Transfer News: Sounders Trade Josh Atencio to the Colorado Rapids
Despite the flurry of offseason changes and the notable names that the Sounders brought in to build a deep, competitive roster, General Manager Craig Waibel wasn’t ready to call the roster complete. In an interview on the Sounders’ YouTube Channel a couple of weeks ago, Waibel ended his comments by acknowledging that the team “…challenged the group [roster] to get better, and we have a really nice unit. It’s a fickle league, but I think this group is built for longevity, durability, and, frankly, consistency.” However, Seattle’s general managers’ last statement stood out: “Sky’s the limit, and we’re not done adding. We’ve still got room to do it this year, and we’ll keep presenting problems for the staff to make decisions.”
Here the team is, twelve days later, just three days away from starting competitive play, and the Sounders are making a significant roster move. For the better part of the last month, the team has been transitioning longtime midfielder Josh Atencio to a defensive role, and they have not been shy about praising his potential in the new position.
“If you really deep dive into his profile, our staff believes he has the potential to be elite,” Waibel stated when addressing Atencio’s transition when the team arrived in Marbella in January. “He’s extremely athletic; he’s very good facing the field, his range of distribution, his speed, his turn, recovery speed, but also the way he reads the game. That will be one of the things we take a very, very serious look at and have a lot of belief that we’re right.”
Manager Brian Schmetzer mirrored Waibel’s enthusiasm and confidence in the young midfielder’s ability to change positions and hit the ground running in 2025. “Josh has all of the physical characteristics, especially if we go to a back line of five,” Schmetzer said. “Josh has the technical ability to move the ball forward. He’s got to improve his heading, but he can defend out wide. There are plenty of reasons why his profile fits that position.”
Despite their raving reviews, Sounders fans will now only get to witness Atencio’s defensive prowess as an opponent. In exchange for the 23-year-old homegrown product, Seattle is set to receive 1.3 million dollars in General Allocation Money split evenly between this season and 2026, up to 300-thousand dollars in provisional General Allocation Money based on performance metrics, and a 20% sell-on, meaning any transfer fee Colorado acquires for Atencio in the future, a portion will be sent to Seattle. While it is not immediately clear how Seattle will spend the newly created funds, based on Waibel’s recent comments, it would be fair to assume that another addition could soon be coming to the PNW.