The offseason starts in earnest for Minnesota United, who are still without a new chief soccer officer, and will be as they head into player decision season. Interim CSO – and potential long-term option – Hank Stebbins will remain a steady hand at the wheel, so Minnesota’s intentional investment in continuity following Adrian “l’état c’est moi” Heath’s tenure is paying dividends. 

Also working in their favor is the fact that their best players aren’t up for new contracts. That doesn’t make all of these decisions easy, but at least Stebbins isn’t weighing what to do with mission-critical players like Joaquin Pereyra or Nectarios Triantis in addition to veteran leaders like Wil Trapp and Michael Boxall. 

In total, the Loons have decisions to make about 15 players, though half of them are option decisions rather than new deals. We’ll deal with the latter group in part deux. 

Will Require a New Deal:

Michael Boxall

Thanks to the miracle of alphabetical listing, the first player up for a new deal is probably the hardest decision in this set. It’s hard to imagine the Loons without their 38-year-old captain, who not only has more games played than anyone in team history, he has a nearly 100 game lead over Wil Trapp in second place. But Boxy himself will tell you that he wasn’t able to contribute the way he wanted to this season. He missed 12 games before the world cup with an adductor injury, which continued to bother him even after the break was over and caused him to play just 19 minutes over the team’s last five games. 

From a culture and continuity standpoint, it seems obvious Minnesota should bring Boxall back. At the same time, this is Morris Duggan’s team now and the presence of Boxall and Trapp limits his ability to fully assume that role, so perhaps it’s less obvious than it may seem. 

Boxall has said he wants to keep playing, and as long as he’s willing to take a sizable reduction in both salary and playing time, I think the Loons should keep him. Given all of the turmoil surrounding the team, I think it’s more beneficial to have some consistency in leadership than it is to clear the way for Duggan. Zarek Valetin showed how to make the transition from player to coach-but-in-a-uniform; I think Boxall can follow suit. 

Verdict: Find a respectful, but much lower, contract value and run it back

Drake Callender

When Dayne St. Claire made the decision to leave Minnesota, I thought the team’s reaction of almost immediately signing Callender was a smart one. He was going to be fine, maybe not much more than that, but the floor for goalkeepers is very low and he was going to be better than that. 

What Minnesota got in Callender was a top-10 keeper, a high-character guy, and a genuine asset to the team. It was a great signing. Does that mean they should bring him back for a longer stint in 2027 and beyond? After a year like he had, someone will very likely give him a multiple-year deal.

Kayne Rizvanovich is absolutely the Loons’ keeper of the future, but his development was slowed a bit this year and he isn’t ready for the full-time role next season. 2026 Superdraft pick Michal Mroz had a strong season for Indiana, but we saw what happens when the team bets on a college player making the jump to MLS when Wessel Speel struggled to replace St. Clair. Speaking of the lanky Dutchman, Speel is playing well on loan for Almere City in the Dutch second division, but his stint in Ireland — a league of lesser quality than MLS — was poor. Suffice to say, Callender’s replacement is not obviously on the roster currently.

The complication in either signing Callender to a 2-3 year deal or going out to get someone Goalkeepers are highly variable players season-to-season. St. Clair was a star player last year for Minnesota, but the year before and after wasn’t anywhere close to that level. By goals prevented, Sean Johnson was the best keeper in MLS last year; this year, he was slightly below average. 

There’s no guarantee that Callender performs as well as he did this year ever again, but spinning the Wheel Of Keepers is no guarantee either. Just as San Jose, who brought over Scottish World Cup starter Angus Gunn on a free and might have overpaid.

Verdict: Bring him back. Two years guaranteed, one year team option at a rate a bit above league average for keepers and both sides can happily start planning for the future. 

Julian Gressel

I was really excited when Gressel arrived last season and it just never clicked. I have no animus toward him, sometimes these things just don’t work out. 

Ed. note: Since writing, Gressel has posted that he is leaving Minnesota. Not a surprise, and I wish him the best on what’s next.

Verdict: Let him go.

AZ Jackson (Buy option on his loan)

Minnesota has an option on Jackson, but I put him in this group because even if the Loons do pick up his option, they’ll still need to negotiate a new contract with him. 

The argument for bringing Jackson back is clear to me: He’s still just 25 and he brings a willingness to impose himself on the game that most of his teammates don’t have. He will unsettle a defense, add some chaos into the game, and yet has clearly matured substantially since he left Minnesota the first time. He is, in short, a wild magic sorcerer and that’s both fun and situationally valuable.

The case against bringing him back is equally clear: He’s not that good. As much as I love the injection of chaos, I struggle to see him starting 15+ games in a season and that being a good thing for the Loons. Bringing him back indicates a substantial bet that he will not only continue to improve but also that his rate of improvement will increase and I didn’t see enough during games to believe that’s the case. 

Left wing is the Loons’ weakest position, the one they probably need to invest most in this winter assuming Kelvin Yeboah stays. I think they need to bring in a starting-caliber player to bolster the attack and yet behind that signing they also have Mauricio Gonzalez (22) as well as Darius Randell (19) who tore up MLS Next Pro this season. Jackson is neither the top end player they need nor their best development option. 

Verdict: I won’t be upset if Jackson returns on a deal at or near the league minimum, but anything more than that and it will feel like a misallocation of tight resources. 

Alec Smir

If Rizvanovich goes out on loan next season, a spot for a backup keeper opens up, but Minnesota may well choose to keep Rizvanovich in-house next year given the issues with his loan to Brooklyn. In that case, there isn’t even really a spot for Smir. He has been a good servant to the team, but I don’t see an MLS starting keeper there, and I’d rather see what someone else might be able to do in a pinch. 

Verdict: Let Smir go somewhere he can start and show what he can do with consistent minutes

Wil Trapp

I thought this was going to be a much harder decision than it is. Trapp turns 34 in January — hardly ancient — and gave the Loons over 2000 minutes this season, but at no point did he seem like he was running down. He’s above average in a lot of ways, but seldom better than the 80th percentile or so:

Trapp has been such a constant for Minnesota since his arrival, it’s hard to think of him being part of the team and not being a starter. Even this year where he faced competition for his spot and missed time with a concussion that ended his season, he still saw the field more than seven outfield players. His performance is adequate, but for a team that has designs on a trophy next year, it feels underwhelming for a starter. 

So don’t make him a starter. 

As a sub, Trapp’s profile works superbly. His on-field calm, smart decision-making, and two-way play make him the ideal player to bring on in the 80th minute to see out a game and his durability means that if Owen Gene or Nectarios Triantis miss extended time again next season, he’s perfectly capable of shouldering the load. 

Off the field, Trapp is one of the best ambassadors the team has*. While being a great dude isn’t a reason to give someone a contract, it absolutely matters. Losing him, especially if Boxall chooses to play elsewhere as well, would give the team a hole to fill. 

I didn’t want Trapp’s time with Minnesota to end with him walking around Allianz in street clothes — though that was a very sharp jacket – as fans filtered out. Reframing his next phase as a substitute rather than trying to rationalize giving him another 2000 minutes or more makes me feel much better about the decision to extend his time in Minnesota. 

Verdict: Like Boxall, as long as he’s willing to take a diminished role and salary, I’d be glad to welcome him back.

DJ Taylor

Along with Boxall and Trapp, Taylor is one of the last vestiges of the Adrian Heath era. Unlike the other two, he’s just 29. He has time to make an impact for another club. 

I have heard that Taylor is outstanding with the younger players in terms of getting them integrated into practice and the locker room. I hope that means he plays a couple more years with a USL club to help mentor the next generation of pros.

Verdict: Let him go