being traded away, and had a great MLS career. In 2000, he was named league Defender of the Year, and together with Zavagnin, helped Kansas City to MLS Cup. Awful.
Giovanni Savarese to New England for Raul Diaz Arce; Diaz Arce and Marcelo Vega to San Jose for allocation and future considerations, 1999
This trade kicked off the downward spiral to the worst season in MLS history. Two trades happened within a few days, and while the merits of the Tony Meola and Alexi Lalas for Mike Ammann and Mark Chung deal could be debated, those for shipping out Savarese could not. The trade is still inexplicable (as is Bora Milutnovic's hate for Gio). Savarese, then Metro all-time leading scorer, was sent to the Revs for the hated Diaz Arce, who was then packaged with Vega (at least something good came out of this) to San Jose for... nothing, for future considerations, which became Eric Wynalda in mid-season, who never played for Metro (see below). Disastrous.
Roy Myers to Los Angeles for Welton; Eric Wynalda from San Jose for future considerations; Arley Palacios, Welton, Wynalda to Miami for allocation (Lothar Matthaus), 1999
In 1999, Charlie Stillitano wanted Lothar. He had to have Lothar. Lothar was going to save the Metro season. Lothar was ready to come to New York. So Charlie needed a big... not just a big, a giant allocation. So on a crazy day, he sent Myers to LA for Welton, received Wynalda from San Jose as owned future considerations, and then packaged the two, together with Palacios, to Miami for the uber-allocation, which was used on Lothar... but not until 2000, after The Great German decided to stay in the Bundesliga for another year. This trade effectively doomed the Metros to the worst season in MLS history. Awful.
Mark Chung to Colorado with 2nd and 3rd round picks for a 1st round allocation pick (Diego Serna), 2002
No, Chung did not set the world on fire during his tenure with the Metros, and with Serna doing so during his stint with Miami, this trade looked fine at the time... Except, of course, Serna played just eight games for Metro, while Chung had two eleven-goal Best XI seasons for Colorado. And by drafting Serna, the Metros passed on Steve Ralston. Awful.
Daniel Hernandez, Brian Kamler, and Diego Serna to New England for Mamadou Diallo, Andy Williams, and Ted Chronopoulos, 2002
The blockbuster trade looked good early on as still-hated Diallo and Williams combined to lead a Metro rise in the standings. But it soon fizzled, as the Metro acquisitions slumped and the Rev ones excelled (except for Serna, who got injured soon after the trade). Kamler and Hernandez helped lead New England to the MLS Cup appearance that year, and both had solid careers. The only place Diallo, Williams, and Chronopoulos helped lead the Metros was out of the playoffs, and all three were gone soon after the season. Awful.
Eddie Gaven and Chris Leitch to Columbus for Edson Buddle, 2006
We hated giving up on Gaven then, and we hate it even more now. A year removed from an MLS Best XI season, still only 19 but already a seasoned veteran, Gaven was deemed expendable and was dumped with Leitch to the Crew for supposed goalscorer Buddle. The latter had a horrid season, scoring just six goals and not even making the bench down the stretch. He was gone after the year, traded for a player Mo Johnston previously released, Tim Regan. Meanwhile, Gaven helped Columbus beat Metro in the 2008 MLS Cup. Awful.
Ante Razov to Chivas USA for Thiago Martins and a partial allocation, 2006
Johnston and Alexi Lalas had no faith in Ante Razov and shipped him to Bob Bradley's Chivas, where he promptly finished second in the league in scoring. In return, Metro got Thiago Martins, who played a total of 11 minutes for the team. This would be worse if Martins wasn't quickly shipped out for Jean-Philippe Peguero, who was quickly sold for a profit. Awful.
Marvell Wynne to Toronto for a 2nd round pick and a partial allocation, 2007
Bruce Arena might have preferred Hunter Freeman to Wynne, but what Metro received was way too little for the top overall pick from a year ago. Wynne blossomed in Toronto, won MLS Cup with Colorado, and became a solid MLS defender for a decade. The 2nd round pick was used on Erik Brunner, who Juan Carlos Osorio deemed to be not worthy of his squad -- twice. Awful.
Dave van den Bergh to Dallas for Dominic Oduro, a 2nd round pick, and a swap of 1st round picks, 2009
Van den Bergh was the most consistent player on a team that went to MLS Cup (and is still the best crosser in team history.) Somehow, the genius that is Osorio decided to dump the Walking Dutchman... for Dominic Oduro, who lasted all of five games in a New York uniform. The swap of 1st round picks did produce Jeremy Hall -- not enough to offset the idiocy of the deal, as the 2nd rounder was used on Babajide Ogunbiyi, who never played a minute. Without VDB, Metro slumped to a season that will forever rival 1999 in the pits of despair. Disastrous.
Mike Magee to Los Angeles for a 2nd round pick, 2009
One day later, Jeff Agoos traded the future MVP for a second-rounder... When Toronto was offering a first. Metro didn't even make the pick, packaging it for Chris Albright. Awful.
Joel Lindpere to Chicago for an international roster spot, 2013
Dumping a club icon, the most consistent player of the past three years, for... what? Lindpere-less Metro did win the 2013 Shield, but this is still stupid. Awful.
Lloyd Sam to DC United for an allocation, 2016
We don't know how much that allocation was, since MLS didn't publish the numbers at the time, but this was one of the few missteps during the Jesse Marsch reign. Sam was a key member of the 2013 and 2015 Shield-winning teams, one of the most dynamic players in team history. Even though he slumped in 2016, to ship him to a rival for... what? Awful.
Dax McCarty to Chicago for 400K, 2016
"But but but," you will say, "Trading Dax opened the spot for Tyler Adams!" Sigh. It sure did, but was there not a world where McCarty and Adams co-existed, especially with Adams spending a lot of 2017 at right back? Dax played eight more years in MLS, the first seven as a starter. Wouldn't having that stability be preferable to the ever-changing defensive midfield after Adams departed? That 400K (MLS finally started to reveal allocation numbers) proved to be a pittance (see below). Disastrous.
Sacha Kljestan and 150K for Carlos Rivas and Tommy Redding, 2018
The next season, the RBNY brass made a point: they needed more that just allocation money for a star player. So they paid allocation money to send two-time MLS assist king Kljestan away! Now, somehow it worked out: Alejandro Romero Gamarra was signed to replace Sacha, and Metro romped to the 2018 Shield. But Rivas and Redding were beyond awful; the former was out of shape and was shipped out after 10 games. The latter, supposedly a promising defender, played just 90 minutes and retired at 21 to play video games. We are not making this up. Awful.
Alex Muyl to Nashville for an international roster spot, 2020
Muyl might have had his detractors, but he was a relentless, versatile, homegrown, then-cheap option that was given away by Kevin Thelwell for... what? Now in his sixth year in Nashville, he continues to start. What makes it worse is the spot was acquired in midseason, when its value is at an all-time bottom... and Metro used it on Samuel Tetteh, one of the worst players in team history. Oh sure, Metro also got 50K if Muyl met "certain performance-based metrics"! Awful.
Brian White to Vancouver for 400K, 2021
And here we go. For a brief moment, this almost made sense: Thelwell acquired Fabio and Patryk Klimala, while Gerhard Struber was not exactly a fan of White. There was no room for all three! (Did someone say, "Tom Barlow"?) But this proved to be stupid almost immediately, as Fabio and Klimala proved their ineptitude, and White immediately took off in Vancouver. It's been five years, Klimala and Fabio are long gone, and Metro is still looking for someone who can score consistently in MLS. Meanwhile, White had back-to-back 15-goal seasons, has six this year, and led Vancouver to the CONCACAF final. This just gets worse week after week. Oh! Metro would also get 100K if metrics were met. We're pretty sure they were. Apocalyptic.
575K to Toronto and 100K to Cincinnati for the top allocation slot (Caden Clark), 2022
Oh, what a way to close out the Thelwell era with this Red Bull-driven idiocy. It was obvious to everyone that Clark wasn't ready for the Bundesliga, whose return on loan sort of made sense. Sort of, because Metro no longer had his MLS rights, since he left on a transfer fee. He had to go to the allocation pool, where Metro was ranked low. So they gave a crapload to Toronto to move to #2 and a bit to Cincinnati to move to #1 for A ONE-YEAR LOAN OF A PLAYER WHO WAS ON THE TEAM A YEAR AGO. We can't repeat how stupid that is. Oh, and Cincinnati used their now-top spot on Matt Miazga. What makes it even worse? In 2024, Clark came back to MLS on what was reported a minimal fee. Thanks, Thelwell! Disastrous.
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