Good Monday morning Caps fans. I hope you all are having a good start to what is hopefully a short work week. We hope your holiday season is treating you well.

This is part two of recapping the developments from a busy last week. While the front office was busy making moves, MLS confirmed what the Caps’ fixture list will look like next season, and it’s a doozy.

In addition to league play, the CONCACAF Champions League, and (we assume) the Canadian Championship, the Caps are getting roped into Leagues Cup after a reprieve last season.

Axel Schuster told the media that there was interest from players in doing so, as the bonus payouts are lucrative. By missing out last season, they were denied a payday. Fair play to the lads for getting a nicely-sized check out of the deal — they certainly deserve it. And they’ll definitely deserve it next season because they’ll be playing the most matches (likely) of any team in the league.

While I don’t begrudge the players their money, this setup creates a simple fairness issue, disadvantaging them at the expense of pretty much every other team in the league. No one else will have to play in four competitions next season, and, because the Canadian Championship has two legs for everything but the final (as opposed to the U.S. Open Cup), the matches will really start to stack up in a way that they wouldn’t for a U.S.-based side. The other option, withdrawing from the Canadian Championship, isn’t even worth discussing — as four time defending champs, the Caps deserve a chance to retain their title and every Canadian team should be participating in their domestic cup competition, just as every American side should be in the U.S. Open Cup.

Leagues Cup is a divisive issue, and I think it’s fair to wonder why it is happening at all, much less in a World Cup year. But I would hope even the most avowed Leagues Cup devotees (insofar as those exist) would agree that this system screws the Caps. This is especially true after this last season, when they already played the most matches of any team in the league (even when accounting for the Club World Cup). Clearly, Jesper Sorensen has been good about cultivating depth. No matter who is on the pitch, this team is clearly committed to winning and winning in style. That is all commendable.

But, let’s be real, MLS wanted Vancouver in Leagues Cup so they could put Thomas Müller in all the ads. That’s hardly a compelling reason to jeopardize player health and well-being and put one of your teams at a significant competitive disadvantage. If it were up to me, Vancouver would roll out the Whitecaps 2 team and call it a day. It’s a credit to this team that they not only won’t complain about this arrangement but will lean into it and try to win on every front. But what are blogs like this for except for complaining?

Best of the Rest

An interesting story I missed on whether the Tsleil-Waututh Nation could be buying into the Caps.

A look at what every team across the league will be shopping for this offseason (the Caps’ answer is boring, yet undeniably true).

You’ll never guess what Kianz Froese is up to these days.

The Inter Miami spending spree might not be over, with Messi & Co. targeting Argentine international Giovanni Lo Celso.