Greetings Braves fans! It is I, Braves Options Guy (@BravesOptions), again and today I’m going to try and explain everything I know about minor league player options in the simplest terms I possibly can.

This is the time of year when you often hear the phrase "Player X is out of options". This happens every season around the time teams are finalizing their Opening Day rosters. But what does it mean to be "out of options"? First you have to know what an "option" is. Once a player is added to a team’s 40-man roster, he then has a total of 3 option years. This means that the team can assign him to a minor league club as many times as they want over the course of an entire season. This is often a source of confusion: some people think that each time a player is optioned in a season, it counts as one of the 3 options but this is not true. A player can be optioned many times during a single season & it only counts as one option year. As an example, former Braves pitcher, John Gant, was optioned 5 different times in 2016, but it only counted as one option year, so he still has 2 option years left.

So, what does it mean to be "out of options"? Once all 3 option years are used up, a player cannot be assigned to a minor league club without first being placed on assignment waivers & being made available to the other 29 teams in the league. I will not go into the details of the waiver system today. I will focus only on options.

Note that a player on optional assignment does count against the 40-player maximum on the 40-man roster.

Optioning a player to the minors may sound like a simple transaction but there’s a little more to it than that. There are a few restrictions:

Once a player is optioned to the minors, he has to remain there for a minimum of 10 days, unless he is replacing a player that is going on the Disabled List. This is to prevent teams from just bouncing players back and forth to the minors multiple times a week to always have fresh pitchers available.

If a player spend less than 20 cumulative days on optional assignment to the minors in a season, that season does NOT count as an option. An example of this is Ian Krol. In 2013, Krol was added to the Nationals’ roster on June 14, was optioned on August 21, and was recalled when rosters expanded on Sept 1, spending a total of 11 days on optional assignment. Therefore, 2013 does not count as an option year for Ian Krol. I have known some people to be confused by this rule as well, believing that it had to be 20 consecutive days in the minors for the option to count. Again, this is not true. The cut-off is 20 total days in the minors over the course of the entire season. Adonis Garcia used an option in 2016 when he was optioned to AAA to learn to play LF, only to return exactly 20 days later (May 7 to May 27) and returned to the hot corner where he was a much improved player. For the purposes of counting days on optional assignment, the day the player is optioned counts as 1 day and the day he is recalled is not counted.

days on optional assignment to the minors in a season, that season does NOT count as an option. An example of this is Ian Krol. In 2013, Krol was added to the Nationals’ roster on June 14, was optioned on August 21, and was recalled when rosters expanded on Sept 1, spending a total of 11 days on optional assignment. Therefore, 2013 does not count as an option year for Ian Krol. I have known some people to be confused by this rule as well, believing that it had to be 20 days in the minors for the option to count. Again, this is not true. The cut-off is 20 total days in the minors over the course of the entire season. Adonis Garcia used an option in 2016 when he was optioned to AAA to learn to play LF, only to return exactly 20 days later (May 7 to May 27) and returned to the hot corner where he was a much improved player. For the purposes of counting days on optional assignment, the day the player is optioned counts as 1 day and the day he is recalled is not counted. A player can become eligible for a 4th option year if he has used up his 3 option years prior to the completion of his 5th professional season. Seasons spent entirely on the minor-league Disabled List or in short-season leagues (Dominican Summer League, Gulf Coast League, or Appalachian Rookie League (Danville Braves)) do not count as full seasons. The only current Braves player who could qualify for a 4th option year is Akeel Morris. Morris spent the first 4 seasons of his career in short-season leagues. 2014 was his first full professional season and he was added to the Mets 40-man roster in November of that year. So his first two options were used in 2015 (2nd full season) and 2016 (3rd full season). Thus, if he spends at least 20 days on optional assignment this season, his 4th full season, he’ll qualify for a 4th option for next season.

If a player has more than 5 years of service time, he can refuse any optional assignment, so generally speaking, you won’t hear about veteran players having options left b/c they would have to approve of the move. A player like Freddie Freeman, who was basically the Braves starting first baseman from the moment he was brought up, has options remaining, but since he has 6 years of service time, he can’t really be optioned. But come on, who here really think he’ll ever be optioned to the minor leagues?

There is one more very odd rule about options that I’ve just learned about this year and I want to include it for the purposes of completion. According to Rule 11(j)(3) in the Official MLB Rule Book:

"In the event that a player has Major League options remaining at the time of the player’s assignment to a Minor League Club and the contract is reacquired by the assignor Club after 20 or more days of the Major League championship season have elapsed from the date of the assignment, such player shall be credited with a Major League option."

Layman’s terms: if a player with at least one option left is outrighted to the minors (removed entirely from the 40-man roster), and is then re-added to the 40-man roster by the same team at least 20 days later, then that season counts as an option. This is the case with Chase d’Arnaud and the Phillies in 2014. Thus, d’Arnaud is now out of options.

Now, let’s take a look at the Braves current 40-man roster (as of March 28, 2017)

Players with more than 5 years of service time (can’t be optioned without permission)

Matt Kemp Freddie Freeman Nick Markakis Brandon Phillips Tyler Flowers Kurt Suzuki Emilio Bonifacio Bartolo Colon R.A. Dickey Jaime Garcia Josh Collmenter Jim Johnson Eric O’Flaherty Sean Rodriguez

Players with 3 options remaining entering the 2017 season

Dansby Swanson Rio Ruiz Johan Camargo Lucas Sims Max Fried Armando Rivero (Rule 5 – can’t be optioned yet) Daniel Winkler (Rule 5 – can’t be optioned yet)

Players with 2 options remaining (entering the 2017 season)

Ender Inciarte Jacob Lindgren Jesse Biddle Aaron Blair Jason Hursh AKeel Morris Matt Wisler

Players with 1 option remaining (entering the 2017 season)

Jace Peterson Adonis Garcia Micah Johnson Anthony Recker Julio Teheran Mike Foltynewicz Arodys Vizcaino Mauricio Cabrera Luke Jackson

Players currently out of options

Chase d’Arnaud Ian Krol Chaz Roe Kevin Chapman Jose Ramirez

That’s everything! If you have any questions at all about what’s written here or about other roster moves (waivers, outrights, etc) please let me know in the comments or contact me via Twitter (@BravesOptions). GO BRAVES!!