Royals Decline Options On Crisp, Olivo, Yabuta

The Royals declined their 2010 options on Coco Crisp, Miguel Olivo, and Yasuhiko Yabuta, according to a team press release.

On Crisp, the Royals chose his $500K buyout over his $8MM option.  It's possible the Royals will offer Crisp an incentive-laden deal (he had rotator cuff surgery on both shoulders this summer).

The Royals plan to go in a different direction than Olivo at catcher; they may also non-tender John Buck.  Olivo had a $3.3MM mutual option.  As for Yabuta, the press release says he can "elect free agency if he doesn’t sign a 2010 Major League contract with the Royals by November 16th."  The Japanese reliever has been a $6MM bust; his $4MM club option was an obvious choice to decline.