Real Salt Lake announced Monday afternoon the 11 players it is protecting for Wednesday's expansion draft for the new Seattle Sounders franchise.

The club has opted to protect Javier Morales, Jamison Olave, Fabian Espindola, Nat Borchers, Kyle Beckerman, Will Johnson, Robbie Russell, Chris Wingert, Robbie Findley, Yura Movsisyan and Nick Rimando.

Generation adidas players Tony Beltran, Chris Seitz and Alex Nimo are also automatically protected.

RSL's exposed players are Kenny Deuchar, Clint Mathis, Andy Williams, Nate Sturgis, Dema Kovalenko, Ian Joy and David Horst.

"Every decision on every player, there are different circumstances for each one," said RSL general manager Garth Lagerwey. "You try and bring the best players back."

Seattle will be selecting 10 total players from the 14 existing MLS teams in the expansion draft, but no team lose more than one player.

Lagerwey declined to get into the specifics about the players RSL left unprotected, but did add that, "Wednesday we're going to lose a player we care about."

In addition, the club also announced that it is releasing former No. 1 draft pick Nik Besagno, along with Kenny Cutler and Dustin Kirby.

"Nik's a good kid and he may potentially have a bright future, but after four years we think it's in everyone's best interest to get a fresh start," said Lagerwey.

ENDLINES: Nick Rimando was mistakenly put on the unprotected list instead of Nate Sturgis during the first posting of this story.