Toronto FC flipped its No 1 pick in the allocation order to Houston for defensive midfielder Warren Creavalle.
It's difficult to get excited about, or to take issue with the trade. It was clear that TFC didn't have the cap room to bring another US international on board (in this case DaMarcus Beasley), nor was the US international available really what TFC needed.
So, to get anything for a pick that wasn't going to be used otherwise is something.
What Creavalle is, is a defensive depth player. He's just 23 and is known to be strong on that end of his game. Don't expect much of anything from him going forward.
He played in 10 games for Houston this year, starting in four. In that time he was contributing 0.4 aerial wins, 1.7 tackles, 1.6 interceptions and 0.9 clearances for a Defensive Involvement per 90 number of 4.6.
The clearance figure is oddly low for a DMC and it might reflect a preference by the player to play out of trouble. Creavalle is fairly tidy on the ball with an 82.1 pass completion rate.
When compared to TFC's other central midfielders, he's clearly a step behind the starters.
Michael Bradley's DI is 6.2 (with an 82.7% rate) and Collin Warner comes in at 8.7 and 78.4%.
You'd have to imagine Ryan Nelsen sees Creavalle as a late game, shut-down defensive sub. There his comparisons would be Kyle Bekker and Jeramy Hall.
Bekker is a 4.7 DI (0.2, 1.2, 2.2, 1.1) and 79.4% while Hall is 3.3 DI (0.3, 1.0, 1.3, 0.7) and 80.3%.
Those frustrated by a lack of opportunity for Canadian players will look at the nearly identical line Bekker has and ask why he hasn't been given the opportunity to be that defensive lock-down guy. There is no good answer other than Bekker consistently fails the eyeball test of the team's technical staff. Rightly or wrongly, Bekker is considered soft by TFC and is not trusted in late game situations.
Regardless, whether Creavalle should play above Bekker is a different debate than whether TFC got full value for the trade. Without knowing if there were other signings available to the Reds it's hard to truly say, but on a surface look adding depth for (next to nothing) is an OK, in uninspiring, piece of business.