SANDY, Utah (Saturday, November 16, 2019) – Real Salt Lake has announced the 12 players on the club’s Protected Player list in advance of the 2019 MLS Expansion Draft, taking place on Tuesday, December 19. Inter Miami CF and Nashville SC will select five players with no club losing more than one player to the expansion side. D.C. United, FC Dallas, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, the Houston Dynamo and the New York Red Bulls are exempt after each losing a player in the previous MLS Expansion Draft to FC Cincinnati last year.
The following 12 RSL players will not be eligible for selection by Miami and Nashville when Major League Soccer’s newest clubs makes their selections:
GK Andrew Putna
DF Nedum Onuoha
DF Marcelo Silva
DF Donny Toia
MF Kyle Beckerman
MF Nick Besler
MF Damir Kreilach
MF Everton Luiz
MF Albert Rusnák
FW Sam Johnson
FW Douglas Martinez
FW Jefferson Savarino
In addition to those 12 players, Homegrown Players DF Danilo Acosta, MF/FW Jordan Allen, MF Luis Arriaga, FW Corey Baird, DF Justen Glad, DF Aaron Herrera, DF Erik Holt, DF/FW Brooks Lennon, GK David Ochoa, FW Sebastian Saucedo, FW Tate Schmitt and FW Julian Vazquez are exempt from the draft and cannot be selected.
With the Protected Player list established, this means that the following players under contract in 2019 with Real Salt Lake will be available for selection by Miami and Nashville:
Goalkeepers: Alex Horwath, Nick Rimando
Defenders: Tony Beltran
Midfielders: Luke Mulholland, Justin Portillo, Kelyn Rowe, Pablo Ruiz
Forwards: Joao Plata
Real Salt Lake History in MLS Expansion Drafts
2006: Toronto FC – Jason Kreis selected (re-acquired by RSL in exchange for allocation money)
2007: San Jose Earthquakes – no RSL player selected
2008: Seattle Sounders FC – Nathan Sturgis selected
2009: Philadelphia Union – no RSL player selected (RSL traded Chris Seitz to Union in exchange for allocation money on eve of expansion draft)
2010: Portland Timbers/Vancouver Whitecaps FC – Portland selected Robbie Findley and David Horst
2011: Montreal Impact – Collen Warner selected
2014: New York City FC/Orlando City SC – NYCFC selected Ned Grabavoy and Chris Wingert
2016: Minnesota United/Atlanta United – Minnesota selected Jeff Attinella
2018: FC Cincinnati – no RSL player selected
* Prior to its inaugural 2005 campaign, Real Salt Lake selected Andy Williams, D.J. Countess, Pablo Brenes, Brian Kamler, Nelson Akwari, Chris Brown, Matt Behncke, Rusty Pierce, Kevin Ara and Erick Scott in the 2004 MLS Expansion Draft on November 19, 2004.
