Official: Colorado Rapids Acquire Brazilian Defender Rafael Santos

Commerce City, CO– The Colorado Rapids have signed Brazilian wingback Rafael Santos from Orlando City. Colorado acquired Santos for $125,000 2025 GAM, and another $200,000 of conditional 2026 GAM if certain performance metrics are met. Orlando retains a sell-on percentage as well. Santos has his green card, so he will not require an international roster slot. Santos comes to Colorado on a contract option year for Orlando, with Colorado now having an option for 2026. As close to a loan with an option to buy without it actually being a loan. 

At 27 years old, Rafael Santos has played for several Brazilian teams before making the move to Orlando in 2023. He started his career at Mirasol in 2017, before moving to Cruziero. He was loaned out to multiple teams, including Chapecoense AF, Inter de Limeira, and Ponte Preta, before returning to Cruziero. Finally landing at Coritiba before his move to MLS. Santos has since made 93 appearances for the Lions, scoring twice and assisting seven times. He was a regular starter in 2023 and 2024. But this season, he only has six starts in league play.

For Colorado, Rafael Santos is an interesting signing that came out of left field. Left back had looked like a position that had a nailed-down starter and depth behind. Sam Vines has been the starter recently, and is on a decently hefty salary to be on the bench. Jackson Travis has been good to great in his minutes at left-back. He also had that red card at LAFC.

Santos is on an option year this season and is going into another option year next season. It would be a weird transfer for Colorado to make if he weren’t in the long-term plans. This could mean we could see the departure of either left-back sooner rather than later.

Sam Vines would be a difficult player to move on from, given that he’s a Colorado native. He has shown flashes in his return to Colorado, but has largely underperformed his usual standards and remains on a pretty hefty $900,000 salary. Rafael Santos would fit the Vines mold as a more attacking wingback option, and could prove to be a cheaper but similar production option for the position. Vines has also been played as a winger, and while it would be a long shot, there is potential for Vines to go further up the field, with Santos and Travis splitting minutes at left-back.

The other option is to loan out Jackson Travis, getting him valuable minutes elsewhere while the team goes all in on attacking left-backs. On paper, Rafael Santos seems to be a similar mold to Sam Vines, and if the team looks to continue in the 5-2-3 formation that we saw against Minnesota, Santos fits in behind Vines better than Travis would. If the Rapids want to go all in on putting Sam Vines in positions where he can better succeed, bringing in Rafael Santos to provide reinforcement at a similar position would make sense.  

Rafael Santos will come to Colorado on a base salary of $375,000, fitting right in the middle of Vines’ $900k and Travis’ $100k salaries. Santos could come to Colorado as a cost-cutting measure, with the team moving on from Vines. However, the Rapids have recently moved away from three of their top four earners coming into the season (Cabral, Mihailovic, and Awaziem). Surely the team is not strapped for cash on player wages. This could be seen as an upgrade from Jackson Travis, which would better reflect where the team is financially.

Either way, this transfer seems like part one of a multiple-part plan from Colorado. Santos marks the fourth defender that Colorado has signed in the summer transfer window. You would be hard-pressed to find another MLS team spending as much as Colorado does on their defense, coming in at around $4 million for their starting four going into the season. It hasn’t worked out so far this season, and with some turnover along the backline, we could see a completely different Rapids look as soon as this season. All of the winter transfers have aimed the team towards a five-back system with attacking wing-backs on either side of the three center-backs. It will be interesting to see how the team will operate with all of these new signings. 

Rafael Santos will be the second Brazilian named Rafael in Colorado, with Rafa Navarro getting a Portuguese-speaking teammate with Santos. If Santos is able to keep Navarro happy, the transfer could already be worth every penny for Colorado. Either way, Colorado will be getting a solid option at wingback with Santos. Welcome to Colorado, Rafael Santos!

Photo Credit: Mark Shaiken

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