Optioned, Waived, or Safe? A Twins Fan’s Primer on 2025 Early-Season Roster Moves

[Greggory Masterson]

Why can't the Twins send Chris Paddack to Wichita? Here's your answer.

Image courtesy of © Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

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 2025, he will have two remaining. If he then spends all of 2026 on an MLB roster, he still has two. If he then gets sent down in 2027, he will have one. If he’s sent down again in 2028, he will have no options left, and if the team wants to send him to the minors in 2029, 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 Chris Paddack agrees to spend time in St. Paul this season.

Jorge Alcalá (as of this week), Harrison Bader, Byron Buxton, Willi Castro, Carlos Correa, Danny Coulombe, Ty France, Christian Vázquez

MLB Players Out of Options
These players can be sent down, but they would need to be exposed to waivers first. [author's note: Blewett is currently on waivers].

Scott Blewett, Brock Stewart, Michael Tonkin

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 2026. The team could be a little more hesitant to use that final year than they would otherwise.

Jhoan Durán, Edouard Julien, Trevor Larnach, Cole Sands, Louis Varland, Matt Wallner

40-Man Players with Multiple Option Years Remaining
If necessary, any of these players can be sent back and forth with little concern.

Travis Adams, Jair Camargo, David Festa, Kody Funderburk, Mickey Gasper, Griffin Jax, Ryan Jeffers, DaShawn Keirsey Jr., Brooks Lee, Royce Lewis, Austin Martin, Zebby Matthews, Marco Raya, Emmanuel Rodriguez, Justin Topa

40-Man Players in the Minor Leagues with One Option Remaining
These players are currently in the minors (as of 4/12), and if they hit the 20-day threshold then it’s their last year. Come 2026, they would have no options remaining.

Matt Canterino, Diego Cartaya, Jose Miranda

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 (as has already happened with Darren McCaughan).

Mike Ford*, Richard Lovelady*, Darren McCaughan*, Anthony Misiewicz*, Erasmo Ramírez®, Huascar Ynoa*

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.

Daniel Duarte, Alex Speas

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. Any prospects you have in mind that hasn’t been listed in this document probably has no MLB services time and thus has three options remaining.

Armando Alvarez, Jacob Bosiokovic, Allan Cerda, Randy Dobnak (seriously; his time at AAA has mostly been off of the 40-man roster, including right now), Brady Feigl, Ryan Jensen

 

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

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[LambchoP]

Sure looks like the last two bullpen spots will be a carousel of guys constantly rotating in and out to get fresh arms to cover short starts by our starters. Maybe we see some position players call ups in the second half like Rodriguez and Keaschal. I wonder if Eeles will be available this year. Mccusker sure has had a good start too. Might as well let the kids play and see what we have in them. Season is all but lost anyways. I'm guessing we'll trade off any veterans we can at the deadline and recoup as many prospects as possible and gear up for a young inexperienced team next year.

[miller761]

Good to know. Thanks for the info.

[D.C Twins]

Great article! Summary to me is no big concerns right now with option situations 

[stringer bell]

2 hours ago, LambchoP said:

Sure looks like the last two bullpen spots will be a carousel of guys constantly rotating in and out to get fresh arms to cover short starts by our starters. Maybe we see some position players call ups in the second half like Rodriguez and Keaschal. I wonder if Eeles will be available this year. Mccusker sure has had a good start too. Might as well let the kids play and see what we have in them. Season is all but lost anyways. I'm guessing we'll trade off any veterans we can at the deadline and recoup as many prospects as possible and gear up for a young inexperienced team next year.

Apparently Zebby will start on Monday and they'll have to make a place for him. Funderburk? Put someone on IL? Usually, I can see a fairly easy way to handle the roster churn, but I don't see an easy way to get Matthews on the 40-man at this point. 

[yeahyabetcha]

1 minute ago, stringer bell said:

Apparently Zebby will start on Monday and they'll have to make a place for him. Funderburk? Put someone on IL? Usually, I can see a fairly easy way to handle the roster churn, but I don't see an easy way to get Matthews on the 40-man at this point. 

Not that I am complaining, but why is Zebby getting this start?  Didn’t Festa already take Pablo’s start?

[stringer bell]

10 minutes ago, yeahyabetcha said:

Not that I am complaining, but why is Zebby getting this start?  Didn’t Festa already take Pablo’s start?

They are on a long stretch without days off and I think the plan was to give the starters an extra day in the middle of the long stretch.

[yeahyabetcha]

37 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

They are on a long stretch without days off and I think the plan was to give the starters an extra day in the middle of the long stretch.

Not sure i support that plan.  I am more of a stay on schedule thinker.  But I doubt they care much about my opinion 😊

[stringer bell]

Gleeman is now reporting that the three starters for the Mets series will Ryan, Ober and Festa, so nevermind.

[IndianaTwin]

1 hour ago, stringer bell said:

Apparently Zebby will start on Monday and they'll have to make a place for him. Funderburk? Put someone on IL? Usually, I can see a fairly easy way to handle the roster churn, but I don't see an easy way to get Matthews on the 40-man at this point. 

Matthews is on the 40-man. Did you mean 26-man? I think the understanding is that they will send Festa down to create a spot for Matthews.

And then, with a couple off days coming up, they could pretty easily send Matthews down after Monday and get a nine-man bullpen for a while (or an extra bench player)….

8-Lopez
9-Ryan
10-Ober
11-Festa
12-Paddack
13-SWR
14-Matthews
15-Ryan (5 days rest)
16-Ober (5 days rest)
17-Off
18-Paddack (5 days rest)
19-SWR (5 days rest)
20-Ryan (4 days rest)
21-Off
22-Ober (5 days rest)
23-Paddack (4 days rest)
24-SWR (4 days rest) (also, first day Lopez is eligible to return)
25-Ryan (4 days rest)

26-If Lopez is not back yet, this is the first day they need someone else. If one of the starters has gone on IL, Festa can take his place. If not, he still has a couple days before he can be recalled, so it could be Dobnak or a bullpen game.

27-Ober (4 days rest)
28-Paddack (4 days rest)
29-SWR (4 days rest)
30-Ryan (4 days rest)
1-And by now, if Lopez isn’t back, either Festa or Matthews can be recalled. Or they can be recalled a couple days early to give people an extra day. 

 

 

[stringer bell]

7 minutes ago, IndianaTwin said:

Matthews is on the 40-man. Did you mean 26-man? I think the understanding is that they will send Festa down to create a spot for Matthews.

And then, with a couple off days coming up, they could pretty easily send Matthews down after Monday and get a nine-man bullpen for a while (or an extra bench player)….

I meant the 26-man roster. The question wasn't about who would be added, but how the subtraction would occur. Going short on the bullpen doesn't seem to be an option. The team is at risk for losing Blewitt with his DFA and he certainly could declare free agency. The same would be true for others recalled in the final bullpen slot. 

[IndianaTwin]

4 hours ago, stringer bell said:

I meant the 26-man roster. The question wasn't about who would be added, but how the subtraction would occur. Going short on the bullpen doesn't seem to be an option. The team is at risk for losing Blewitt with his DFA and he certainly could declare free agency. The same would be true for others recalled in the final bullpen slot. 

Agreed. Add in that no position player seems to be banging down the door and it seems more likely they would go to nine in the pen before five on the bench. But either way, they can go to four I. The rotation after tomorrow. 

[saviking]

Thanks for putting all of this together, Gregg~

[JBK]

Can they send Rocco down?

[Greggory Masterson]

33 minutes ago, JBK said:

Can they send Rocco down?

Because of this silly question I did some digging, and I believe that Baldelli has multiple options remaining but he reached five years of service time as a player so the discussion isn't worth having