"Everything is a disaster, frankly. We can’t talk about next year because I don’t know if I’m going to be here next year. I don’t know if some of the guys in the locker room will be here."
That was Jeremy Ebobisse following San Jose’s most recent loss, at home this past weekend against a not-very-good St. Louis CITY side. Honestly, that sums it up: the Quakes were so bad in 2024 that everybody’s job is in question.
Let’s start there:
They haven’t wrapped it up just yet, but c’mon. They’re not winning their final four games.
So when the final whistle sounds on 2024, the Quakes will be in possession of their fifth Wooden Spoon, which breaks their tie with D.C. United for the league record. They’ll have done so in a season in which they spent a club-record transfer fee on a new No. 10, and in which they remade their defense.
Somehow, they got worse.
This isn’t all on one guy, and generally speaking, I’m all for giving front office-types enough room to implement a vision. But here’s how the Quakes have fared over nearly the past decade, first with Chris Leitch as technical director before he was named general manager in 2021:
- 2016: 9th in the Western Conference
- 2017: 6th in the West (lost in Audi MLS Cup Playoffs, losing record overall)
- 2018: Wooden Spoon
- 2019: 8th in the West
- 2020: 8th in the West (lost in playoffs, losing record overall)
- 2021: 10th in the West
- 2022: Last in the West
- 2023: 9th in the West (lost in playoffs; .500 record)
- 2024: Wooden Spoon
Here’s something that’s hard to believe, but is nonetheless true: PayPal Park opened in 2015. The Quakes are yet to host a playoff game there.
You can still be competitive on a budget in MLS, but if you’re going to play that game, you need folks at the top of the org to be sharp in terms of talent ID, and the overall club culture to encourage internal development.
Here’s a list of guys from San Jose’s player pathway who have shown significant development this past year:
- Cade Cowell
- Max Arfsten
- Diego Luna
- Fidel Barajas
Know who none of those guys play for in 2024? The San Jose Earthquakes.
Nobody’s ever going to confuse the Quakes with Atlanta United. But over the past two seasons, they’ve spent more than $10 million in the transfer market while trying to make over the team.
The biggest splash came at the end of the primary window in April, when they finally pushed a move for Argentine No. 10 Hernán López over the line, completing the club’s record signing. López has been… fine. Not great – he’s in about the 55th percentile in terms of chance creation among attacking midfielders and wingers – but certainly not bad, and he’s clearly got more to show.
In terms of salary spend, San Jose are still in the bottom third of the league. But here’s the group of teams immediately around them: Colorado, Vancouver, RSL, Philly. I’m not writing their obituaries just yet, am I?
Which is to say the old “they’re bad because they don’t invest!” line doesn’t hold much water anymore.
Let me put it this way: San Jose spent twice as much in the past two years as they had in the previous 15, going all the way back to their rebirth in 2007.
And all they have to show for it is the Wooden Spoon.
- Jeremy Ebobisse (FW): As of this writing he’s got 9g/2a in about 2,000 minutes across all comps, which isn’t great. But putting up not-bad numbers for this team this year is actually kind of heroic.
- Cristian Espinoza (W): Remains one of the league’s most consistent chance creators even when things are falling apart around him.
- Hernán López (AM): Only in the 54th percentile in xA, but he’s a good progressive passer and there’s lots of untapped potential in there.
- Daniel (GK): Turns out he was an even bigger band-aid in 2023 than we realized.
- Niko Tsakiris (CM): The only academy product who’s gotten regular minutes this season hasn’t really taken a step forward, but has the tools to be very, very good.
Just talking about what could happen on the field, I’d say a 4-2-3-1 with Ebobisse at the 9, López at the 10, Tsakiris at the 8 and Espinoza on the right wing seems like a good way to work academy left wingers Cruz Medina and Chance Cowell (Cade’s younger brother) into regular minutes. Edwyn Mendoza at d-mid when Carlos Gruezo (who was poor in 2024) gets rotated out, and suddenly you’re making room for three academy products instead of letting them wither on the vine (or blossom at RSL).
Oscar Verhoeven – a teammate of Medina and Mendoza's both in the Quakes academy and with the US U-20s – is finally getting on the field now and should be the presumptive starter next year, but the rest of the backline shouldn’t presume anything.
Neither, to be honest, should Daniel. He was awesome in 2023, but poor in 2024 even before his injury. And if he falters at all, the Quakes need to get Emi Ochoa onto the field. Ochoa is the No. 1 for Mexico’s U-20s, just leading them to the Concacaf title. He’s yet to play an MLS minute.
As for off-field stuff, I don’t think I’m the only one expecting some significant changes. Things certainly seem to be percolating:
Watch this space.
