Bill Dwyre writes a timely piece today explaining (somewhat) the rules surrounding options.  Actually, his piece explains what happens when a player is out of them.  In terms of options, I believe, the rule is that once a player has been added to the major league roster- the 40-man- he uses an option in each new season that he is called up.  That means that once you have been added to the 40-man roster, you can only play in the big leagues three times and still be sent back down.  Each “option” covers the trips up and down for an entire season, and there are several other rules that are there to protect the player from going up and down many many times.  But the idea is if you are the Cardinals and you have a great first baseman at AAA, you can’t hold him at AAA for ever, just bringing him up if Albert Pujols goes on the DL once a year. After his three big league appearances in consecutive years he is proverbially ‘out of options.’

The Dwyre piece shows just how complicated all this is.  He speaks with Ken Forsch, ex-pitcher and the man responsible for tracking all these things for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Once  a player is ‘out of options’ there are only four things that can happen, assuming he isn’t cutting it at the big league level.   Here are the first three as listed by Dwyre:

He could be traded — and no waiver notice is needed before the July 31 trade deadline. A trade at this point seems unlikely, though, because the Angels have much invested in Wood and lots of faith and hope remain, and a player hitting a buck-fifty doesn’t bring much in return, anyway. And remember, any team trading for Wood faces the same obstacle of not being able to send him to the minors. His options are used up.

He could be put on release waivers, meaning the moment Forsch hits the send button, Wood is no longer an Angel. Other teams have two days to claim him, pay $1 and pick up his salary but have to put him on their major league roster. If more than one team claims him, the team with the lowest winning percentage gets him.

Or he could be put on outright waivers, which means if Wood clears waivers with no claims, the Angels can pull him back as theirs. Then, they have the new option of not only keeping him but sending him to the minors. But they have to do that before the current waiver period ends July 31, or they have to get him through the outright waiver list again.

Now note that I said there are four options- and Dwyre adds the fourth one too.  The player might come down with an injury which puts him on the disabled list for 15 days.  At the end of those 15 days, he goes on a rehab assignment in the minor leagues.  There is a limit to how long that rehab assignment can last but pretty much it has the same effect of just plain sending him down.  And if you spent a ton of money on a player, like the Angels did for Brandon Wood who Dwyre is writing about, then you try everything before you open him up to other teams.

Anyway, its an interesting look at one of those rules you may not have had much background on.  A perfect thing for a Saturday morning.