Does anyone know if adding a player in Sept to the 40 man and bringing them up burn up an option year? found an answer: Once a player has been placed on a team's 40-man roster, a team has 3 option years on that player. A player is considered to have used one of those three option years when he spends at least 20 days in the minors in any of those 3 seasons. This probably why they only bring up guys already on the 40 man, just a guess.