2026 MLS PAL Rating and Value Rating: performance and contract value

Two scores from 0 to 100. PAL Rating measures the season's performance against regulars at the same position (goalkeepers, center backs, fullbacks, central midfielders, attacking midfielders and wingers, strikers): 50 is the median regular. Salary never enters it. Value Rating answers a different question: for what the player costs, does the return come in more or less than expected?

WAR, in wins →Payrolls →

Top goalkeeper

99PAL97ValueMatt TurnerNE · Elite Top center back

99PAL91ValueHenry KesslerCLT · Elite

Top fullback99PAL93ValueNouhouSEA · Elite

Top central midfielder99PAL0ValueRodrigo de PaulMIA · Elite Top attacking midfielder or winger

99PAL0ValueLionel MessiMIA · Elite Top striker99PAL81ValuePetar MusaDAL · Elite

Best contracts

Highest Value Rating among players rated 70 or more.

100Anthony MarkanichMIN · 0.40 M$ · WAR paid 0.1, produced 0.8
99Finn SurmanPOR · 0.30 M$ · WAR paid 0.1, produced 0.6
99Justin CheRBNY · 0.50 M$ · WAR paid 0.1, produced 0.6
99Frankie WestfieldPHI · 0.13 M$ · WAR paid 0.0, produced 0.5
99Jackson RagenSEA · 0.64 M$ · WAR paid 0.2, produced 0.6

Heaviest contracts

Lowest Value Rating among compensation of $3M or more.

0Lionel MessiMIA · 28.33 M$ · WAR paid 7.8, produced 2.2
0Son Heung-MinLAFC · 11.15 M$ · WAR paid 3.1, produced 0.8
0Rodrigo de PaulMIA · 9.69 M$ · WAR paid 2.7, produced 1.0
0Emil ForsbergRBNY · 6.04 M$ · WAR paid 1.7, produced 0.5
0Miles RobinsonCIN · 3.95 M$ · WAR paid 1.1, produced 0.3

The scale — PAL Rating

90–100 Elite
80–89 Excellent
70–79 Very good
60–69 Above average
40–59 Around average
20–39 Below average
0–19 Very poor

The scale — Value Rating

90–100 Exceptional value
75–89 Very good contract
55–74 Good value
45–54 Fair value
25–44 Poor return
0–24 Very poor return

Regulars only

#	Player
1	Petar MusaDAL · ST · 28	99	81	2.88	0.9	99	95	77	70	97	95
2	Antoine GriezmannORL · ST · 35	97	—	—	0.5	93	89	85	89	58	89
3	Hugo CuypersCHI · ST · 29	95	45	3.53	0.5	95	99	83	32	36	99
4	Prince OwusuMTL · ST · 29	93	77	1.33	0.4	97	44	91	91	9	66
5	Brian WhiteVAN · ST · 30	91	70	1.06	0.2	87	97	97	42	38	28
6	Son Heung-MinLAFC · ST · 33	89	0	11.15	0.8	79	85	13	93	99	77
7	Preston JuddSJ · ST · 27	87	97	0.30	0.8	75	91	93	36	77	56
8	Marco ReusLA · ST · 37	85	61	0.90	0.0	91	19	36	99	44	50
9	Luis SuárezMIA · ST · 39	83	69	0.80	0.1	89	83	54	85	40	60
10	Sergi SolansRSL · ST · 23	81	95	0.09	0.6	74	68	99	58	19	79
11	Milan IloskiPHI · ST · 26	79	86	0.63	0.4	83	81	44	83	70	7
12	Martín OjedaORL · ST · 27	77	71	1.78	0.4	77	70	25	87	85	32
13	Justin EllisORL · ST · 19	75	88	0.11	0.3	85	7	11	97	95	26
14	Kévin DenkeyCIN · ST · 25	74	34	3.81	0.4	66	87	56	30	91	54
15	Logan FarringtonDAL · ST · 24	72	84	0.42	0.3	70	72	64	79	48	68
16	Nicolás FernándezNYC · ST · 26	70	30	3.65	0.3	68	56	1	95	87	58
17	Tom BarlowCIN · ST · 30	68	84	0.12	0.2	50	75	89	44	34	72
18	Sam SurridgeNSH · ST · 27	66	2	5.93	0.0	81	93	58	15	50	3
19	Kelvin YeboahMIN · ST · 26	64	62	1.56	0.2	72	64	79	3	75	1
20	Kevin KelsyPOR · ST · 21	62	62	0.80	0.0	64	79	74	46	7	23
21	Tai BariboDC · ST · 28	60	47	2.35	0.2	62	62	87	21	23	34
22	Julian HallRBNY · ST · 18	58	86	0.26	0.3	44	46	81	40	79	21
23	Stephen AfrifaSKC · ST · 25	56	84	0.11	0.2	34	54	66	48	89	30
24	Hany MukhtarNSH · ST · 31	54	5	5.41	0.1	52	74	23	81	62	9
25	Marcus IngvartsenSD · ST · 30	52	44	1.80	0.0	60	60	72	62	1	48
26	Rafael NavarroCOL · ST · 26	50	70	1.45	0.3	58	58	17	28	83	74
27	Simon BecherSTL · ST · 26	48	80	0.44	0.2	56	40	70	64	28	36
28	Robert LewandowskiCHI · ST · 37	46	—	—	0.1	54	66	48	19	60	15
29	Germán BerterameMIA · ST · 27	44	13	3.82	0.0	48	28	75	74	17	62
30	Daniel RíosMTL · ST · 31	42	72	0.24	0.0	38	52	95	50	3	5
31	Josh SargentTOR · ST · 26	40	13	5.27	0.4	32	48	46	26	74	87
32	Taylor CalheiraSKC · ST · 24	38	79	0.10	0.1	36	42	30	77	21	91
33	Christian RamírezATX · ST · 35	36	60	0.58	-0.1	42	77	34	23	52	17
34	Louis MunteanuDC · ST · 24	34	54	1.63	0.1	46	26	40	75	56	13
35	Dor TurgemanNE · ST · 22	32	74	0.80	0.2	40	11	62	54	68	70
36	Dejan JoveljicSEA · ST · 26	30	8	3.31	-0.3	28	50	5	52	64	85
37	Robin LodCHI · ST · 33	28	54	0.87	-0.1	21	32	32	72	66	44
38	Dániel GazdagNE · ST · 30	26	23	2.65	-0.1	13	30	60	11	81	40
39	Idan ToklomatiCLT · ST · 21	25	56	0.78	-0.1	30	25	68	25	15	64
40	Brandon VázquezATX · ST · 27	23	24	3.70	0.2	7	15	52	1	93	93
41	Diego RossiCLB · ST · 28	21	13	3.48	-0.1	26	38	19	34	54	42
42	Brais MéndezCLB · ST · 29	19	—	—	-0.1	15	36	3	66	72	38
43	Nathan OrdazLAFC · ST · 22	17	54	0.55	-0.2	17	13	42	68	30	25
44	Emmanuel Latte LathATL · ST · 27	15	11	3.74	-0.1	23	9	50	7	42	83
45	Bruno DamianiPHI · ST · 24	13	55	0.85	-0.1	25	17	15	56	26	75
46	Danny MusovskiSEA · ST · 30	11	44	0.71	-0.3	11	21	38	17	11	52
47	Fafa PicaultATL · ST · 35	9	54	0.14	-0.3	19	34	26	5	5	46
48	Myrto UzuniATX · ST · 31	7	14	2.31	-0.4	9	23	21	9	25	81
49	Ezekiel AlladohPHI · ST · 20	5	54	0.54	-0.2	5	3	28	60	13	19
50	Duncan McGuireORL · ST · 25	3	40	0.92	-0.3	1	5	7	13	32	97

How it's calculated

In MLS, salary follows a player's status (Designated Player, allocation money, draft, homegrown) far more than his output: the line linking performance to salary is nearly flat. Value Rating therefore measures surplus, as in baseball. The price of a win comes from regulars who produce (about $3.6M per win in 2026); the value produced is WAR × that price; the surplus, that value minus the season's guaranteed compensation. It is turned into a standard score within the position, then 0 to 100. It measures the sporting value of the contract: a very well-paid Designated Player can be excellent and still score low, because his pay exceeds the sporting value our WAR assigns him. His commercial value (tickets, subscriptions, sponsors, media rights) is not counted.

Data: American Soccer Analysis and ESPN; salaries updated daily.