The Vancouver Whitecaps are adding 29-year-old striker Daniel Rios to their attack. Rios will be loaned from Liga MX side Chivas. Previous Whitecaps signings this window have come with a sense of uncertainty. But Rios is 29 and has played 4 MLS seasons, there is zero mystery about what he is going to provide and what he provides is pretty good.

Daniel Rios made the jump to MLS when Nashville, then in USL, was awarded an MLS franchise. He saw limited minutes but scored at a fairly high rate when he got on the pitch. This prompted Charlotte FC to say “Hey, this guy is scoring a lot in limited minutes, let’s sign him and give him some more minutes.” So they did that and he scored 7 goals in 1400 minutes despite Charlotte being pretty mid and missing the playoffs. This, in turn, prompted Liga MX side Chivas to say “Hey, this guy is scoring pretty well in MLS and he meets our rule of only signing Mexican players, let’s bring him in!” This did not go as well so Chivas loaned him back to MLS, where he joined Atlanta United. Once again, Rios scored reasonably well despite playing for an aggressively mid team.

Stats:

As outlined above, Rios has an established history of scoring at a high-end backup to low-end starter level on teams that were very middling. Of course, there is every chance the Whitecaps are going to be very middling next season, depending on whether they can nail that open DP slot or not, so we shouldn’t necessarily expect a big jump in production yet.

Rios does not have the elite offensive outputs of Brian White. But his skills are a little bit more spread out. He generally puts up between 0.45 and 0.5 xG+xA/90. For a bit of scale, Gauld and White both hovered around 0.6 last season, while previous backup striker Levonte Johnson was sitting at 0.25. So Rios is not going to be an MLS all-star but he is a really significant upgrade on the depth the Whitecaps had previously (and I’m saying this as the #1 Levonte Johnson defender).

In addition to scoring goals, Rios also provides quite a bit of value through passing.

He isn’t a player who is going to run the length of the field with the ball but he ranked fairly highly in penalty box and final third entries through carrying.

Rios is 6’1 and was in the 78th percentile for aerials won. So he adds a bit of physicality, something the Whitecaps have been missing over the last few seasons. The consensus online seems to be that he is a bit on the slow side so that probably precludes him playing at the same time as White. Still, the Whitecaps desperately needed a serviceable backup at the #9 position and Rios is pretty clearly that. 

Where We Stand:

With this addition, the shape of the rest of the Whitecaps’ roster is starting to become more clear. They have filled their backup striker need with a regular senior roster player. This leaves two needs, a replacement for Stuart Armstrong and another wide forward. I have gotten some pushback on the latter as a position of need. But even with the additions of Emannuel Sabbi and Jayden Nelson, the Whitecaps only have three players for two wide forward spots (Ryan Gauld being the third). I remain completely unconvinced by Ali Ahmed as a forward player so I think it’s clear more depth is needed there. Thanks to Manuel Veth’s reporting, we have a pretty good idea of how those needs will be addressed. 

Almost buried that part. Vancouver Whitecaps are on the lookout for a star DP. They want a creative midfielder to fill the Stuart Armstrong void and they have a list of candidates. Watch this space. #VWFC

— Manuel Veth (@manuelveth.bsky.social) 2025-02-13T22:25:37.391Z

From this information, we can infer that we will see a return to the 3DP+3U22 model with the DP slot being used as a direct replacement for Stuart Armstrong. This leaves a U-22 spot to be used on another wide attacking option. At least I think it does. 

The Zendejas Complication:

The Whitecaps have also added veteran domestic goalkeeper Adrian Zendejas. I have to say, I don’t quite see the vision with this one. Zendejas played in the Swedish second tier last season and under performed his expected goals against by about 3.5. Conversely, Max Anchor over-performed his expected goals against in MLSNP by 2. So if both Boehmer and Takaoka were to be unavailable it seems pretty clear that Anchor would give you the better chance to win, even if it wouldn’t be ideal to put him into MLS games just yet. 

I suppose the theory here is that having a veteran whose job is to sit on the bench and not complain frees up Anchor to be the WFC2 keeper full-time. But the only situation you would be forced to put Anchor on the bench instead of getting match time with WFC2 would be if one of Takaoka or Boehmer had a long-term injury. Maybe famous last words here, but how likely of a scenario is that really? Is it worth burning a roster spot over?

That roster spot could be consequential because as far as I can tell, the Whitecaps have a full supplemental roster. So unless they are going to move somebody out before the roster compliance deadline, Zendejas is going to hit the senior roster. Now, it could be that the cap hits of Rios, Sabbi, and Nelson end up being so low that the Whitecaps can fit in 19 or 20 senior roster players, in which case his addition would not block a U-22 signing. But even in that scenario, using a senior roster spot on a player who ideally won’t play a single minute seems like brutal resource management to me. I’ll wait to see if another shoe drops to condemn this addition outright but for now I am left scratching my head. 

Putting my Prediction Hat on:

I think, in the secondary window, we will see Damir Kreilach either waived or bought out to facilitate another signing (maybe to create room for that U-22). For now, they need bodies but with the addition of Rios his role in the team is becoming increasingly redundant (and it’s not like he played much anyway). We might also see Giuseppe Bovalina loaned during that time to open another international slot.