One Big Question:Will any of the kids step forward?
Garth Lagerwey said it straight-up earlier this winter: Seattle are going to concentrate on winning the CCL, which means they'll be playing the kids at least for the first couple months of the MLS season. Handwalla Bwana is 22, which is definitely old enough to step into meaningful minutes. Alfonso Ocampo-Chavez turns 18 in March, which is probably old enough (he'll be roughly the same age this year that Jesus Ferreira was last year), and Danny Leyva turns 17 in May, which... yeah he's probably a year away.
But the point is that whether they're ready or not, they're going to get thrown into the fire. Even if they can't stand that heat Seattle will still almost certainly be fine. They'll just do what they always do – make at least one major signing in the summer window, turn on the jets by mid-July and race down the stretch into the playoffs. I defy you to bet against that.
The thing is, though, they could be much more than that if one of the kids hits. Add a little bit of the vibrancy of youth to this roster of grizzled, get-it-done-in-October veterans? Another pacy winger or a fox-in-the-box goalscorer? That actually moves the needle for this group in terms of what Lagerwey needs to go shopping for and how much he can spend on it.
