Sporting KC 2019 Year in Review: Jimmy Medranda

The 2019 MLS season is one Sporting Kansas City fans will be looking to forget. But with a very long offseason ahead that may not have soccer until March (assuming no MLSPA strike), we feel compelled to look back at the good and the bad from 2019. For the full list of players reviewed, head to our dedicated Year in Review page.

The Blue Testament continues our look back at 2019 with a player Peter Vermes asks to play just about everywhere — Jimmy Medranda.

2019 Stats*

Games Played (Started): 10 (2)

Minutes Played: 176

Games Suspended: 0

Goals: 0

Assists: 1

xG (expected goals): 0.25

Positions Played: Midfielder, LW, LB, CF

2019 Salary: $155,004.00

Contract Through (Option Years): 2019 (2020)

*All stats from 2019 MLS regular season unless otherwise noted.

Best Moment of 2019

Returning from injury on May 26th against the Seattle Sounders. He only played a minute in the victory but he got back on the field again next week against the LA Galaxy. Coming back from an injury that severe is an accomplishment all alone. The sad thing was after playing in back-to-back games, he wouldn’t play another MLS game until August 10th in an eight minute sub appearance against Real Salt Lake.

Worst Moment of 2019

4-1 loss to Minnesota United in the US Open Cup. Sporting KC has a proud tradition of competing in the Open Cup. Things looked promising early as Medranda assisted Gerso on a goal. However, it went down hill in a hurry as Medranda had a rough outing defensively and he may have cost himself any further minutes at left back with the performance.

An honorable (dishonorable?) mention has to go to his start at center forward against Orlando City. Though I put that more on Vermes than Jimmy. Especially when Busio played winger in that game and a simple flip of positions between the two seemed so much more logical.

Interesting Stat

176 minutes. Medranda didn’t even play two full games in MLS. He was out for a chunk of the season as he recovered from his knee surgery, but it was a shockingly low amount of field time for him in 2019 (he did have the above mentioned US Open Cup start and three starts for 203 minutes with the Swope Park Rangers).

It’ll be interesting to see if he can carve out more time on the field in 2020 (if his option is picked up). I’d like to see him primarily in the midfield or as an offensive fullback (or simply a winger). I’m surprised he didn’t get more minutes on the wing with Salloi being so out of form.

Fan Vote: Keep, Banish or Wait

Keep: 85.4%

Banish: 6.8%

Wait: 7.8%

Overwhelmingly fans voted to keep Medranda. Only six players scored higher than him (Johnny Russell, Felipe Gutierrez, Gianluca Busio, Tim Melia and Jaylin Lindsey). 2020 might be a make or break year for Medranda. He was coming off a bad injury and missed preseason and much of the regular season. But when he arrived back, he didn’t break into the starting lineup of a struggling team. He’ll be 26 in February and it sort of feels like he might need to take a bigger step forward. At his salary though, if nothing else, he’s cheap depth across all three lines.