Armchair Analyst: Best fits for the remaining Class of 2017 free agents

The Homegrown era started in earnest around 2014, as teams across the league started bringing Academy players through the ranks. Some clubs dedicated themselves to that in a bigger way than others, but the process has pretty steadily grown over the past three years. Younger, locally-bred players have signed professional contracts and are present on nearly every MLS roster (we'll give Minnesota United FC & NYCFC a pass for now).

A butterfly flaps its wings, and across the ocean an avalanche starts. Everything is intertwined.

And so it is with MLS. The advent of the academy age is going to change free agency starting around 2020. Each year we'll see more and better players available for the wintertime silly season – possibly earlier in their careers – and I think that will have a profound effect on how teams build their rosters.

For now, though, the free agency pool is limited. Here is how the rule was negotiated during the last CBA:

Players 28-years-old and older with eight years of MLS service who are out of contract, or have not had their option exercised, are eligible for Free Agency in 2016, allowing them the freedom to negotiate a new contract with any MLS club, including their previous club, subject to certain restrictions. A player has fulfilled a year of service if he was on a club’s roster prior to August 15 or played in at least one regular season or postseason game in the relevant year.

Those rules are still in effect in 2017.

As such, free agency groups are sparser than they will be in the not-so-distant future. There are a lot of veterans who retire at the end of their contract, and many more who re-sign with their club. There are a few obvious targets who tend to go early in the process, and a few specialists who go later, and by mid-January, things are mostly done. That was the case last year, in the first edition of MLS free agency, and so far it's been the same story in 2017.

The biggest names to switch teams? Javier Morales going from RSL to FC Dallas and Will Johnson joining old friend Jason Kreis in Orlando City after a year with TFC. Those guys are starters.

A step down from them are the veteran depth pieces like Sebastien Le Toux, who moved from Colorado to D.C., and Alan Gordon, who moved from LA to Colorado. Neither of those guys is a regular starter at this point in their career, but both will fill a role and do a job while the next generation tries to beat them out for playing time. That's as it should be.

Of the remaining free agents, there is only one guy in either of those two tiers: Houston Dynamo left back DaMarcus Beasley. The 34-year-old was, when healthy, one of the three best left backs in the league last year, and is on his third international un-retirement now as he reps the USMNT once again this month.

New Dynamo head coach Wilmer Cabrera has been vocal about wanting to bring Beasley back, and I suspect that'd be the right landing spot for him if they can make the numbers work.

Dunno @RangersFC, @ManCity. @DaMarcusBeasley actually has to beat a defender + the keeper in this one. pic.twitter.com/oO8AMu5yMH

— Houston Dynamo (@HoustonDynamo) October 19, 2016

In a tier below that, there are a pair of veteran defenders who should be of interest for young teams in need of depth and veteran leadership: left back Corey Ashe and center back Jason Hernandez. Both guys have played over 200 MLS games, so there would be minimal adjustment needed no matter where they land.

And where should that be? For the 30-year-old Ashe, who played a touch over 1200 minutes spread across 18 games for Crew SC last season, there are only two options that make any kind of sense: rejoin his former head coach Dom Kinnear as a depth piece for the San Jose Earthquakes, or head to D.C. as Taylor Kemp's back-up. United have had a low-key but effective offseason, and at this point the only need on their roster is a fulltime, dedicated back-up left back.

Hernandez is three years older, and his aerial struggles always have to be taken into consideration, even if he's coming on as a third or fourth-string solution. He's smart and rugged and an able organizer, but he needs to be paired with a younger, physically dominant partner. FC Dallas, who have zero right-footed back-up CBs on their roster, is an easy solution here. The Red Bulls, Sounders and TFC are all also in need of CB depth, so those are landing spots that could work as well, as could – obviously – the Revs.

Beyond those three guys, the pickings are slim. Clarence Goodson, Nat Borchers and Justin Mapp are all coming off of injury-marred seasons (Mapp, for the time-being, holds the title for "all-time free agency bust" after last year's misery with Sporting KC), and it's hard to imagine them getting more than cursory looks given their ages. Mapp could perhaps turn a cursory look into something more if he's healthy and fit and doing Justin Mapp things once again, but who is willing to bet on that?

Nick LaBrocca, who was once an All-Star with Chivas USA, has just three goals and five assists in his last four seasons, and at 32 it looks like his race is run. Darrius Barnes is 30, but has seen injuries destroy three of his last four years and has played more than 2000 minutes only once this decade. If he gets a clean bill of health he's a useful piece somewhere, but that's a big "if."

That leaves only two other players available: utility-man Nathan Sturgis, who didn't play a minute for the Sounders last year, and back-up keeper Kyle Reynish, who's played 32 games in a decade-long professional career. Reynish is regarded as a very good locker-room dude who would actually make some sense for Minnesota United, while Sturgis's best year as a pro came in 2013, when he played for Oscar Pareja in Colorado.

Given that Pareja's Dallas roster has only three central midfielders with MLS experience (I think rookie Jacori Hayes will fit in nicely at No. 4 on the depth chart, with 16-year-old Paxton Pomykal rounding out the group), I can talk myself into Sturgis getting a look. But I'd have to try really hard to make it a convincing argument.

So... that's pretty much it. Free agency hasn't drastically changed the roster-building landscape in this league as of yet, but as with everything in MLS, it's a slow-growth, slow-change strategy.

Below is the complete list of 2017 free agents, and their current status: