The Timbers and Melano announced this morning that they have mutually agreed to terminate the forward's contract, finally bringing to a close the Argentinian forward's largely deflating four-year career in the Rose City.
The Timbers first acquired Melano for a then-club record transfer fee in excess of $5 million in the summer of 2015, with the expectation that he'd be a cornerstone player for Caleb Porter's team for the rest of the decade and beyond.
But it didn't work out that way. Despite being given a clutch of opportunities to find his feet in MLS, Melano struggled badly. He scored just five goals in 50 league games, and, at the end of an extremely frustrating 2016 campaign, the Timbers cut ties and loaned him back to his native Argentina.
That looked like the end of the story for Melano in Portland. But after showing signs of life with Estudiantes, the Timbers — now managed by a fellow South American in Giovani Savarese — made the surprising decision last summer to bring Melano back to fill the Designated Player spot opened by Fanendo Adi's departure.
Expectations were decidedly and understandably low for Melano's second stint in Portland, and it didn't take anyone associated with the club long to see that he was fundamentally the same player they'd let go a year-and-a-half previously.
In just his second appearance after rejoining the team, Melano missed an open goal from two yards out that would have won a game for the Timbers in New England — a miss eerily similar to his open goal miss in Vancouver in the final day of the 2016 season.
It wasn't all bad for Melano last year. He did score a goal against Real Salt Lake and convert his penalty kick against Seattle as the Timbers advanced to the Western Conference Final at CenturyLink Field, but he played sparingly and often struggled with the tempo and physicality of the league.
Melano had a spot in the rotation at the beginning of this season, appearing in seven of the club's first ten league games and starting the match in Cincinnati in March, but he failed to register a goal or an assist or make any sort of notable impact at all. Brian Fernandez's arrival in May all but ended his career in Portland.
At 26 and without a club, Melano's career may very well be a tipping point. If he doesn't succeed with his next club, his future in the game will be in serious jeopardy.
The holes in his game that were so glaring from the first moment he arrived in Portland, starting with his lack of technical skill and middling soccer IQ, are still very much present. But Melano has always looked more comfortable in Argentina, and there's still a chance that he can improve with the right club.
The Timbers, despite their best efforts and his, just weren't that club. Not three and four years ago, and not today. Bringing Melano back was a low-risk proposition, and there can't be any hard feelings about it not working out.
His leaving now, in the middle of the season, frees up a not insignificant amount of cap space and Targeted Allocation Money for the Timbers.
The club will likely put a chunk of that money towards completing the transfers of Cristhian Paredes and Tomas Conechny, but there's also a chance that they could add another winger or center back before the close of the summer transfer window.
Melano's place in Timbers history, thanks both to his contributions to the club's 2015 MLS Cup as well as to the size of his initial transfer fee, is secure. This now-concluded second stint in Portland, predictably, will be no more than an afterthought.
