2015 MLS Salaries Released

With the new Collective Bargaining Agreement now ratified by the players, the MLS Players' Union has released the 2015 salaries for players. The annual to bi-annual event where fans argue over who is over paid, who is underpaid, who is a steal and marvel at the discrepancy in salaries from Kaka to the likes of Amadou Dia. Based off the base salaries, Sporting KC sits with the 10th highest salary in the league at $5,209,250. About a quarter of the price that the likes of Toronto and LA.

Here's Sporting's list of salaries. The first number is the base salary, the second is the guaranteed compensation.

Abdul-Salaam, Saad - D - $60,000.00 - $73,750.00
Anibaba, Jalil - D - $120,000.00 - $150,000.00
Anor, Bernardo - M - $135,000.00 - $135,000.00
Besler, Matt - D - $650,000.00 - $683,250.00
Carrasco, Servando - M - $80,750.00 - $85,375.00
de Jong, Marcel - D - $180,000.00 - $191,500.00
Dia, Amadou - D - $50,000.00 - $50,000.00
Dwyer, Dom - F - $400,000.00 - $518,750.00
Ellis, Kevin - D - $60,000.00 - $63,150.00
Espinoza, Roger - M - $750,000.00 - $750,000.00
Feilhaber, Benny - M - $350,000.00 - $362,187.50
Hallisey, Connor - M - $60,000.00 - $73,750.00
Kempin, Jonathan - GK - $85,000.00 - $92,083.33
Lopez, Mikey - M - $100,000.00 - $172,000.00
Medranda, Jimmy - M - $60,000.00 - $60,000.00
Melia, Tim - GK - $80,000.00 - $84,203.33
Mustivar, Soni - M - $250,000.00 - $250,000.00
Myers, Chance - D-M - $170,000.00 - $195,000.00
Nagamura, Paulo - M - $230,000.00 - $230,000.00
Nemeth, Krisztian - F - $250,000.00 - $250,000.00
Opara , Ike - D - $115,000.00 - $121,250.00
Palmer-Brown, Erik - D - $60,000.00 - $60,500.00
Peterson, Jacob - F - $123,500.00 - $130,375.00
Sinovic, Seth - M-D - $140,000.00 - $146,750.00
Zusi, Graham - F-M - $650,000.00 - $682,102.27


Some of the things that stand out.

Espinoza is the team's highest paid player with a base salary of $750,000. He's not a designated player though as the team is apparently paying down his salary with allocation funds. With the new Targeted Allocation Money, one could wonder if KC could look to use that to pay down Espinoza and use their current allocation money on other things.

Four players that started on the back line in KC's last game against Vancouver, three of them (Abdul-Salaam, Dia, and Ellis) make a combined $170,000 in base salary.

Mustivar and Nemeth are both making $250,000 per year. In the capped league that is MLS, that's probably fair for both the contribution of the players and the business the team did bringing them in.

Dwyer's new deal that he signed this offseason is a very good piece of business for him, he went from earning $80,000 according to last year's numbers, to $400,000 this year, a little under the designated player limit.

With their contributions this season you can easily argue that Ellis and Melia have been two of the best bargains in the league this year. Ellis making $60,000 has stepped up in the absence of Opara and really became a key contributor for the team. While Melia makes $80,000 and has become extremely important in KC's move up the league standings.

In terms of players that are overpaid, the biggest is probably Nagamura. While the Brazilian offers a lot when he's on the field, the problem is that he just hasn't been on the field that much recently. He's played just 398 minutes of a potential 1,530 KC has played in league play this year. At $230,000 that's not nearly enough of a contribution.

Similar comments can be made about Anor's $135,000 salary with only 188 minutes of contribution.

We unfortunately don't learn the salary Luis Marin was set to make with the club due to his mutual agreement to terminate his contract.