Indians One Stop Option Shop

When figuring out how many options a player has, I wish you luck, because it’s not an easy thing to find. Understanding them however, isn’t so hard. It’s almost as simple as knowing how many times someone on your 40-man roster can still be optioned to the minors, but because it’s baseball things are never that easy.

First, let’s start off with when a player is first moved to a team’s 40-man, which keeps them from being snatched up in the Rule 5 draft, they have three options to be sent to the minors (there is a chance that they can qualify for a fourth option, but we’ll get to that later).

If a player uses an option in a season, that’s one option used, though they can still continually go back and forth during that season without using any more. To keep teams from sending them up and down on any given day, the player must spend at least ten days with that minor squad before being recalled to the big leagues, though after 20 days it will be considered a used option. However, if a player is injured or on the DL for the whole season, an option is not used.

Once all three options have been used up, normally that’s it. If a team wants to send their guy down it needs to be done on waivers, which then gives the other 29 teams a chance to sneak in and take them. However, they don’t have to be out of options to be placed on waivers. If a team for whatever reason needs the space on their roster, a player still with options can be removed from the 40 man and placed on waivers.

Now to the fourth option thing. If a player uses all options before playing his fifth professional season, they can qualify for an extra option. This is mostly the case with guys who are given a major league contract from the draft and are automatically placed on the team’s 40-man roster. Doing that, they’re expected to reach the majors within a certain time frame, and teams usually invest a lot into the hope of them doing so.

Going into this season, 19 Indians players on the 40-man have options left, which could be used as strategic moves, space savers or because someone just needs a little wake-up call, like Chisenhall in 2015. I hope this article helps someone understand the concept of player options a bit more. Updates and dates of used options will be made on the contracts page as the season goes on and with that I hope  this list will serve as a solid reference through the year.