Eastern Conference: 5 teams to watch in the winter transfer market | OneFootball

By Matthew Doyle

The MLS winter transfer window doesn’t officially open for a while, but that doesn’t mean the shopping hasn’t started (sorry for the double negative).

Chief soccer officers (CSO) and agents are on the phone basically 24/7 this time of year trying to get deals done, and we’ve all got notifications turned on for Tommy Scoops’ social accounts. If you don’t, consider that a PSA.

For the time being, here are five Eastern Conference teams I’m keeping a close eye on in the buildup to the 2026 MLS season.

Inter Miami CF

You may remember all the way back to Dec. 6 when Inter Miami won MLS Cup 2025 presented by Audi – their third trophy in three years – and then immediately bid farewell to retiring legends Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba. That opened up two Designated Player roster slots.

One of those has already been filled: Miami exercised their permanent transfer option on midfielder Rodrigo De Paul, who was on loan from Atlético Madrid.

The other DP slot remains empty, and I can’t imagine they’re planning to spend that spot on another left back (somebody better teach Sergio Reguilón about Targeted Allocation Money). Another string-pulling, deep-lying central midfielder in the Busquets mold would make sense, but those guys don’t grow on trees.

The other things I’m keeping an eye on here:

Toronto FC

Once Toronto's front office realized, around May, that it just wasn’t going to happen for them in 2025, they did a really good job of throwing in the towel, clearing salary cap room, collecting assets and trading out most long-term deals. They fleeced Montréal, for example, and by mid-summer had added more than $1 million in General Allocation Money (GAM) after having very little flexibility in the spring.

At the same time, they were slowly building what they hope will be the core of this next era, acquiring Djordje Mihailovic from Colorado, and then getting José Cifuentes in on loan (with a purchase option) from Rangers. Those are two high-level, MLS-proven midfielders in their prime, and now it looks like they’re adding a third piece to that spine as they’ve targeted Walker Zimmerman as a foundational backline piece in free agency.

This is good work, but there is much more to come. They have at least four more premium roster slots open (five if they want to work out another loan or a buyout for Cassius Mailula), and a history of being one of the biggest-spending clubs in MLS. They also have a ton of salary cap space since they declined so many options, and I’d guess their free agency shopping won’t stop with Zimmerman.

General manager Jason Hernandez might be the busiest man in the league over the next 12 weeks.

Orlando City

Orlando have quietly made a few moves already that will change the way the team looks:

Then they’ve reportedly got some moves lined up that look promising:

But the big one, to me, is whether they’ll find a mutual parting of the ways with DP No. 9 Luis Muriel. The Colombian veteran has had moments of brilliance, but they’ve only ever been moments – nothing sustained. And as we saw from basically the Leagues Cup semifinals onwards, he couldn't be counted upon in the biggest games.

Muriel's in the final year of his contract. The rest of this attack looks very, very good (provided Tiago is a goalscoring upgrade over Iván Angulo, which… he’d kind of have to be, right?), and while the defense currently appears thin, I suspect they’ll address that.

But that open DP slot is the hammer. Get that signing right, and they look like a 60-point team. Get it wrong, and they’re in the Wild Card match again. If they’re lucky.

New York Red Bulls

The Red Bulls have a new head of sport in Julian de Guzman and will soon have a new coach – all indications point to U.S. Soccer legend and current RBNY II coach Michael Bradley getting the job. Maybe Red Bull fans will find the announcement under the tree on Christmas morning, Chivas USA-style.

Whenever it happens, though, and whether it’s Bradley or not (it will be), a new game model will also arrive in 2026. Word is it’ll be a 4-3-3 with true wingers and a real emphasis on playing with the ball rather than against it. I don’t think that means they’re going to turn into San Diego FC overnight, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they looked more like, say, New York City FC (complimentary).

They’re reportedly making moves to facilitate that: midfielder Peter Stroud to Minnesota United FC, and Lewis Morgan to San Diego (that’s more of a “clear out the cap hit and international roster slot” type of move).

Incoming will be… who? It’s a good bet a lot of young guys from RBNY II will get chances, but this team famously has a DP slot open; will they use it? If so, how much will they actually spend? And what other moves are in the offing?

I will say now that the word around the league is they are very much open for business.

D.C. United

If you’d asked me to guess what the first big move of Erkut Sogut’s career as D.C. United’s managing director of soccer operations would be, never in a million years would I have guessed “high-floor, low-ceiling cash transfer within MLS.”

But here we are. The Black-and-Red are reportedly about to get Tai Baribo from Philly for a $4 million fee, and while that price tag elicited much discussion online (he's essentially a poacher), let me show you this:

Does anyone think $4 million for Chicago's Hugo Cuypers would be an overpay?

Baribo is in his prime and has, at every level and in every game model, scored a goal about every 150 minutes (he was above that mark for the first half of this year while scorching hot). Know why? Because he’s a poacher! He has a knack for finding those one-touch Chris Wondolowski-esque goals, both from open play and on set pieces, and those tend not to dry up. He’s never going to dribble a defense or lead a breakaway, but put average service around him and he’ll bang in 15 goals (or more) every year.

Which brings us to the second part of the equation: D.C.’s chance creation last year was bad, and there's little reason to think significant improvement will come from within. Which means with his next big moves, Sogut has to find chance-creating midfielders and wingers (he can, in theory, get a couple of those, as D.C. have two premium roster slots open – maybe three if they find a taker for Gabriel Pirani?).

Will he work the phones in MLS again? I have mentioned on social media that I’d be calling Seattle about Georgi Minoungou (he’s among the best chance creators in MLS on a per-90 basis), and San Jose’s Niko Tsakiris would seem to fit perfectly into a U22 Initiative slot as a No. 10. I didn’t think he’d actually do it, but given the way Sogut’s started his career… it’s not off the table, is it?

At the moment, I really have no idea what to expect. But I’m a lot more interested now than I was 10 days ago in seeing how D.C.’s winter unfolds.