A 2026 Off-Season Update on Inter Miami
Yes, I will guide you through how Inter Miami is doing all of these deals
When I started FAM, it began as a way for me to showcase my analytical questions on a blog. When I left FC Dallas in 2024, there was a void, and my brain was full of questions and discussions in the soccer analytics realm.
However, that shifted early, when I listened to a podcast by Jason Longshore with then Atlanta United President and CEO Garth Lagerway and Senior VP of Strategy Dimitrios Efstathiou. I really thought about it; what other North American sport are fans and media unsure of how a team can be cap compliant? Why are we just okay with not knowing, having to guess?
Any blogger in the NBA can throw up a trade calculator and figure out hypothetical deals. They can talk about how the team needs to fit under the second apron, what salaries need to be sent out, and how sophisticated moves work. MLS doesn’t have that, partially because of the nature of budget charges, and partially because the league makes it really hard to track.
My goal with FAM now is to provide the best coverage of the salary cap in Major League Soccer as possible. I’ve been digging and looking for solutions with the new mechanisms, trying to understand them. Why did Minnesota do a cashfer deal for Tomas Chancalay when they are sitting on loads of GAM? Why did the Galaxy dump Dejan Joveljic? These are all questions that have been answered on this blog.
Why the long, random monologue? Well, I did not expect to have so many blogs about Inter Miami’s cap situation on here. The fact of the matter is, it’s important. We need to understand how they are getting to this point. It is not good for MLS as a whole to have so many people left in the dark about how the league’s champion is constructing its roster.
It’s why, as a league, this has to get better. And it’s why I continue to push to get info to help educate the masses. It’s how I was able to say this on Blue Sky over a month ago.
If you’ve been a reader of this blog, you’ve understood how Miami has been able to pull off these deals. With the latest additions and the increase in outrage, I think it’s important to reinforce how Miami is doing this and how, yes, they have plenty of pathways to do this. It was clear a month ago, and it’s even clearer now.
Without further ado, let’s dive in.
Miami’s Current Cap Sheet
I’m changing the caveats I normally add here because I feel like I need to clarify some items.
First off, these are estimates. We’re using the 2025 MLSPA salary with an increase of 10% to simulate some sort of a bonus. Remember, for winning MLS Cup, Miami will more than likely have bonuses for its players, which will hit the cap. We are also estimating some salaries, like Suarez returning on a lower fee and Mora’s new salary. The end result we’re looking for is a good estimate for the budget charge that makes sense and aligns with what has been seen historically.
Why are we using amortised amounts for the budget charge? Again, for those who do not know, you do not need to amortise a transfer fee for non U22s or DPs. You also don’t need to amortise them unless they are coming off the U22 or DP tag. A transfer fee hits the budget charge when it is paid. We don’t know the payment schedule, so to make it easy, we amortise the amounts. Maxi Falcon could have had half his transfer fee paid last year and the other part this year. If that’s the case, it does not bleed into years three and four of this deal.
There is an important element to amortisation, specifically in the case of Tadeo Allende. Allende’s transfer fee and his salary across the length of his guaranteed deal must be below the max TAM threshold ($1,803,125). If Allende’s fee and salary, on average, exceed that number (and in future years, depending on their respective TAM thresholds), Allende cannot be bought down.
His budget charge can fluctuate from this number. It can even exceed this number. That can be done by frontloading a contract, with it declining as the cap increases. However, the average must be below the max TAM number. If it isn’t, then Allende would be a full DP and not be able to be bought down.
My final note is that I’m including Benjamin Cremaschi on this sheet. If Parma is paying all of his salary, he wouldn’t be on this sheet, and his salary wouldn’t hit the cap. We don’t know his situation, so I’ve just included it.
Sounds good? Let’s jump into the analysis.
What’s Changed?
The sheet has had some minor changes since the last piece we did. We removed the hold for a third DP (more on why later) and removed the hold for Baltsar Rodriguez, who does not look like he is returning. We added Micael and David Ayala to the mix, who both have interesting cap hits to evaluate.
2026 Off-Season Preview: Inter Miami
Inter Miami won the 2025 MLS Cup in their latest trophy to claim North American soccer supremacy. The team did it through smart cap maneuvers, players taking paycuts to join star Leo Messi, and through a surprisingly exciting style of play late on. Like the LA Galaxy, which in 2024 had to blow up its team to the cap, that is coming to an end.
Micael’s cap hit of $1M puts him at a TAM level. We’re estimating his loan fee to $500K and his salary to be the same. Keep in mind that Palmerias could be covering some of his salary, and when he was in MLS with the Dynamo, his salary wasn’t necessarily the highest. It actually was around $150K. The loan fee will hit the budget charge in year one.
David Ayala’s situation is another example of how powerful the intraleague cash-for-player system (just call it a transfer man) is. Ayala can actually stay on his U22 tag until the season where he turns 26. Up until the schedule change, that would’ve meant the 2028 season for Ayala. However, I’m going to assume that it’s the 2028-2029 season, meaning Ayala has two full seasons with the tag remaining. As my friend Matt Doyle mentioned, the club could’ve paid $100M for Ayala, and his cap hit would’ve remained at $200k.
Rocco Rios Novo also received a new deal, and we’re estimating that fee to be around $500K with a sizeable salary bump on a new three-year contract. Outside of that, everything else has remained the same.
Can they afford Tristan Blackmon?
With the rumours swirling that Blackmon was going to be transferred, then shot down by the Whitecaps, it’s been a hell of a day for Miami. But the question remains… was that deal even possible?
Yup.
Blackmon just needs to fit under that average budget charge amount for the deal to work. Currently, we estimate Miami at around $1.4M space remaining with the 3+3 roster construction model. There are multiple pathways to Miami getting Blackmon, and they’re very, very doable.
The first one is sticking with the 3+3 model. Need more space? Why not buy out your 39-year-old keeper, Oscar Ustari, and offer him a nice, comfortable role on your first team staff? That would open up enough space to fit it in a max TAM player. If Cremaschi’s cap hit isn’t actually hitting the budget charge, there’s room there for a max TAM player. If both happen, you have enough room for both the max TAM player and a third DP budget charge.
If they were to go 3+3, they would need to find a new home (or buyout) for Tomas Aviles. Aviles’ average amount is way too high, and he would have to be a DP if he weren’t on the U22 tag. More than likely, they will not be able to recoup any money for Aviles, so his departure would provide relief in the roster construction model.
The second scenario is a bit more fun. We know Miami is a big-name team, and they want to splurge the cash on a third DP. They can start on the 2+4 model and switch mid-year. What’s the benefit of that? It allows them to use up to $1M in dGAM to help bring in Blackmon or whatever player they want to acquire, and then acquire a star in the summer window post World Cup. The kicker?
The third DP’s budget charge would hit at half of the max budget charge since he was acquired in the later window ($401,562). With no changes, the club can get a key piece now and then wait to acquire a star for the second half of the MLS Season post World Cup.
These are all very, very doable. There are no crazy mechanisms, no crazy, weird moves. What I listed out is straightforward. It’s how Miami can afford three max TAM players on its roster.
We’ll dig into the mechanics of some other deals and some trends we’ve been seeing as the MLS off-season rages on.
Until next time.
My real problem with MLS and Miami is with the handling of international slots, not the money per se. Simply put, how was Miami, a team whose roster is built around foreign players, able to acquire 7 additional international slots last year? Why were teams willing to sell those slots to Miami given that Miam's model was being built around foreign talent? How was it that they got those slots for what appears to be relatively low cost?
Going back to 2024, Miami acquired 4 international slots during the season per public announcements (1/4/24 from Portland, 2/1/24 from DC United, 4/4/24 from Montreal, 8/2/24 from Colorado). They acquired those four slots for Kamal Miller, Chris McVey and $250K in GAM. In the announcements for each it was stated that each slot was for a "2024 international slot" - no mention was made of additional years. According to the Roster profile at the end of the season they had 12 international slots which makes sense with these four acquisitions.
In 2025, Miami acquired 7 international slots per announcement (1/21/25 from Colorado for $175K, 1/24/25 from Portland for $200K, 1/29/25 from Nashville for $200K, 2/5/25 from San Diego for $175K, 4/18/25 from Portland for $270K, 7/27/25 from Atlanta for $225K and Afonso, 8/14/25 from Toronto for $175K) but sold one back to Portland on 7/24/25 for $135K. That leaves a net acquisition of 6 international slots. Each announcement stated that it was for a "2025 international slot" - no mention made of previous or additional years. But according to the end of year Roster Profile Miami had 15 international slots. My math says they should have only had 14 (8+6). Where did they get the other slot? Was one of the 2024 acquisitions also for 2025? If so, why was that not stated? Did they acquire an additional slot without a public announcement?
It was very clear early on that Miami's model to building their team was to acquire foreign talent, not domestic, and the only way to do this was to acquire a lot of international slots. I have a hard time believing that GMs for other teams in the Eastern conference like Nashville and Toronto would've been so willing to trade with Miami for these slots without asking a lot more than they are usually worth (like 350K-400K) instead of the 150-200K that most of them were acquired for. My real suspicion is that the league pressured some of these teams to sell slots to Miami at "reasonable" prices to allow Miami to acquire the players they needed.