Bethune in KC, Hutton in the Bay | Making sense of it all.

The NWSL is in a perpetual state of silly season, but with just a month until kickoff, two of the league’s best young midfielders are on the move. The Kansas City Current have acquired midfielder Croix Bethune from the Washington Spirit for $1 million ($900,000 in intraleague transfer funds and $100,000 cash). In conjunction with that acquisition, Bay FC acquired 20-year-old midfielder Claire Hutton for $1.1 million, and suddenly, both the Current and Spirit have some vulnerabilities to address. 

It’s a monumental series of transactions, ranking as the 2nd and 3rd most expensive intraleague transfers behind Gotham’s acquisition of Jaedyn Shaw last season. 

Washington Spirit: Screaming, Croixing, Throwing Up.

The Spirit side of this is easy to explain. 

Bethune asked for a trade, as her initial three-year contract with the club was entering its final year, with the Spirit owning an option for a 4th season in DC. It’s no secret that the Spirit will have to mind its cap over the next few years following Trinity Rodman’s historic deal, and with players returning from injury/maternity leave, Bethune wasn’t likely to receive the raise she was looking for with the club that traded Ashley Sanchez to draft her in 2024. 

Washington is spoiled for depth, especially after acquiring 18-year-old Paraguayan forward Claudia Martínez last month, but losing Croix is a hit given how well she linked up with Rodman to progress the Spirit’s attack. 

While there may be options, none of them are perfect replications of the danger Bethune possesses with the ball at her feet. Bethune led the Spirit in key passes (26) last season, and that includes the first half of the season, where she was trying to find her game post-ACL recovery… and that’s the rub here. Bethune dropped from a g+ of 2.69 in 2024 (6th in NWSL) to -0.88 in 2025. The Spirit can replace that production, but it may require adjusting the way that the Spirit links between the defensive midfield and the attack. 

However, if Bethune was returning to her 2024 form, one that led the league in assists and finished 5th with 13 goals and assists, that’s much harder to replace – Bethune generated 2.36 expected goals + expected assists through 3 playoff matches.

I would expect Haley Carter to keep tinkering with her roster, even if that continues into the summer, but for now, it’s a roster with some questions that weren’t there on Tuesday.

KC Currently unbalanced.

Speaking of rosters with questions. 

Rose Lavelle missing half of the NWSL season resulted in Gotham reaching full strength later than they would have liked, scaping and clawing its way into an 8th place finish. Unfortunately, that was a disaster of a matchup for the NWSL Shield-winning KC Current, who needed a 96th-minute Ellie Wheeler goal to force extra time. 

The Current have, in my opinion, overreacted to that loss. 

Tough after back to back campaigns where they thought of themselves as NWSL Cup favorites, but still a group that was in its own stratosphere last season.

The 2025 Current were elite on both sides of the ball, had great balance between a stable backline, a great double pivot of a ball moving Lo’eau Labonta, and a possession dominant Claire Hutton, which gave them the platform to let the attack run loose with Temwa Chawinga and Michelle Cooper stretching the lines to their absolute limits. 

However, the loss to Gotham – and the 3-2 loss to Orlando in 2024 – seems to have infected the club’s psyche. Vlatko Andonovski moved up top, GM Caitlin Carducci was swapped for Ryan Dell, and Chris Armas was hired to replace Andonovski on the touchline.

Those moves on their own were enough to leave outside observers scratching their heads, but the decision to swap Claire Hutton for Croix Bethune leaves a well balanced formation – maybe the best the league has ever seen in regular season play – with a sudden lack of stability in front of the centerbacks. 

Talent-wise, the Current will be fine. They were so far ahead of the pack last season that these apparent missteps might not really matter at the end of the day, with the clubs behind them with 21 points separating them from 2nd place last season. 

Swapping Bethune for Hutton could seem like an equal swap. Young USWNT midfielders with room to grow in their games, and casual observers might remember Bethune’s 2024 and see this as a home run for KC, but it isn’t that simple.

Hutton is already an elite CM/CDM hybrid at just 20 years of age. Contractually, she finds herself in a similar spot as Bethune, third-season players eligible for sizeable raises on their rookie contracts, but the space they occupy could not be more different. While Bethune no doubt adds to the KC Current attack, there’s still a question of whether Bethune and Sentnor can play together, with Sentnor most likely starting up top after the departure of Bia this offseason. 

How the attack fits together is an interesting wrinkle – Bethune, Sentnor, and Debinha are all vying for similar positioning and playing time. The injuries to Cooper and Chawinga help solve that logjam initially, with all three able to spend time on the wings and drift centrally while the fullbacks build out wide. 

The more pressing problem occurs behind that trio. The double pivot of Hutton and LaBonta gelled because Hutton was the possession engine, freeing LaBonta to progress the ball up the pitch and push into the attacking third. 

Without Hutton and without a secondary signing, it’s tough to see where that balance comes in unless the plan is to utilize a 3 CB system. Bailey Feist and Rocky Rodríguez should be able to slot in well enough, but neither are long term options in the starting XI.

Some tough questions for a retooled front office to answer, especially without some key contributors through the early weeks of the season. 

The back four will be strong, the attack will still be elite, but without balance, it’s hard to see how they’ve addressed the concerns from back-to-back playoff heartbreaks. 

BAYbay, is this a playoff club?

The biggest winner of the day was Bay FC, who have the defensive midfielder that they’ve been searching for over the past two seasons. Hutton instantly upgrades the midfield of a club that finished 16 points behind the pace last season. 

Bay was a bit unlucky in 2025. 

The underlying numbers tell the story of a club that should have been in the hunt for a playoff spot, but lacked the outstanding individual performances to push them into the conversation. The expectations are higher with Emma Coates likely to squeeze more out of her squad than Albertin Montoya last season.

The approach this offseason has been pointed. Acquire young talent that can build the club into a contender. A few players from Coates’s past as the U23 England manager, Alex Pfeiffer, who was looking for playing time heading into the World Cup cycle, and now, Claire Hutton.

In Hutton, Bay has acquired a proven, borderline World Class midfielder who has room to grow in year three of her young professional career. 

The roster is much more competitive than it was a month ago, and if Bay FC can win the race to Chelsea’s Catarina Macario – a move she’d reportedly welcome as a Stanford alum – then there is a more serious conversation to be had as Seattle and Portland have stood pat through the offseason so far.

That’s a big if, though.

If the Macario move doesn’t materialize, Bay is taking last season’s league-worst attack into a new season while supplementing with talented – but unproven – young attackers. Can Alex Pfeiffer step into a starting role and become the league’s next breakout attacker? Absolutely… but it’s far from a given. The addition of Hutton helps shore up the club’s health both against the ball and in possession, but there is still a startling lack of NWSL goals on the roster, with Penelope Hocking’s 6 goals leading all players last season.

If Hocking can keep that pace over a full season, if Pfeiffer can step up to full-time minutes, and if they can acquire a player of High Impact, then we can talk playoff aspirations. Until then, this is a good step forward for a long-term project.

Thanks for reading. If you like my work, consider subscribing and supporting independent soccer journalism.