How Mikael Uhre’s contract option for 2025 with the Union has already been automatically triggered

Union striker Mikael Uhre’s contract option for next year has already been automatically triggered because of performance metrics he has met over his three years with the club, manager Jim Curtin revealed Friday.

Uhre, 29, has nine goals and four assists in 33 games this year, and 33 goals and 19 assists in 111 Union games overall. Those stats haven’t satisfied a caucus of Union fans who want more from a player whose $2.8 million transfer fee is the biggest in team history, and whose $2.04 million salary ranks No. 2 — even as both sums aren’t headlines in MLS these days.

“Mikael is a guy that, when he gets hot, is as dangerous as any striker in our league. We know that,” Curtin said in a Friday news conference ahead of Saturday’s visit to the New York Red Bulls (7:30 p.m., Apple TV). “We have to get him service. I’ve talked with Mikael about becoming more involved in the run of play, especially early in games. Finding the ball a little bit more — there can’t be 15-, 20-minute stretches where he’s not touching it, and he agrees with that and understands that.”

The part about getting him service matters. Uhre isn’t going to create his own shot off the dribble out of his 6-foot-2 frame, and he’ll be the first to tell you that. But when he can run at back lines and pull defenders apart, especially in tandem with another forward, he has proven he can finish.

Uhre didn’t start in Wednesday’s 1-0 loss to the Columbus Crew. He came off the bench in the 72nd minute of a game where both teams rotated lineups. Curtin said Uhre will start Saturday, on a Red Bull Arena field where two years ago he scored one of his most famous Union goals. His next goal will put him in double-digit scoring for the third time in three years here.

“We need to utilize him the right way and give him service, and he has to do his job as well,” Curtin said. “And I expect a big game from Mikael.”

» READ MORE: Quinn Sullivan squandered a big opportunity for the Union against Columbus

Curtin hopes injured right back Nathan Harriel will have recovered from his back spasms enough to be on the bench Saturday night.

Harriel had to leave Wednesday’s game in the 22nd minute after those spasms flared up, and Curtin said at the time he didn’t know how long Harriel would be out.

“He at least went out to the field today, toward the end, not fully participating with the group,” Curtin said. “Hopefully, he’ll be at least available to help us tomorrow, because you know how thin we are along that back line. … Probably won’t be from the start, but if that back can kind of loosen up, we’ll have another night and all day tomorrow for him to get treatment to try to get the spasms out of there.”

Any amount of missed time hurts the Union considerably, because Harriel is the de facto No. 3 centerback as well as a starting-caliber right back.

The Union on Saturday also will have to deal with centerback Jack Elliott and left back Kai Wagner being one yellow card away from automatic one-game suspensions for card accumulation.

The Union’s next game after Saturday is Sept. 14 at Inter Miami, which could be Miami superstar Lionel Messi’s first game back from the ankle injury he suffered July 14 in the Copa América final. Messi has been training this week, but isn’t healthy enough to play in the Herons’ visit to the lowly Chicago Fire on Saturday. The club is off next weekend for a FIFA national team window.

» READ MORE: The Union are shorthanded at centerback as they resume their regular season

Alejandro Bedoya started this season amid the widespread belief that it would be his last on the field. Now, the longtime Union midfielder and captain wants to play one more year.

“Of course it’s crossed my mind, but I’ll just say it straight right now: I’m not ready to retire just yet,” Bedoya told the Men In Blazers’ Vamos! podcast hosted by his former U.S. men’s national team colleague Herculez Gomez.

“The body feels right, still; mentally, I’m still there,” said Bedoya, who’s now 37 and will turn 38 next April. “Even though this year has maybe been a down year, I still enjoy it.”

Bedoya revealed that he has negotiated his last three years’ worth of contracts on his own, without an agent, including his current one-year deal that also pays him to do work in the Union’s front office.

He also has hired outside analytics firms to try to prove to the Union why they should keep him. That hasn’t always been an easy case to make to a team that wants — and now needs — to overhaul its roster, a matter Bedoya is well aware of.

» READ MORE: The upside of the Union not winning the Leagues Cup is their young talent now knows what it takes

“That’s why this stuff comes into play, because I know I can still do this and that,” he said. “My tactical IQ is very high, defensively, both sides of the ball, what I bring to the table. … I’m always at [the] top in distance covered, and high-speed runs, and all this stuff.”

Bedoya has played 1,753 minutes across 33 games so far this year, including 16 starts. He has played in every game where he’s been eligible, except for four missed in late June and early July because of a hamstring injury.

Last fall, when his future with the Union was uncertain, Bedoya had a terse exchange with sporting director Ernst Tanner that led to Tanner saying Bedoya wasn’t coming back. They eventually smoothed things over, to the delight of Curtin and other players who openly campaigned for Bedoya’s return.

It remains to be seen whether Tanner puts his foot down more firmly this time, with CJ Olney and other young midfield players waiting in the wings for playing time next year.