Curt Onalfo Discusses Declining Dylan Borrero, Xavier Arreaga Options
The New England Revolution announced their end-of-season roster moves on Monday, with two notable names set to depart in 2025.
More than a month after the conclusion of a disappointing 2024 season, the New England Revolution announced their year-end roster decisions on Monday.
With nearly 1/3 of the 2024 roster leaving New England in 2025, two names stood out from the rest as notable departures.
The Moves
In total, 21 players will return to the Revolution in 2025. Esmir Bajraktarević, Noel Buck, Tomás Chancalay, Malcolm Fry, Carles Gil, Ian Harkes, Aljaž Ivačič, Mark-Anthony Kaye, Luca Langoni, Peyton Miller, Jack Panayotou, Matt Polster, Dave Romney, Santiago Suarez, Giacomo Vrioni, and Alhassan Yusuf will all return on guaranteed contracts.
Additionally, the Revs picked up the one-year options on Ema Boateng and Brandon Bye. The club also signed Will Sands and Earl Edwards Jr to new contracts.
Andrew Farrell signed a one-year deal that will also see him work as an assistant coach with the Revolution Academy.
The club declined the options of Xavier Arreaga, Joshua Bolma, Dylan Borrero, Nacho Gil, Tommy McNamara, and Jonathan Mensah. Additionally, Nick Lima, Tim Parker, Damian Rivera, Ryan Spaulding, and Bobby Wood are all out of contract.
Onalfo on Arreaga, Borrero
Arreaga and Borrero stood out on the list as the biggest departures of the season.
While depleting a large portion of the roster left the Revs motivated to improve in 2025, according to Revolution Sporting Director Curt Onalfo in Monday's press conference, he also acknowledged the departure of Arreaga, who was an important piece of the Revs’ starting XI in his lone season in Foxborough.
The experienced center back made 23 appearances for the Revs — including 22 starts — after joining New England from the Seattle Sounders in April 2023. Although Arreaga “did very well” after first joining the Revs, according to Onalfo, part of the reason his option was declined was due to a run of form that “really dropped off” towards the end of the season.
“I think for whatever reason, he had a hard time dealing with going to the [Ecuador] national team and actually not playing,” Onalfo said. “I think that hurt him and with his performances with us, especially when you look at how he performed earlier.”
Arreaga was away from New England for two international call-ups during the September and October windows, appearing on the bench in two games. He never saw any action on the field.
While Arreaga continued to start for the Revs through the end of the season when he wasn’t on international duty, he began to make costly mistakes in the backline regularly. Ultimately, the Revs decided to move on from the center back, who made $775,000 in guaranteed compensation, according to salary numbers released by the MLSPA on September 13.
“That was a difficult decision, but when players are on good salaries for our league, you look really hard at those players, because you have to be consistently producing,” Onalfo said. “That's the name of the game.”
Borrero, who signed as a U-22 player with a high upside in 2023, showed early signs of promise for the Revs in his first season. However, after being stretchered off the field vs. FC Cincinnati in April 2023 with an ACL injury that sidelined him for the better part of a year, the Brazilian winger struggled to return to his prior form after making his return in 2024.
”He's an extremely talented young player [who] had an awful injury,” Onalfo said. “He was just on the rise.”
Borrero scored five goals in 20 appearances prior to his injury. Since his return in April, he found the back of the net just once in 17 appearances. According to Onalfo, struggles both on and off the field ultimately led to the decision to move on.
”He wasn't able to have his family here because of Visa issues and things like that,” Onalfo said. “I think it wore on him. And when you look at the whole picture, and you look at the money that's being allocated, for us [it was] a difficult decision for us to say goodbye to him, and we'll use that money for other players.”
Onalfo also mentioned that Borerro would no longer occupy a U-22 roster spot, meaning that bringing him back would be a “huge cap hit” for the Revs. Borrero already made $600,000 in guaranteed compensation in 2024, according to the MLSPA. Given his struggles for form on the field, the increased cost was an investment that the Revs could not make.
“We created a lot of space [in the roster], so we have room to do things,” Onalfo said. “It's going to be a very active window for us. Our last window was extremely active. This will be even more active…So you're going to see a very busy offseason, and we're very confident, very optimistic.”
Interesting to hear about Borerro and the family/visa issue; dude had some clear attitude issues, but for some reason I was always routing for him. Also pretty wild that anyone on the Revs staff was transparent about their choices, I've been going to Revs games since Twellman was playing and it seems rare for anyone to explain player moves with specifics, its always vague or non-existent (ahem, Bruce Arena).
See how much egg Mr Awful gets on his face this coming season.