The New Revolution’s coffers are flush with liquid assets and newly minted Sporting Director Curt Onalfo became a buyer when the MLS trade window opened for business on Monday.
In the first outside acquisition of his tenure, Onalfo obtained veteran defender Nick Lima from Austin FC in a cash only transaction.
The Revolution departed with $275,000 in 2024 General Allocation Money with an addition $25,000 in 2024 GAM if Lima achieves prescribed performance-based metrics. Lima is signed through the 2024 season.
“Nick Lima has proven to be a dependable defender in Major League Soccer over the last seven seasons and has been a steady presence on the backline for both his previous clubs,” said Onalfo.
“With the ability to play at either outside back positions, we foresee Nick making important contributions to our squad and bolstering our defensive unit in a key area for the 2024 season.”
The “key area” Onalfo referred to is left back. Lima, a right-footed kicker, was brought in to fill the void that opened when Brandon Bye suffered a torn ACL in a League’s Cup match against Atlas FC on Aug. 3 at Gillette Stadium.
Bye underwent surgery at Mass. General Hospital on Aug. 28 and was predicted to be out for nine months. Left back became a revolving door during the tumultuous final three months of the 2023 season, most often filled by outside back Ryan Spaulding, center back Ben Sweat and midfielder Matt Polster.
Lima, 29, is a 5-9, 176-pound, native of Castro Valley, Calif., who played four collegiate seasons at Cal-Berkeley and later signed as a home-grown player with the San Jose Earthquakes.
Lima has made 195 regular season appearances for San Jose (2017-2020) and Austin FC (2021-2023) and is one of only five MLS defenders to have five assists in each of the last two seasons. Revolution right back DeJuan Jones is also one of the five.
Lima recorded just under 15,000 minutes on the pitch with eight goals and 20 assists. Lima has also been capped nine times by the United States National Team with two appearances in the CONCACAF Champions Cup.