The MLS Draft is at best a mixed bag, with MLS-ready players in increasingly short supply. And while that’s a good thing for the league, it has created a very strange situation for MLS teams. The draft is an opportunity to bring in young players, and within said draft, there is a further class: Generation Adidas.
There’s a lot of appeal to bringing in a Generation Adidas player. They’re supposed to be among the best and brightest of the entrants into the draft, and to support that, the league offers some financial benefits to selecting a GA player, primarily in that the players’ salary doesn’t impact the salary budget.