Reminder: New York Red Bulls’ off-season starts today

The New York Red Bulls saw their 2018 season finish in familiar style - with a home win and a disappointing playoff exit.

But players and staff at RBNY won’t have a lot of time to dwell on what was and what might have been: the off-season is upon us. By 1:00 pm today - November 30 - RBNY must inform MLS of the decisions it has taken regarding the expiring contracts on its roster. The club will be responsible for publishing its own news on the matter, so that may happen today or...whenever the team decides to issue its official release.

The list of expired contracts can be expected to include Tim Parker - with whom, we assume, RBNY will continue to negotiate. Beyond Parker, RBNY isn’t thought to have too many headaches with regard to contract renewals or expiries this off-season. The 2018 roster’s starting core is thought to be safely under contract for next season.

But the tone for the off-season will set by the announcement of which players RBNY is letting go and which it is seeking to retain. We’ll get a sense of the areas of the roster that will need strengthening in the off-season and which players the club has lost but wants back (like Parker). And then speculation can start about who the Red Bulls might seek to trade away for value in pursuit of their off-season roster-building priorities.