Nashville SC made its biggest move of the offseason on Thursday afternoon, signing veteran winger Cristian Espinoza from San Jose Earthquakes on a three-year deal. The two-time MLS All-Star will occupy Nashville’s final Designated Player spot and comes to GEODIS Park as perhaps the best free-agent available in 2026.
Here’s what you need to know about the newest Boy in Gold and what you can expect from his inaugural season in Music City.
Tailor-fitted to Nashville's System
Regular watchers of MLS will need no introduction to Espinoza or the impact he has on games. The 30-year-old Argentine has made a name for himself as one of the league’s most ferocious attacking threats, particularly for his ability to find and play incisive passes from the wing. And with the players Nashville will supply around Espinoza, he has the potential to elevate his game to a level he never could on the West Coast.
Unlike many right wingers, Espinoza is a right-foot-dominant player. This means that instead of slicing down the flank and cutting in, some of his best attacking moments come when he plays parallel to his on-running teammates. He’s a supremely talented crosser of the ball and possesses a world-class ability to weight passes, making him just as great a threat on counterattacks as he is in patient build-up play against low blocks.
Much of head coach BJ Callaghan’s attack on the right flank went through 2025 MLS All-Star Andy Najar (10 assists), who played a similar role. But adding Espinoza forces opposing teams to gameplan for two elite playmakers on the wing, opening more space and goalscoring chances for the already prolific duo of Sam Surridge and Hany Mukhtar centrally. Midfielders Eddi Tagseth, Patrick Yazbek and Matthew Corcoran have the legs to cover for any potential defensive frailties caused by two players on one side playing so far forward, backed up by the athletic center-back tandem of Jeisson Palacios and Maxwell Woledzi.
It's hard to call any signing a slam dunk before he takes the pitch. But given the way Nashville played in 2025 and what Callaghan has shown he values out wide — good crossers and tireless runners — this is as close to one a team can get.
Veteran Presence
Nashville’s squad has never been short on leaders; Hany Mukhtar, Dan Lovitz and Joe Willis come to mind for the 2026 group. But for all the veterans Nashville has employed throughout its history, the last couple yearshave been characterized by an injection of newness. The Boys in Gold have become notably younger on average over Callaghan’s tenure and continued to do so this offseason, with the departures of notable veterans Walker Zimmerman, Gaston Brugman and Teal Bunbury, among others.
Adding Espinoza to the locker room doesn’t only hand Nashville one of the league’s premier players. It also adds one of its most respected voices, as San Jose’s sole captain in 2025 with varied experience across stints in MLS, Argentina and Spain. He’s undisputably one of the most proven players Nashville has ever signed, and on the cusp of its rise to MLS Cup contention, that’s the exact profile Callaghan needs.
A Touch of Gold
One could produce a whole book with all the adjectives befitting Espinoza: tricky, quick, selfless, prolific, veteran, underrated. But if that book had a title, it would be a simple one: Excellence.
Calling the Argentine one of the best players in MLS is no overstatement. Espinoza — who turns 31 in May — has been the standout player in a struggling San Jose side since he joined on loan in 2019. The club made the postseason just twice in the seven seasons he spent there, losing in the first round each time, but Espinoza was a regular standout and departs as one of the undisputed greats of the franchise. Espinoza sits third, first and fifth all-time in goals, assists and appearances, respectively, in Earthquakes history, is a two-time MLS All-Star selection (2023 and 2025), and was responsible for the most key passes in the league last season, plus four goals and 12 assists.
Now suiting up in gold, Espinoza joins an attack that has a compelling case to be the deadliest in American soccer. Nashville’s new attacking trio — Surridge, Mukhtar and Espinoza — was responsible for 65 combined goals in 2025, a number equal to or exceeding the total scored by every club in the league except three.
Excellence personified, indeed.
Follow Cristian at @crisespinoza11 on Instagram.
