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San Jose Earthquakes’ 2021 salary figures released

Who’s buying the steak dinners these days?

MLS: D.C. United at San Jose Earthquakes Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports

The MLS Players Association released the salary information for their members on Thursday, the first such release of that information in about a year and a half.

Given the time gap and some big changes to the San Jose Earthquakes’ roster in the meantime, that means we got to see some information for the first time for many of the players, and without further ado, here’s the rundown:

San Jose Earthquakes 2021 Salaries

Player Base Salary Guaranteed Compensation
Player Base Salary Guaranteed Compensation
Judson $360,000 $365,000
Luciano Abecasis $380,000 $394,000
Jacob Akanyirige $105,000 $107,000
Oswaldo Alanis $630,000 $730,000
Tanner Beason $90,000 $110,000
Matt Bersano $106,375 $106,375
Eric Calvillo $170,000 $188,000
Cade Cowell $120,000 $130,000
Cristian Espinoza $1,150,000 $1,265,000
Carlos Fierro $850,000 $908,800
Gilbert Fuentes $160,000 $178,750
Siad Haji $95,000 $104,000
Florian Jungwirth $525,000 $567,667
Benji Kikanovic $63,547 $69,322
Marcos Lopez $330,000 $370,250
Chofis Lopez $860,000 $860,000
JT Marcinkowski $165,000 $177,000
Paul Marie $81,375 $87,908
Emi Ochoa $65,000 $75,080
Eric Remedi $450,000 $450,000
Andy Rios $870,000 $939,250
Shea Salinas $280,000 $280,000
Jack Skahan $66,274 $66,274
Tommy Thompson $265,000 $265,000
Daniel Vega $220,000 $225,000
Casey Walls $85,000 $88,000
Chris Wondolowski $390,000 $400,000
Jackson Yueill $600,000 $636,875

Some immediate notes on what we see here:

  • Cristian Espinoza is the highest-paid player, little surprise considering he’s the only Designated Player on the books at present, and he’s also the only player on more than $1 million.
  • Four additional players fit in the Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) zone: Oswaldo Alanís, Carlos Fierro, Chofís Lopez and Andy Rios. Three of those players came from Chivas, so you can gather the price point from Mexico and Chivas in particular remains high, while Rios is a bit of an interesting case — he’s Argentine but really doesn’t have the top-line resumé to make you think he would be paid quite this high. At any rate, these four players are above the maximum salary budget charge of $612,500, so the rest of their salaries are paid down with TAM.
  • Jackson Yueill may also be in this TAM zone, but his base salary is below the maximum salary budget charge while his guaranteed compensation is above it. He’s the highest-paid domestic player on the team.
  • San Jose’s payroll is 22nd in the league, at $10,145,001. That’s probably in line with what we expected, especially considering the Quakes have two open DP slots and say they’re shopping as we speak. And believe it or not, but the Earthquakes are spending roughly $1.5 million more than the smallest payroll in the league, the Vancouver Whitecaps.

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