Back to Basics: How do Minor League Options Work? (2024)

FAQs

Back to Basics: How do Minor League Options Work? ›

When a player is optioned, it means he is taken off the team's 26-man roster and sent to the Minor Leagues without going through waivers. The player remains on the team's 40-man roster. Only one option is used per season, it does not matter…

Definition. Players who are on Minor League or split contracts are not fully guaranteed their salaries. A player on a split or Minor League contract will earn the prorated portion of his Major League salary for time spent on the Major League roster.

Players on a 40-man roster are given three Minor League "options." An option allows that player to be sent to the Minor Leagues ("optioned") without first being subjected to waivers. Players who are optioned to the Minors are removed from a team's active 26-man roster but remain on the 40-man roster.

Only one Minor League option is used per season, regardless of how many times a player is optioned to and from the Minors over the course of a given season. (Players may only be optioned five times per season; after that, it requires outright assignment waivers to assign the player to the Minor Leagues.)

The current minor league classification system divides leagues into one of five classes, those being Triple-A (AAA), Double-A (AA), Class A (Single-A or A), Class A Short Season, and Rookie. Furthermore, Class A is further subdivided into Class A Advanced, and Class A.

Conversely, players signed to Minor League contracts must earn a spot on the roster in Spring Training or via an in-season promotion in order to have their contracts guaranteed.

The minimum annual salaries now range from $19,800 in rookie ball (up from $4,800 previously) to $35,800 in Triple A (up from $17,500 previously). Those salaries equate to $675 to $1,200 on a weekly basis (there is a brief period around the holidays when players are off and not paid).

Once those three option years are over, a player is deemed "out of options." To send the player back to the Minors, a club must first place him on waivers, opening him up to all 29 other organizations.

A player option is an optional year at the end of a contract that can be applied at the player's discretion. In such cases, the player has the right to exercise his option and lock in that optional salary as a guaranteed sum or reject the option in favor of testing free agency.

If called up to the majors, the minimum salary is $700,000 — which comes to $3,846 for each day in the big leagues. Follow every MLB game: Latest MLB scores, stats, schedules and standings. The minimum salary is $400 weekly at rookie level, $500 at Class A, $600 at Double-A and $700 at Triple-A.

What is the 2024 MLB minimum salary? ›

The league-minimum salary for the 2024 season is $740,000, and with players generally not eligible for the escalating salary increases that arbitration brings until after logging three years of service time, that's the salary most pre-arbitration players are earning.

Tim Conroy and Brian Milner are the most recent players to go straight from high school to MLB, having debuted on the same day in 1978. Dave Winfield is the most recent player to jump directly to MLB and subsequently be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

For players on their first MLB contract, the minimum salaries for the years 2022 to 2026 are as follows: 2022: $57,200. 2023: $58,800. 2024: $60,300.

Single-A, formerly known as Class A and sometimes as Low-A, is the fourth-highest level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States, below Triple-A, Double-A, and High-A.

While Triple-A is the highest level in the minor leagues, players may also advance to the major leagues directly from Double-A. For example, within the Toronto Blue Jays organization, 17 position players were promoted from Double-A directly to MLB during 1978–2018; approximately one player every two seasons.

At Low Class A, salaries will grow from $11,000 to $26,200 while High Class A will grow from $13,800 to $27,300. Triple-A players will go from $17,500 to $35,800. The contract comes as welcome news for minor leaguers who have historically been underpaid relative to their professional brethren in the major leagues.

According to McDonald and Raseker (2000), promotional games increase average attendance by 14 percent. Thus, promotions do affect the short-run demand for baseball games. Not only do promotions positively affect attendance numbers, but quality is also a major factor.

Minimum salaries will rise from $4,800 to $19,800 at rookie ball, $11,000 to $26,200 at Low Class A, $11,000 to $27,300 at High Class A, $13,800 to $27,300 at Double A and $17,500 to $35,800 at Triple-A. Players will be paid in the offseason for the first time.