Evaluating How Orlando City May Fill Its Open Designated Player Spot

Sometimes in order to admit to yourself that something is true you have to say the words out loud, or in the case of a website contributor, you have to write the words out, and so therefore I must disappointedly say the following: Facundo Torres will not play for Orlando City in 2025.

Sigh.

I guess there is a chance, however slight, that he could transfer back from Palmeiras, but as a mathematician, I would not advise anyone to place any bets on seeing Torres playing for the Lions this season. I would also advise you not to place any bets in general and to remember the quote from the legend Danny Ocean that “the house always wins, you play long enough and you never change the stakes and the house takes you.”

You did not come here for gambling advice, so we will dispense with that part of the quote, but I want to go a little deeper on the concept of changing the stakes. During the last three seasons, Orlando City has steadily improved from losing in the conference quarterfinals to losing in the conference semifinals to losing in the conference final. The Lions played in the Concacaf Champions Cup in 2023 and 2024 and won the U.S. Open Cup in 2022. As I wrote last week, Orlando is now one of leading soccer cities in the country, and that is because of the accomplishments of both Orlando City and the Orlando Pride.

Orlando City Head Coach Óscar Pareja has led the Lions to the playoffs in each of the past five seasons, and in doing so has raised the expectations for the club higher, as while the Lions are not considered one of the league’s glamor teams by MLS leadership, the performance on the field says that they should be. Their 71 MLS regular-season wins during this decade ranks second only to LAFC’s 75.

This brings us back to Torres and the decision that Orlando City’s leadership will need to make about how to replace him. His departure opens up a Designated Player spot, allowing the Lions free rein to bring in anyone they want, since there are no restrictions on salary. The question that I am sure that the front office is grappling with, however, is whether to use that spot on the 2025 version of Torres, a young rising star who they hope to sell in a few years for a profit, or go with an established player who is ready to come in now but may not be someone that the club can profit off of in the future.

The history of Orlando City and Designated Players is more the latter than the former, despite the club-record sale of Torres a few weeks ago. The club has had 15 Designated Players and 33 seasons from those players during its 10 seasons in MLS, and using the age of every player as of Feb. 1 during the year they were a Designated Player, this is how Orlando City has deployed that designation:

Slightly more than 60% of those player-seasons have been played by players 27 years of age or older, headlined by Kaká, Mauricio Pereyra, and Nani, but at the same time, more than 25% of the seasons were by players in the “we project them to be a young rising star” age group of 19-23. Torres clearly showed that he was, but the other young Designated Players — Bryan Róchez, Carlos Rivas, and Josué Colmán — did not produce on the field or generate a major financial return when they departed the club. Rivas, at least, is enduring, as every time a shot is skied high over the net at home games, you can always count on hearing someone in the crowd shout out his name.

During the last three seasons, the club has skewed younger with regard to Designated Players, with the average ages being 26 in 2022 [Pereyra (31), Ercan Kara (26), Torres (21)]; 24 in 2023 [Kara (27), Martin Ojeda (24), Torres (22)]; and 27 in 2024 [Luis Muriel (32), Ojeda (25), Torres (23)]. Torres’ departure means that remaining Designated Players Muriel (33) and Ojeda (26) will average out at 29.5 years old, with Muriel’s window to generate a future transfer fee of any significance nearly shut and Ojeda’s closing, unless he makes a leap in 2025. Both players contributed to the club’s success on the field in 2024, but the front office is always trying to balance the business and the team’s performance, and with this third open Designated Player spot those in charge of personnel will show their hand on where they believe they need to focus.

The hard part for the front office is that, as of today, the team is bringing back every key player except for Torres from a team that has used a pretty consistent set of players for the past two seasons. This group is very familiar with Pareja’s style of play and expectations, and nine of the returning players played more than 3,600 (out of a possible 6,120) MLS regular-season minutes during the last two seasons.

This team is built to win now, and while the Lions have the personnel to replace Torres with existing players (move Ojeda to right wing while starting Nico Lodeiro or Muriel in the middle, starting Lodeiro or Muriel on the wing, start Duncan McGuire at striker and move Ramiro Enrique to the wing, etc.), with an open Designated Player spot and Torres’ transfer fee money sitting in an Inter&Co digital vault, I think the team should be looking for someone to come in directly into the starting 11 and aggressively make a play to win the title in 2025, joining the battle-hardened group of returning players, many of whom are in their prime right now.

There are rumors that a signing is imminent for a left-footed winger who likes to play on the right side of the field, but it would be using an MLS U22 Initiative spot and not a Designated Player spot. Rumo(u)rs are second-hand news and may end up only being dreams (some of you will see the chain connecting what I did there, others will tell me to go my own way…away), but those currently reporting on Orlando City’s negotiations for this winger, Fabrizio Romano and Tom Bogert, are well sourced, increasing the likelihood that the club is closing in on bringing in a player who is similar to the 2022 version of Torres — young, skilled, and someone who could bring the club a profit in the future.

This does not preclude the team from looking for a Designated Player who is also a wing player on the right side of the field, but it changes the calculus (and as all of you certainly remember from math class, calculus is all about change) for what the team may want to do with its third Designated Player spot, probably making a little more likely that that spot would be used on a more established (read: older) player — reports have already indicated a bid was made to Liga MX side Club America, which was rejected, for 26-year-old winger Alex Zendejas.

Orlando City, like most MLS clubs, has rarely used a Designated Player spot on a defender. Yoshimar Yotún is the closest case, but while he played left back for Peru and other clubs, for Orlando City he played primarily in the midfield. The team could look for an upgrade on the left wing, which could also involve moving Angulo to the right wing or dropping him into a competition for a right- or left-back spot, as a player with a similar profile to former right back Ruan. McGuire will be out for a few months to start the season, and so the club could bring in an elite striker to complement Enrique to fill the 90 minutes up top. OCSC could also go find a central attacking midfield Designated Player and move Ojeda back out to the wing.

Or…City could do none of these and take an existing player who makes more than the Designated Player amount ($683,750) and turn him into a Designated Player, saving salary cap money. It is not as exciting to do something like this, but one of the benefits of being a good team with youth and depth is that there are already players ready to take on some of the minutes made available by Torres’ departure. It is not always beneficial to add players just because you can, as players want to play and team chemistry can be just as important as the total top end talent on a roster.

Decisions like these in a league with a salary cap can make or break a team, especially a team with so many players returning from a successful season the year prior. Should the Lions acquire one player to slot right into Torres’ spot, and leave everyone else as is? Do they actually need a big shake-up and change at multiple positions, as while they were successful, they struggled to score late in the season, and came up short on the ultimate goal? I am excited by all of the possibilities, look forward to seeing the moves the team makes, and am thinking about how the Lions will line up in the season opener on Feb. 22.

Vamos Orlando!