DC United signs Tai Baribo to Designated Player deal
DC United has made its first major splash of the offseason. Today, the club announced the acquisition of forward Tai Baribo from the Philadelphia Union in a $4 million cash transfer plus incentives. He was introduced at a press conference this afternoon at Audi Field.
The Israeli international, who will turn 28 on January 15th, was signed to a multi-year deal that will see him wear the Black-and-Red through the 2029-2030 season as a Designated Player. He scored 19 goals across all competitions this past season, leading the Philadelphia Union, who won the Supporters’ Shield. DC United hopes he can bring similar production to Audi Field as the centerpiece of general manager Erkut Sogut and head coach René Weiler’s rebuild of a team that earned the Wooden Spoon as the league’s worst team.
According to a press release by the team, the total value of the transfer, including salary, will exceed $15 million. The team will send the Union an additional $600,000 if Baribo meets certain undisclosed performance thresholds. Despite the high dollar amount, among the largest transfer fees in DC United history, Tai Baribo doesn’t feel any pressure to be the center of production for next year’s team and beyond.
“This is pleasure. This is amazing. Now I’m chasing after my dream. This is not pressure,” Baribo said. “Obviously you have pressure and sport, but you have to embrace it because God chose you to be here and you worked hard. I worked really hard to be here. So you have to enjoy this pressure.”
“I can just say it’s not just that I like him as a player and admire what he has done in the MLS in the last few seasons, [it’s] how he developed to such a great striker and just an amazing player to watch and it was an amazing work for us to get him,” Erkut Sogut said. “And I said, ‘This is what we want. That’s the mentality, that’s the kind of a player we want to bring into this club.’ And yeah, it finally worked out. Not just as a player but also off the pitch.”
Baribo, who will wear #9 for the Black-and-Red, is the first of many transactions expected from DC United as they seek to boost their roster with several acquisitions, including maxing out the number of Designated Players. DC United co-owner believes in the vision he, co-owner Steve Kaplan, Sogut, and Weiler have to remake the club into one that can compete for championships in an evolving Major League Soccer.
“We’re getting a player [in Tai Baribo] at the height of his power, in the middle of his career, and we believe he can do even more for us,” Levien said. “But Erkut and his team, myself, my partner Steve Kaplan, we’re all working on a daily basis talking about other options to bring in and the other target [we’re] going to bring in because we’re going to put together a group that can really support René Weiler’s vision and Sogut’s vision for how we move the club forward. And it’s been exciting and energetic. And I think the next several weeks you’re going to see other moves that are going to be really important and critical for us moving forward, not just into 2026, but even beyond.”
There are more pieces that need to be acquired for this puzzle of bringing DC United back from the bottom of the table. But, the club is banking on Tai Baribo to bring the scoring production needed to lead the team on its resurgence.
Given that the ceiling for a Designated Player is only limited by the resources you can provide a player and the player’s willingness to play in your city… think this is a bad start.
We’ve expended some real resources to get him, and we won’t have those elsewhere. Maybe he’s too good for a TAM player, but I don’t think even that is a certainty. We’re making a poacher who wasn’t even a league DP before the focal point of our attack. Unless DC United’s owners are able to expend equal resources twice towards greater talents to provide a ton more creativity and chance generation for him, a poacher of any talent level won’t help us be competitive to the extent we need. And I question whether he’s of a sufficient level to begin with.
The owners didn’t just pay for a vital piece to a revitalization, they overpaid for a TAM player so that they could plug it into a vacuous offseason news cycle. They’re just hoping we expect the next thing. By the time they realize that this alone isn’t enough for fans, the transfer window will be practically dead.
Sell. The. Fucking. Team.
Basically all of the resources that were expended were from the owners’ pockets. From the cash transfer to the DP salary above the max cap hit, that all comes out of ownership pockets and doesn’t touch any of the team’s resources like allocation money. There’s no international slot used either.
Yeah, I’d say it seems like an overpay, especially in terms of player salary, but I’m hopeful that they realize they need to surround him with talent – and if they’re actually smart, better talent. There are still two DP slots to fill, which ownership has committed to filling. This is just step 1, and I feel okay with it. Sogut calling it one of the “biggest signings” in team history was kind of a misstep, and even if he just means in terms of financial outlay, the team isn’t beating the reputation of spending unwisely. But there’s also every chance that by the end of his time here, Baribo has surpassed Benteke on the career scoring list.
I’m not suggesting that this is roster salary rules. I’m saying that the owners are not gonna make this sort of investment again this offseason.
Basically just Peglow and Herrera plugging away, and that’s not gonna be enough.
Very interesting that Sogut’s first move is to be able to sign a DP. Ally Mackay was only ever able to sign one DP in his time as GM, which was Matti Peltola, and I think that was done more as an accounting measure than as any kind of tentpole signing for the team.
Mackay did also sign Benteke to a contract extension, so if you want to argue he signed two DPs, then I guess you could. But that was really just making a decision about a DP that was already here when Mackay got here. And speaking of that, he also had the whole Klich debacle, keeping a DP slot occupied for a player that played for a conference rival.
Anyway, let’s hope the rest of Sogut’s DP moves go better than that.