In addition to the pair of signings that Sacramento Republic FC announced on Thursday, the team also picked up the option on five players: Emrah Klimenta, Dominik Jakubek, Evan Newton, Agustin Cazarez, and Carlos Rodriguez. Paul Buckle had the following to say about the decision to pick up the option on the five players.

All of these players were important members of our team last season. Augie is a pleasure to work with, is a hard worker and can play a lot of different positions, making him a great option to pick up. Emrah brings a lot of talent and is a very good professional. We have watched his rehab and he will greatly impact the team because he is such a great player down the right side. Carlos is also a very exciting pick up. We rate him very highly and he is a big part of our plans moving forward because of his ability on the ball, as well as his potential. Picking up Dominik and Evan gives us two great options in goal for next season. Dominik is someone that keeps himself very fit and strong and is a great example to the other players on how to be a professional.

Picking up the options brought the total number of Republic players signed for the 2017 season (as far as we can tell) to eight, with Danny Barrera, Harry Williams, and new signing Enrique Montano being the others we know about so far. Although that is obviously not going to be even close to the final roster, this is a nice beginning to the roster building process for 2017.