Report: Nat Borchers Traded to Portland Timbers

After a month of silence the rumors surrounding the Portland Timbers are now flying. The latest comes from SI's Grant Wahl, who tweeted earlier today that Real Salt Lake defender Nat Borchers has been traded to Portland for allocation money.

Hearing Portland has acquired Nat Borchers in a trade with Salt Lake for allocation money. Good veteran MLS defender.

— Grant Wahl (@GrantWahl) December 4, 2014

Although he never won any individual awards in MLS, Borchers has long been one of the league's most respected centerbacks, remaining a constant on the back line for Real Salt Lake since joining the team in 2008.

Known both for his increasingly intense beard and his solid play on one of the league's most consistent defensive units over the last seven years, Borchers arrival would instant lend some credibility to a Timbers backline that never quite looked good enough in 2014.

With both Pa Modou Kah, 34, and Norberto Paparatto, 30, not exactly young men, Borchers' age, 33, continues to keep the Timbers with a core of older defenders, particularly when compared to their offensive compatriots, the majority of whom are in the mid-twenties.

The move will also throw a wrench into the Timbers' plans for the expansion draft as Borchers will almost certainly necessitate using one of the team's expansion draft protection slots.

What do you think of the rumored move?