D.C. United addressed their depth in goal today with a trade, first sending a 2020 2nd round pick to the New England Revolution to acquire the 33rd overall pick in the 2019 MLS SuperDraft as well as two late-round 2020 draft picks. Then, United sent the #33 pick to the Houston Dynamo for veteran goalkeeper Chris Seitz. Effectively, United turned their 2020 second round pick into Seitz, a third round pick next year, and a fourth round pick next year.
Steve Goff of the Washington Post broke the news of the trade on Twitter, noting that the Dynamo will carry “about half” of Seitz’s salary. Per MLS Players Union figures, Seitz made $155,004 in 2018.
Seitz, 31, won a national championship with the University of Maryland before later being selected by Real Salt Lake in the 2007 draft. In 12 professional seasons, he’s amassed 103 appearances while often finding himself in a battle for the starting job despite playing for several clubs. Seitz had spent most of his career with FC Dallas, but also has three seasons with RSL, a year with the Philadelphia Union, and one season with the Dynamo on his resume.
With United, Seitz provides a far more experienced back-up option for Bill Hamid than the Black-and-Red previously had. A recent trade for Earl Edwards Jr. gave them an option after they let Travis Worra’s deal run out and made clear their preference to move on from pricey Danish veteran David Ousted. Given Hamid’s past injury history and the fact that he is still only on loan from FC Midtjylland, adding Seitz may be both a move for a gameday back-up and an insurance policy in case Hamid is unavailable one way or another.
In his career, Seitz has posted 19 shutouts, and also has a reputation as a very talented penalty kick stopper (saving over 36% of the penalties he’s faced in MLS regular season play). He is also well known for stopping his 2012 season early after turning up as a bone marrow match and opting to undergo surgery to donate his marrow to a stranger so they could survive acute myeloid leukemia.