ANALYSIS: Atlanta United announces end-of-year roster decisions

We tried to sort it out because it's unsafe to do so without proper training and equipment

Atlanta United announced their final decisions on several option-year contracts today.

Senior roster members Brooks Lennon, Josh Cohen and Ronald Hernández are now out of contract. The club is in negotiations to bring back Hernández on a reworked deal.

Supplemental players Leo Afonso and Nyk Sessock are also out of contract.

Supplemental players Matthew Edwards, Jay Fortune, Jayden Hibbert, Will Reilly and Cayman Togashi all had their options exercised and will remain with the team for the 2026 season.

Edwin Mosquera technically had his option picked as he continues his loan to Millonarios. That loan is through next summer. Yes, that means if his purchase option isn’t picked up, Mosquera will return, yet again, for one last stint with Atlanta United.

Meanwhile, don’t forget, Luis Abram, Brad Guzan, Mateusz Klich, Derrick Williams and homegrown Efrain Morales were each in the final guaranteed year of their contract. All departed earlier this season. And homegrown center back Noah Cobb is on loan with Colorado, who have until Dec. 15 to exercise his purchase option.

After today’s decisions, the tally is up to 10 players on the opening weekend roster who have left the club this year. With the midseason additions of Steven Alzate, Juan Berrocal and Enea Mihaj, there are 13 senior players out of the 20 possible on Atlanta’s roster.

With that many departures, it may sound like Atlanta has a big chunk of cap space to work with, but there’s a decent chance Atlanta United really hasn’t opened a ton of room today.

*BIG NOTE: As always, we’re operating with rough estimates at best here. We have some of the numbers, but not all of the numbers necessary to know how much a player is officially impacting the cap. MLS!

Based on projections of each departed player’s budget charge, Atlanta have jettisoned $3,549,797 worth of cap space. However, the Five Stripes have seemingly occupied that space and a little more with their three summer signings. The MLSPA salary release always makes summer signings seem a little more inflated than what their actual full-season salary will be, but the numbers are relatively close for Alzate, Berrocal and Mihaj. With their salaries—all above $1 million and Alzate’s reported $2 million transfer fee (amortized over his lengthy contract through 2030)—the trio’s collective budget charges end up around $4 million.

Now, that doesn’t mean Atlanta is entering the offseason without any space to operate.