The 2024 Columbus Crew season might have reached its conclusion but the door has opened on a busy offseason for the Black & Gold.
Wednesday morning the club revealed its end-of-year roster decisions. The Crew exercised the options for goalkeepers Nicholas Hagen, Abraham Romero, and Patrick Schulte; midfielder AZ Jackson; and forwards Christian Ramirez and Jacen Russell-Rowe.
Defenders Malte Amundsen, Rudy Camacho, Yevhen Cheberko, Mohamed Farsi, Andres Herrera, DeJuan Jones and Steven Moreira; midfielders Max Arfsten, Dylan Chambost, Taha Habroune, Cole Mrowka, Marino Hinestroza, Derrick Jones, Darlington Nagbe and Sean Zawadzki; and forwards Cucho Hernández and Diego Rossi were already under contract for the 2025 season.
However, four names were missing from the list of players as fans quickly noted the absences.
Goalkeeper Evan Bush is out of contract, but Columbus remains actively engaged in negotiations with the backstop. Defender Keegan Hughes and midfielder Yaw Yeboah are also out of contract and eligible for the MLS Re-Entry Process. The Re-Entry process begins on Friday, December 13th, and concludes on Thursday, December 19th, with Stage Two of the Re-Entry draft.
Fans were sad to see the departure of Alex Matan who surprised supporters of his departure through a November 13th Instagram post.
Here are the rest of the events the Black & Gold can expect to participate in this offseason.
Monday, December 9 – Half-Day Trade window (9 a.m. ET – 1 p.m. ET)
Wednesday, December 11 – Saturday, December 14 – MLS College Showcase
Wednesday, December 11 – MLS Expansion Draft (TBD) – Draft rules and procedures
Thursday, December 12 – Free Agency Opens (1 p.m. ET)
Thursday, December 12 – End-of-Year Waivers (5 p.m. ET)
Friday, December 13 – Re-Entry Process, Stage 1 (1 p.m. ET
Thursday, December 19 – Re-Entry Process, Stage 2 (1 p.m. ET)
Friday, December 20 – 2025 MLS SuperDraft (TBD)
MASSIVE REPORT 
Thank you for the summary. I’ll be very eager to see which twelve players we protect. Perhaps in the next podcast, I’d like to hear Massive Report’s views on who will be protected, who won’t, and why. It’s a complicated weave of league roster rules, salary, contracts, and player value. Also, I think I read only five players can be selected overall, and only one per team. That means Columbus has a fairly low chance of losing someone, no chance of losing more than one. If we were to lose one, who do you think it would be?
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