Your 2024 Minnesota Twins' Option List

[Greggory Masterson]

That frustrating roster move might make more sense than you think.

Image courtesy of © Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports

It’s been less than two weeks, and the Twins have already started digging into their minor league depth, so it’s probably good for a discerning fan to know which players have minor league options. Head-scratching decisions often make more sense when considering the option information, so let’s overview the system.

First, let’s touch on some rules. They’re a bit complicated but graspable with some patience. If you already know the rules, skip to the player lists.

Minor League Options Defined
To be eligible for an MLB active (26-man) roster, a player must be on that team’s expanded 40-man roster. A player on the 40-man roster can be in the majors or minors, but only players on the 40-man can be on the MLB active roster. Therefore, any player not on the 40-man roster must be added to both the 40-man and active rosters to be eligible to play.

If there is no room on the 40-man, a current member needs to be removed, generally by exposing him to outright waivers or by transferring them to the 60-day injured list. If exposed to outright waivers, any other team in the league willing to take on the player’s salary and place him on their active roster (or expose him to waivers again) can claim him. Naturally, a player would need to be injured for the 60-day option to be available.

To send a player to the minors while also on the team’s 40-man roster, they need to have option years remaining. If the player has no option years remaining, they must be exposed to waivers before being sent down. 

Number of Options
When a player is added to a 40-man roster for the first time in his career, he has three option years. Option years are used when the player spends time in the minor leagues, whether it’s a full season or a few weeks spread over months. A player can be sent down once or several times in that year, and it will still count as a single option year, assuming that he meets the 20 day threshold.

Players who do not play in the minor leagues in a given year retain their option years. If a player uses an option year in 2024, he will have two remaining. If he then spends all of 2025 on an MLB roster, he still has two. If he then gets sent down in 2026, he will have one. If he’s sent down again in 2027, he will have no options left, and if the team wants to send him to the minors in 2028, he would need to be waived first.

Nuances
There are some nuances to these rules to be aware of. First, if a player is in the minor leagues but is not on the 40-man roster, the team is not using one of his options. However, if he is called up to the major league team, and thus added to the 40-man roster, the team can only send him back down by using one of his options (if he has any) or exposing him to waivers.

As of 2022, a player can only be sent to the minor leagues five times in one season, which includes starting the season in the minors. After the fifth time, the subsequent demotion requires the player to be waived. They will still have any future option years, though.

Occasionally the years are malleable, and additional option years for a player may be added by the league. More specifically, the player must fit the criteria of having used all three options before getting 5 years of professional service (full season baseball). For example, Lewis Thorpe had four option years for this reason. In fact, a few Twins have. 

Gilberto Celestino had one option remaining in 2022 and was demoted mid-season. However, he was recalled within days after an injury to an active roster player, and because his demotion was so short, he did not use an option year. It needs to be over 20 days to count as an option year.

Players with at least five years of service time (time on an MLB active roster) can refuse a demotion, even if they still have options remaining. You will rarely see a 35-year-old sent to AAA, even if he has an option remaining, because he can simply say no, forcing the team to either release him or send someone else down.

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The Twins Roster
Let’s look at the Twins players’ situations with all that out of the way. It should be noted that even if a player is listed with options remaining, that doesn’t mean we think they will be sent down or are even likely to. (Things would have to go really bad for Jhoan Duran to be sent to St. Paul). This information is from FanGraphs’s Roster Resource.

MLB Players who can Refuse Demotion
As discussed, these players have enough service time to refuse demotion. In rare cases, if the player and team agree that some time in the minor leagues would be beneficial, and he still has at least one option year remaining, it could happen. However, it’s rare enough that you shouldn’t hope that Kyle Farmer agrees to spend time in St. Paul this season.
Byron Buxton, Carlos Correa, Anthony DeSclafani, Kyle Farmer, Max Kepler, Pablo López, Manuel Margot, Chris Paddack, Carlos Santana, Caleb Thielbar, Christian Vázquez

MLB Players Out of Options
These players can be sent down, but they would need to be exposed to waivers first.
Jay Jackson, Steven Okert, Brock Stewart

Note: Okert is a good example of how options can impact teams' rosters and players' careers. Okert was going to be battling for a spot in the Marlins' crowded bullpen, but without an option, he needed to win a spot or the team would risk losing him on waivers. Likewise, the Twins were in a similar situation with fitting utilityman Nick Gordon into a crowded bench, also out of options .The Twins had bullpen room, and the Marlins needed a utility player, so the players were traded for each other, and both teams avoided making a tough decision.

MLB Players with One Option Remaining
These players are currently on the active roster (or injured list) and can still be sent down this year. However, if they are sent down and use an option year, they will have no options in 2025. The team could be a little more hesitant to use that final year than they would otherwise.
Willi Castro, Daniel Duarte, Jhoan Duran, Alex Kirilloff, Bailey Ober, Cole Sands, Josh Staumont, Josh Winder

40-Man Players in the Minor Leagues with One Option Remaining
These players are currently in the minors (as of 4/6), and if they hit the 20-day threshold it’s their last year. Come 2025, they would have no options remaining.
Trevor Larnach, Jose Miranda

40-Man Players with Multiple Option Years Remaining
If necessary, any of these players can be sent back and forth with little concern.
Jorge Alcala, Jair Camargo, Matt Canterino, Kody Funderburk, Brent Headrick, Griffin Jax, Ryan Jeffers, Edouard Julien, Royce Lewis, Austin Martin, Emmanuel Rodriguez, Joe Ryan, Yunior Severino, Justin Topa, Louie Varland, Matt Wallner, Zack Weiss, Simeon Woods Richardson

Notable Minor League Veterans without Options and/or Sufficient Service Time
There are a handful of minor league veterans that are not on the MLB roster. If these veterans are called up, they either have no options remaining (*) or can refuse the demotion due to service time (®), so sending them back down would be complicated. Prepare to lose them if you see them.
A.J. Alexy*, Jordan Balazovic*, Matt Bowman*, Scott Blewett*

Notable Minor League Veterans with One Option Remaining
If these veterans are called up, they still have one option remaining, so they can be kept in the system and demoted, but this would be the last year, without exposing them to waivers.
Jeff Brigham, Beau Burrows, Diego Castillo (UTIL), Ronny Henriquez, Jovani Moran, Jared Solomon

Notable Minor League Veterans with Multiple Options Remaining
With this group, if they’re called up, they can be demoted with very little option year consideration.
Caleb Boushley, Diego Castillo (RP), Randy Dobnak, Hobie Harris, Ryan Jensen

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Thanks for input from John Bonnes, Jeremy Nygaard, and Jack Goin over the last year on this writeup, correcting many of the errors that I made.

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[nclahammer]

Great information Greggory, thanks for clearing up some of the gray-areas that I wasn't 100% sure of.    Teams have a lot to think about when moving their chess pieces.

[mikelink45]

Lots of good information here.  Thinking of options and player movement I enjoyed going through the MLB games yesterday and seeing Polanco get a big HR Seattle so I checked out the former Twins and what they did today. 

Steer getting a HR for the Reds with Pagan getting the win. I am still glad to rid of Pagan!  Encarnacion-Strand did not get a hit but he is the cleanup hitter in Cincinnati. 

Rooker getting a HR for the A's, Maeda having his second stinking start for Detroit,

Arraez got a hit, but it hitting only 194 so far.

Wells having a poor state for the Orioles while Coulombe continues to have a 0 ERA.

Joey Gallo (so glad he is gone) hit a HR for Washington.

Ben Rortvedt was 1 - 3 for Tampa, a double and 2 rbi's!

LaMonte Wade was 1 - 3 for SF

Pressly had a bad outing for Houston.

So the ex-Twins SP pitchers did not have a good day overall, but RP were 2 - 3 good with the best of them having the bad outing.

The hitters went wild.  So glad to see Rortvedt getting a chance.  Three HRs from former Twins today.  I enjoyed going through the box scores.  As a kid I loved doing this, of course we did not have 30 teams back then.

 

[FlyingFinn]

Question - if Michael Helman is called up, say in September, and remains on the Twins for the rest of the season, did he use an option year because he was with the Saints or does the clock start AFTER a player is called up?

[Greggory Masterson]

6 minutes ago, FlyingFinn said:

Question - if Michael Helman is called up, say in September, and remains on the Twins for the rest of the season, did he use an option year because he was with the Saints or does the clock start AFTER a player is called up?

Great question—nope, he keeps all his option years. If he was on the 40 at the beginning of the year, or if he was sent back down, that would be an option. But because he was only added to the 40 when he was called up and he stuck around in MLB, he’d retain all his options. 

[2-6CS]

I'm not following this paragraph in the article.  I'm reading it to mean if the Twins add brooks Lee to the 40 man and call him up....if they later want to send him down he goes thru waivers but that doesn't make sense.  

Here is the paragraph. What am I mis-reading?

First, if a player is in the minor leagues but is not on the 40-man roster, the team is not using one of his options. However, if he is called up to the major league team, and thus added to the 40-man roster, the team can only send him back down by exposing him to waivers.

[Greggory Masterson]

14 minutes ago, 2-6CS said:

I'm not following this paragraph in the article.  I'm reading it to mean if the Twins add brooks Lee to the 40 man and call him up....if they later want to send him down he goes thru waivers but that doesn't make sense.  

Here is the paragraph. What am I mis-reading?

First, if a player is in the minor leagues but is not on the 40-man roster, the team is not using one of his options. However, if he is called up to the major league team, and thus added to the 40-man roster, the team can only send him back down by exposing him to waivers.

That was an error my end:the team can only send him back down by using one of his options (if he has any) or exposing him to waivers.

[2-6CS]

Great. Thanks for the clarification. 

[Doctor Wu]

Very informative article. Many thanks for this one!

[The Mad King]

So how do the minor league rosters work. Say - a twin gets injured, they bring up a guy from St Paul. Now St Paul needs to bring up a guy from Wichita etc etc. It's there a limit to how many moves those teams can make? Are their rosters 26 also? Inquiring minds need to know ...