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MLS Players' Salaries: New D.C. United player acquisitions are performing well for little money

The MLS Players Union released their updated list of salaries, which now includes Luis Silva, Conor Doyle, Jared Jeffrey, and Collin Martin.

By Ben Bromley
Paul Frederiksen-USA TODAY Sport

The MLS Players Union released their updated list of salaries for the league's players today, which is current through August 1. Each player has two numbers, their base salary and their guaranteed compensation. For those of you wondering what the difference is, I've posted the MLSPU's official language about it at the bottom of this post.

But the most interesting thing for D.C. United fans is the relatively cheap amount of money that D.C. United is paying for their new and young American talent. The first number is the base salary, the second is their guaranteed compensation.

  • Conor Doyle F $46,500.00; $46,500.00
  • Jared Jeffrey M $54,000.00; $60,200.00
  • Collin Martin M $35,125.00; $49,291.67
  • Luis Silva M $70,400.00; $105,400.00

Each of these players seems to be very good value at the price thus far, with the potential for any and all of them to be criminally underpaid should their upward track continue. The Silva contract is especially shocking, as D.C. United traded a bucket of balls for a very good player at an extremely attractive price. Obviously we don't know what the next year of these contracts will look like, but I am fairly certain that each of these players are under contract for at least 2014, save Conor Doyle. These players, combined with the likes of Chris Pontius ($361,000.00), Nick DeLeon ($105,400.00), Perry Kitchen ($190,450.00), and Bill Hamid ($89,750.00), are a young and (mostly) affordable core going into next season.

In the survey, all player salaries are broken down into two numbers.  The first is the player's current base salary.  The second is characterized as annual average guaranteed compensation.  The annual average guaranteed compensation number includes a player's base salary and all signing and guaranteed bonuses annualized over the term of the player's contract, including option years.  For example, if a player has a base salary of $50,000, has a two-year contract with two one-year options and received a $10,000 bonus when he signed, his average annual guaranteed compensation would be $52,500 (base salary plus signing bonus ($10,000), with the signing bonus divided by the number of years covered by the contract (4)). The average annual guaranteed compensation number also includes any annual marketing bonus to be received in the current year and any agent's fees annualized over the term of the contract. The average annual guaranteed compensation figure does not include performance bonuses because there is no guarantee that the player will hit those bonuses.

These figures include compensation from each player's contract with MLS.  They do not include any compensation from any contracts with individual teams or their affiliates.

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