Predicting who will be available in the 2019 MLS Expansion Draft | Ben Baer

The 2019 Expansion Draft is less than a week away, with Inter Miami and Nashville SC set to select five players each on Tuesday (5:30 pm ET; live on MLSsoccer.com). The pool of players they will be selecting from is set to be announced on Saturday, but we don't have to wait that long to predict who those players are likely to be.

There are a lot of rules to the process of protecting players, which you can read about here, but basically teams can protect up to 12 players from possible selection and Generation adidas players who have not been graduated at the end of the season and Homegrown Players (ages 25 and under – born in or after 1994) on a club’s roster at the end of the season are automatically protected. Checking out the roster pages of every club from the end of the season could also offer some hints on why some players are automatically protected or not.

What makes this exercise even more difficult than usual is that the vast majority of clubs have not yet announced their decisions on which players' 2020 options they will be exercising or declining. That information would go a long way towards knowing which players clubs value.

On-field play, while obviously important, is not the only reason to protect or not protect a player. Age, contract length and salary are all factors that will likely play into these decisions. Remember that Miami and Nashville will also not just be picking for themselves, but other teams across the league could also ask the two teams to make picks for them and execute a trade.

You will notice that there are five teams who are not listed below: D.C. United, FC Dallas, Houston Dynamo, New York Red Bulls and Vancouver Whitecaps FC are exempt from this draft after having players selected in last year's Expansion Draft.

Atlanta United

It was a tough call, but Hector Villalba and Eric Remedi seem to be on the outs and Dion Pereira is a younger, cheaper option for the Five Stripes. Brandon Vazquez is another intriguing option.

Chicago Fire

Despite trading $400,000 in Targeted Allocation Money for him last year, it wouldn't be surprising if the Fire left Raheem Edwards unprotected. With Chicago making trades with both Expansion teams, I would expect no Fire player to be selected.

FC Cincinnati

Gerard Nijkamp would love if someone took Fanendo Adi.

Colorado Rapids

Not many tough decisions for the Rapids.

Columbus Crew SC

The Crew have some tough decisions to make as players like Waylon Francis, Hector Jimenez and Josh Williams could all be valuable to other teams.

LAFC

Two starters (plus Lee Nguyen!) from the best regular-season team in MLS history could be available.

LA Galaxy

Some interesting depth central-midfield pieces here, and Julian Araujo could take over the starting right back role if Rolf Feltscher is picked.

Minnesota United FC

Kevin Molino or Angelo Rodriguez is the tough pick here.

Montreal Impact

It's anyone's guess who Olivier Renard and Thierry Henry value at this point.

New England Revolution

Scott Caldwell and Jalil Anibaba could be good pieces for any team, while the salaries of Michael Mancienne and Wilfried Zahibo are probably prohibitive for any team thinking about selecting them.

New York City FC

Ben Sweat should be the No. 1 pick if he's left unprotected, given his versatility, quality and salary.

Orlando City SC

Orlando are working on finding the core, but for now, there's only a few players that must be protected.

Philadelphia Union

Raymon Gaddis or Olivier Mbaizo (who is young and cheap) is the tough call here.

Portland Timbers

There's some intriguing options here, with Jeff Attinella being a potential starting goalkeeper, Andy Polo being a Peruvian international and the two starting-caliber fullbacks.

Real Salt Lake

Joao Plata has been in and out of favor in recent years. He's probably the toughest call on the board for RSL, even if it's unlikely he gets selected.

San Jose Earthquakes

The Quakes have some tough decisions to make. Carlos Fierro's salary could be a reason to leave him unprotected.

Seattle Sounders

The Nouhou show could be heading to a new city.

Sporting Kansas City

There's a number of high-priced veterans that could be left unprotected among this group.

Toronto FC

Ali Curtis has a few decisions to make among his wing options.