Minor League Options | Glossary | MLB.com (2024)

FAQs

How many times can you be optioned to the minors? ›

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.

It's like the final exam before graduating to Baseball Harvard. But here's the thing: that diploma isn't guaranteed. Statistics, my friends, can be a real buzzkill. Studies suggest that only around 10-11% of minor leaguers ever make it to the MLB.

Do all baseball players start in the minor leagues? There have been a handful of players to skip the minors and go straight to the big leagues, but this is very, very rare. Only 2 guys in the last 15 years have done it (Mike Leake in 2010 and Xavier Nady in 2000).

Players early in their careers have option years, during which they can be sent back to the minors five times per season after MLB promotions. Being optioned to the minors does not mean a player has to be designated for assignment unless he runs out of options.

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.

Out of all players who play minor league baseball about 10% of those players who sign contracts each year will play at least 1 game in the majors. Chasing MLB Dreams has been created to follow dreams of players as they climb the ladder from instructional and rookie ball to the upper levels of the minor leagues.

The two who played longest in the majors without a minor league game to mar their O.B. records were Mel Ott, with the New York Giants 1926-47, and Al Kaline with the Detroit Tigers 1953-74, each playing 22 years with one club. Next in the seniority line were Eppa Rixey and Ted Lyons, both with 21 years in the majors.

Morgan was drafted by the A's in the first round of the 1978 Draft and skipped the Minor Leagues to make his big league debut less than a week later. The right-hander spent two seasons in Oakland before playing for 12 teams over the span of an impressive 22-year career that spanned four decades.

Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco was formally charged on Tuesday by prosecutors in the Dominican Republic with sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl.

While an option seller will always have some level of uncertainty, being assigned may be a somewhat predictable event. Only about 7% of options positions are typically exercised, but that does not imply that investors can expect to be assigned on only 7% of their short positions.

What is the risk of option assignment? ›

If you are selling options (covered or uncovered), there is always the risk of being assigned if your trade moves against you. This risk is higher if the underlying security involved pays a dividend. However, there are ways to reduce the likelihood of being assigned early.

In 2024, a minor-league player on the 40-man roster — that is to say, a Minor League Article VI(A)(3) player, as far as the collective bargaining agreement goes — is paid $67,300, regardless of what level of the minors they're at. A league-minimum MLB player, however, is paid $825,000 for the season.

When a player is outrighted, he's been sent from the Majors to the Minor Leagues and has cleared waivers, meaning no other team put in a claim for him. Most players have no choice but to accept being outrighted the first time it happens, unless they have more than five years of service in the Majors.

According to Major League Rule 3(b), "All Minor League Uniform Player Contracts between either a Major or a Minor League Club and a player who has not previously signed a contract with a Major or a Minor League Club shall be for a term of seven Minor League playing seasons."

Designated for Assignment or "DFA'ed"

This refers to the process of someone coming off the aforementioned 40-man roster for one reason or another. It allows a club to open up a roster spot for up to a 10-day period while waiting for a player to clear waivers.

The 40-man roster includes a combination of players on the 26-man roster, the 7-, 10-, and 15-day injured lists, the bereavement/family medical emergency list and the paternity leave list, as well as some Minor Leaguers. In order for a club to add a player to the 26-man roster, the player must be on the 40-man roster.