2025 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

99PALDayne St. ClairMIN · Elite Top center back

99PALJackson RagenSEA · Elite

Top fullback99PALAlex FreemanORL · Elite

Top central midfielder100PALBrian GutiérrezCHI · Elite

Top attacking midfielder or winger

99PALDénis BouangaLAFC · Elite Top striker

99PALLionel MessiMIA · Elite

Value Rating is only computed for the most recent season.

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	Lionel MessiMIA · ST · 38	99	3.4	99	99	71	99	99	51
2	Milan IloskiSD · ST · 25	97	0.5	97	97	68	88	95	14
3	Sam SurridgeNSH · ST · 26	95	1.6	94	94	90	56	97	66
4	Martín OjedaORL · ST · 26	94	0.6	88	69	38	97	77	42
5	Danny MusovskiSEA · ST · 29	92	0.5	92	88	97	18	29	81
6	Hany MukhtarNSH · ST · 30	90	0.7	90	73	29	95	81	44
7	Petar MusaDAL · ST · 27	88	0.6	84	82	49	77	66	99
8	Brian WhiteVAN · ST · 29	86	0.4	86	92	95	21	14	55
9	Luis SuárezMIA · ST · 38	84	0.2	95	34	42	94	53	75
10	Tai BariboPHI · ST · 27	82	0.2	77	95	84	36	51	21
11	Hugo CuypersCHI · ST · 28	81	0.7	75	81	60	58	88	88
12	Preston JuddSJ · ST · 26	79	0.5	73	71	88	75	58	31
13	Mikael UhrePHI · ST · 30	77	0.1	81	58	34	90	86	64
14	Christian BentekeDC · ST · 34	75	0.7	69	77	94	45	38	53
15	Josef MartínezSJ · ST · 32	73	0.3	68	86	86	31	64	8
16	Alonso MartínezNYC · ST · 26	71	0.6	79	84	81	25	21	34
17	Ramiro EnriqueORL · ST · 24	69	0.2	60	90	99	6	1	73
18	Prince OwusuMTL · ST · 28	68	0.8	56	45	79	60	84	86
19	Tani OluwaseyiMIN · ST · 25	66	-0.1	82	68	44	84	16	68
20	Rafael NavarroCOL · ST · 25	64	0.7	71	38	58	79	73	94
21	Idan ToklomatiCLT · ST · 20	62	0.0	66	66	75	66	49	38
22	Patrick AgyemangCLT · ST · 24	60	0.3	55	53	64	82	94	5
23	Ibrahim AliyuHOU · ST · 23	58	0.0	27	25	77	86	68	97
24	Bruno DamianiPHI · ST · 23	56	0.6	42	40	73	53	47	95
25	Cristian ArangoSJ · ST · 30	55	0.5	62	64	31	51	55	82
26	Darren YapiCOL · ST · 20	53	0.1	45	60	62	49	56	77
27	Tomás ChancalayNE · ST · 26	51	0.1	53	32	66	81	42	45
28	Kévin DenkeyCIN · ST · 24	49	-0.2	58	75	25	47	75	49
29	Luis MurielORL · ST · 34	47	0.2	64	14	14	92	44	56
30	João KlaussSTL · ST · 28	45	0.5	44	55	53	69	45	58
31	Christian RamírezLA · ST · 34	44	0.1	40	51	82	42	32	32
32	Jacen Russell-RoweCLB · ST · 22	42	-0.3	38	44	40	73	27	47
33	Eric Maxim Choupo-MotingRBNY · ST · 36	40	-0.2	51	62	5	64	71	27
34	Jamal ThiaréATL · ST · 32	38	-0.1	36	47	92	8	6	18
35	Nathan OrdazLAFC · ST · 21	36	-0.4	49	49	6	71	69	12
36	Kelvin YeboahMIN · ST · 25	34	0.1	34	56	27	12	82	62
37	Brandon VázquezATX · ST · 26	32	0.2	31	18	69	10	23	84
38	Dejan JoveljicSKC · ST · 25	31	-0.9	47	79	3	38	19	19
39	Leonardo CampanaNE · ST · 24	29	0.0	25	36	55	19	18	79
40	Myrto UzuniATX · ST · 30	27	0.0	29	31	21	44	40	60
41	Felipe MoraPOR · ST · 31	25	-0.2	32	16	45	34	36	25
42	Logan FarringtonDAL · ST · 23	23	0.0	10	19	12	40	62	92
43	William AgadaSKC · ST · 25	21	-0.3	21	8	47	62	12	6
44	Emmanuel Latte LathATL · ST · 26	19	-0.3	18	6	16	27	90	29
45	Diego RubioATX · ST · 32	18	0.0	12	10	1	55	79	90
46	Matheus NascimentoLA · ST · 21	16	-0.4	23	5	8	68	31	69
47	Daniel RíosVAN · ST · 30	14	-0.2	19	21	51	32	10	40
48	Jacob MurrellDC · ST · 21	12	-0.2	5	42	36	14	34	23
49	Ezequiel PonceHOU · ST · 28	10	-0.3	14	29	56	1	5	71
50	Ola BrynhildsenTOR · ST · 26	8	0.0	6	3	32	3	92	16

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.