The MLS summer transfer window has come and gone, which means we can now formulate rash conclusions about all of it well before we actually know how any of these moves will pan out.

There was no shortage of action this summer, with clubs across the league shelling out big transfer fees, moving on from expensive mistakes and generally reshaping their rosters ahead of the stretch run.

Some of those moves will inevitably look a lot different a year from now. But for the time being, there were a handful of teams whose business stood out to me, whether because of the players they brought in, the value they got going the other direction or simply because they showed some ambition in trying to improve their situation.

With that in mind, here are five MLS teams that I think nailed the summer transfer window.

New England Revolution

Key incoming moves

  • GK - Matt Turner (loan extension from Olympique Lyon)
  • D - Cody Baker (loan from Seattle Sounders)
  • F - Marcos Zambrano (trade from Real Salt Lake)
  • F - Jack Harrison (transfer from Leeds United)
  • D - Tylon Smith (loan from Queens Park Rangers)
  • M - Dániel Gazdag (free agent)
  • D - Joshua Wynder (loan from SL Benfica)

Key outgoing moves

  • None that were particularly notable

The Jack Harrison move already looks ridiculous. Harrison was one of the league’s best young players during his first MLS stint with NYCFC, then went overseas and established himself as a legitimate Premier League-level winger. He wasn’t just a guy who briefly made it to England and disappeared. Harrison made 181 Premier League appearances between Leeds United and Everton, including several highly productive seasons as a regular starter for Leeds.

Now he’s back in MLS and, perhaps unsurprisingly, looks like a difference-maker. Harrison has six assists in his first five matches with New England, immediately establishing himself as one of the league’s most productive creators. And the reported acquisition cost? Around $1 million, which I frankly couldn't believe when I saw it. For a fee that even most broke teams can probably afford, I would’ve loved to see the Sounders pursue that this summer, and watching how quickly he’s taken off in New England has done nothing to change my mind.

Dániel Gazdag's stock clearly took a hit during an underwhelming stint with Columbus but New England doesn’t need Philadelphia Gazdag to run the team. They already have Carles Gil doing that at an MVP-caliber level.

Then there’s the secondary business, which is what makes this feel like a great window. I'm obviously biased on this one, but Cody Baker is a useful young flier who showed plenty of promise during his time in Seattle. The Revs also added Marcos Zambrano and Josh Wynder, giving first-year head coach Marko Mitrović a few more young pieces to work with.

The Matt Turner transaction might be the sneaky masterstroke of the whole thing. New England extended his loan from Lyon, potentially through 2027 with a purchase option, while restructuring the deal to get Turner off a Designated Player slot. He’s also been one of the best goalkeepers in MLS this season, second in the league in goals prevented according to FotMob (behind only Seattle's Andrew Thomas).

So the Revs essentially retained an elite MLS goalkeeper while creating the roster flexibility that allowed them to use the newly opened DP slot on Harrison. That’s a cook for a team that was already having an underrated good season before the window even opened.

St. Louis CITY SC

Key incoming moves

  • M - Alexandru Mățan (free)
  • M - Carlo Holse (transfer from Samsunspor)
  • F - Damion Downs (loan from Southampton FC)
  • F - Rafael Navarro (trade from Colorado Rapids)

Key outgoing moves

  • M - Marcel Hartel (transfer to Hannover 96)
  • M - Eduard Löwen (trade to San Jose Earthquakes)

Let’s get this out of the way first: St. Louis almost certainly overpaid for Rafael Navarro.

The reported package of up to $12.25 million is a massive fee for a player who probably isn’t a $12 million striker on the merits. But there’s another way to look at it: maybe you overpaid, but what exactly did you overpay for?

Navarro is about as known a quantity as you can find at striker in MLS. He scored 12 league goals in 2024, another 12 in 2025 and had already reached 11 for Colorado this season before the trade. Run him out there for a full MLS season and there’s every reason to believe you’re getting double-digit goals. He’s also more well-rounded than those numbers might suggest, with the work rate and pressing ability to contribute even when he isn’t scoring.

There’s value in that certainty, particularly for a St. Louis team that has been one of the hottest clubs in MLS over the last couple of months. They aren’t paying $12 million because they think they’ve discovered the next great striker. They’re paying a premium for reliability.

I like the move even more in conjunction with the addition of Damion Downs. The 22-year-old US international generated a lot of interest around MLS and arrives on loan with an option to buy after playing in Germany, giving St. Louis a much more speculative, higher-upside bet at the same position. Navarro gives you the floor, Downs is the lottery ticket. If Downs hits, you may have found another starting-caliber striker. If he doesn’t, your entire attack isn’t riding on it because you already have Navarro.

That feels like a smart way to attack the position, and gets at something I tend to look for when evaluating a transfer window: clarity of thought process. Taking a swing on a player like Downs is a lot easier to like when you’ve constructed the roster so that you don’t need the swing to hit. St. Louis can afford to find out what Downs is because, if Navarro simply continues being the player he’s been throughout his MLS career, they already have a reliable starting striker.

That distinction matters. A high-upside flier can be a great piece of business when you have a contingency plan and a much shakier one when your season depends on that player immediately becoming something he’s never been before. With Navarro and Downs, it’s pretty easy to see the logic: establish a high floor, then take a shot at raising the ceiling.

Alexandru Mățan is another addition I actually like quite a bit. He was never a superstar in Columbus, but he’s a proven MLS attacker who had some legitimately productive stretches with the Crew, and I always thought he was an effective player there.

There was smart business going the other direction, too. St. Louis moved Eduard Löwen, a Designated Player who no longer seemed central to their plans, to San Jose. That doesn’t literally make the Navarro fee any smaller, but it does offset some of the aggression of that expenditure.

What I like most is the context. St. Louis didn’t make all these moves because the house was burning down. They made them while already on the ascent.

Columbus Crew

Key incoming moves

  • M - Brais Méndez (transfer from Real Sociedad)
  • F - Gonzalo Tapia (loan from São Paulo)
  • F - Josef Martínez (free)
  • M - Santiago Rodríguez (transfer from Botafogo)
  • M - Anass Zaroury (loan from Panathinaikos FC)

Key outgoing moves

  • F - Diego Rossi (transfer to CF Monterrey)
  • M - Max Arfsten (transfer to Middlesbrough FC)
  • M - Dániel Gazdag (mutual contract termination)

I’d rather see a club recognize that the current version isn’t good enough and aggressively try to change it than make a couple of moves around the margins and hope for a different result. That's why I'm into what Columbus are doing here.

On one hand, this is an enormous amount of midseason turnover, and teams generally don’t perform this type of major surgery when things are going well. The Crew needed a reset, and the fact that they felt compelled to bring in this many players is probably an indictment of where the roster was before the window opened.

On the other hand, if you’re going to perform major surgery, this is a pretty compelling collection of players to come out of it with, even taking into account the departure of big names like Diego Rossi, Max Arfsten and Daniel Gazdag.

Brais Méndez is the headliner and, admittedly, my initial enthusiasm for this one was based at least partially on vibes. But he’s exactly the type of player who feels like he should thrive in MLS: a technically gifted attacking midfielder arriving in his prime after spending years as a high-level player in LaLiga. The early returns have only reinforced that impression, with Méndez looking immediately comfortable and impactful since arriving in Columbus.

Santiago Rodríguez is another one where I would’ve been pretty excited if the Sounders had found a way to get involved. He’s still only 26, already has a track record as a high-end MLS attacker from his time with NYCFC and returns to the league with championship experience. There’s considerably less projection when you’re acquiring a player who has already shown he can be a difference-maker in the league.

Josef Martínez doesn’t need to be the god-tier Atlanta United version of Josef to be useful. Add in Gonzalo Tapia, Eric Bailly and Anass Zaroury, and Columbus suddenly has a lot more options than they did before the window.

Portland Timbers

Key incoming moves

  • F - Vincent Janssen (free)
  • D - Ronald Hernández (trade from Atlanta United)
  • D - Joel Waterman* (trade from Chicago Fire FC)

Key outgoing moves

  • F - Felipe Mora (transfer to Atlético de San Luis)
  • F - Kevin Kelsy (transfer to Rangers FC)

*Signed as a free agent immediately after the Secondary Transfer Window closed.

It's unfortunate to report, but I fear the Portland Timbies may have cooked here.

The Kevin Kelsy deal is an excellent bit of business. There’s plenty to like about Kelsy, who is still just 22 and certainly showed flashes of becoming a high-level MLS striker during his time in Portland. But a reported package of around $13 million from Rangers is an enormous return for a player who hadn’t truly established himself as a star yet. Portland essentially sold the projection of what Kelsy might become at something approaching star-player pricing. And that move looks even better because of what happened next.

If you’re going to cash out on a young striker with that type of upside, you’d better have a plan for replacing his production, especially with Felipe Mora also on his way out. Enter Vincent Janssen, who has proceeded to look incredible since arriving in Portland. The former Tottenham and Monterrey striker immediately bagged a hat trick against Colorado that somehow, after more than 15 years in MLS, was the first in Timbers history.

Sell Kelsy for $13 million, replace him with Janssen, then watch Janssen immediately start annihilating people. Pretty difficult to argue with that sequence.

Portland also added Joel Waterman immediately after the window closed. He’s not a superstar, but he’s exactly the type of useful piece that pretty much any MLS roster can use.

And while it’s obviously not a transfer, the broader context here includes the decision to replace Phil Neville with Martí Cifuentes. The early returns from that change, combined with Janssen’s immediate impact, have made Portland look like a team with some actual momentum again.

That’s what I like about the summer as a whole. They cashed out Kelsy at what looks like an excellent number, had a clear plan for replacing him and may have somehow upgraded the position in the process. Throw in another solid MLS veteran and a coaching change that appears to have given the whole operation a jolt, and, unfortunately, it looks like the Timbies are, in fact, onto something.

Atlanta United

Key incoming moves

  • D - Júnior Alonso (free)
  • D - Paulo Díaz (free)
  • M - Mauricio Amaro (transfer from Defensor Sporting)
  • F - Breel Embolo (transfer from Stade Rennais)
  • M - Giuliano Galoppo (loan from River Plate)

Key outgoing moves

  • F - Emmanuel Latte Lath (loan to Union Berlin)
  • M - Adyn Torres (loan to FC Nomme United)
  • D - Stian Gregersen (transfer to Malmö FF)
  • D - Ronald Hernández (trade to Portland Timbers)

Atlanta is probably the selection on this list that comes with the most caveats. Some of you may be surprised to see me put them on here, given my long-stated morbid fascination with the downfall of the Five Stripes. But hear me out.

It starts with Emmanuel Latte Lath. Atlanta paid an MLS-record transfer fee to acquire him just last year, and there’s really no way around the fact that it was one of the biggest whiffs in MLS history. By this summer, the situation had reached a point where both sides desperately needed a reset, so simply finding a way to get Latte Lath out of the immediate picture with his loan to Union Berlin felt like progress.

Then, in extremely Atlanta United fashion, their response was to turn around and take another gigantic swing.

The Five Stripes reportedly spent around $18 million to bring in Breel Embolo from Stade Rennais, and I’ll admit there’s part of me that looks at that move and thinks: Haven’t we seen this movie before?

Atlanta’s track record with expensive foreign attacking acquisitions since the glory days of Miguel Almirón and Josef Martínez is honestly remarkable. Guys like Ezequiel Barco, Pity Martínez, Luiz Araújo and now Latte Lath all arrived amid varying levels of fanfare and never became the transformational stars Atlanta thought they were buying. So I’m not ready to declare Embolo the answer just because they threw another massive transfer fee at the problem.

But as someone who covers a broke team, there’s another part of me that genuinely respects the fact that their response to repeatedly missing on ambitious swings is apparently: Fuck it, we swing again.

What else are they supposed to do? The team hasn’t been good enough, the Latte Lath plan clearly wasn’t working and playing it safe wasn’t going to fix anything. Embolo is 29, has extensive experience in the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 and was excellent for Switzerland at this summer’s World Cup. He’s clearly talented, and he’s already shown some of what makes him intriguing in his first MLS appearance, scoring and causing problems throughout his debut against Miami.

Maybe Embolo becomes another name on Atlanta’s increasingly bizarre list of expensive misses. But similar to Columbus, I’d much rather see a club in Atlanta’s position acknowledge that it wasn’t working and take another legitimate shot at finding a difference-maker than retreat into conservatism because the last one went badly. Being a coward has never gotten anybody into MLS Cup contention.

They made a lot more moves, too. Júnior Alonso and Paulo Díaz are both experienced South American international center backs, while Mauricio Amaro gives them a younger U22 Initiative piece in midfield and Giuliano Galoppo arrived on loan from River Plate. I'm pretty skeptical of that collection, it has the familiar feel of Atlanta cycling through random guys from Argentina and hoping this group is the one that finally sticks.

But that’s also why I like the window as a whole. Atlanta finally treated their situation like one that required drastic intervention. They got out of the Latte Lath situation, replaced him with a genuinely exciting striker and made substantial changes elsewhere on the roster.

Will it work? I have absolutely no idea. Probably not, honestly. But after watching this club spin its wheels for this long, I can at least see the thought process. They needed to do something drastic, and they finally did, even if it arguably took way too long. There’s something to be said for that.