The following 40-man roster/60-day DL/restricted list players have less than five years of service time and are out of options. That means they must clear waivers before being sent to the minors. I've excluded players on multiyear deals.
Angels
Rich Thompson, Jason Bulger, Brandon Wood, Bobby Wilson, Alberto Callaspo
Astros
Alberto Arias, Nelson Figueroa, Jeff Keppinger, Humberto Quintero, Ryan Rowland-Smith, Angel Sanchez
Athletics
None
Blue Jays
Dustin McGowan, David Purcey, Jo-Jo Reyes
Braves
Joe Mather
Brewers
Brandon Boggs, Luis Cruz, Sean Green, George Kottaras, Kameron Loe, Chris Narveson, Wil Nieves, Manny Parra
Cardinals
None
Cubs
Jeff Baker, Koyie Hill, Max Ramirez, Geovany Soto, Jeff Samardzija (no-trade clause)
Diamondbacks
Juan Gutierrez, Juan Miranda, Tony Abreu, Carlos Rosa
Dodgers
Xavier Paul, Blake Hawksworth, Hong-Chih Kuo, Ronald Belisario, Hector Jimenez
Giants
Travis Ishikawa, Nate Schierholtz, Andres Torres
Indians
Shin-Soo Choo, Jensen Lewis, Jayson Nix, Rafael Perez, Mitch Talbot
Mariners
Cesar Jimenez, Garrett Olson, David Pauley, Josh Wilson, David Aardsma, Jack Cust, Brandon League, Jason Vargas
Marlins
Edward Mujica, Leo Nunez, Brian Sanches, Emilio Bonifacio
Mets
Nick Evans, Chin-lung Hu, Manny Acosta, Luis Hernandez, Pat Misch, Taylor Buchholz
Nationals
Tyler Clippard, Alberto Gonzalez, Tom Gorzelanny, Mike Morse, Henry Rodriguez
Orioles
Jeremy Accardo, Robert Andino, Jake Fox, Jeremy Guthrie, Jim Johnson, Felix Pie, Rick VandenHurk
Padres
Mike Adams, Chris Denorfia, Jarrett Hoffpauir, Cameron Maybin, Dustin Moseley, Eric Patterson, Tim Stauffer, Joe Thatcher
Phillies
Wilson Valdez
Pirates
Jose Ascanio, Kevin Hart, Charlie Morton, Chris Resop, John Bowker, Joel Hanrahan, James McDonald
Rangers
Nelson Cruz
Rays
Adam Russell, Sam Fuld, Elliot Johnson, Matt Joyce
Reds
Jose Arrendondo, Bill Bray, Homer Bailey, Fred Lewis, Nick Masset
Red Sox
Darnell McDonald, Matt Albers
Rockies
Felipe Paulino, Jose Morales
Royals
Gregor Blanco, Melky Cabrera, Luke Hochevar, Mitch Maier, Lucas May, Brayan Pena, Robinson Tejeda
Tigers
Don Kelly, Brad Thomas
Twins
Alexi Casilla, Jose Mijares, Glen Perkins, Delmon Young
White Sox
Philip Humber, Brent Lillibridge, Jeff Marquez, Sergio Santos
Yankees
Romulo Sanchez, Boone Logan
Thanks to the following people for contributing information: Kevin Baxter, Gregor Chisholm, Brewerfan.net, Steve Gilbert, Nick Piecoro, Chris Haft, Corey Brock, Bill Ladson, Jenifer Langosch, Rob Bradford, Troy Renck, Bob Dutton, Bill Shaikin, John Lowe, Mike Axisa, and Ben Nicholson-Smith.
Not all these players were optioned though right?? I would think the Giants need Andres Torres!!
These are players who “must clear waivers before being sent to the minors. I’ve excluded players on multiyear deals.”, but they have not been sent to the minors yet.
Many of these players will be optioned before opening day, but the good ones (ie. Torres) will not. If any of these players are sent to the minors, other teams would then have a chance to pick them up on waivers if they choose.
Nate is probably the only one that will be cut/traded. But only because of the Rowand contract. Although if Brandon Belt continues to impress, Ishikawa may be gone too.
Torres is safe.
I doubt we have to worry about Nelson Cruz being sent to the minors.
Just trying to have as complete a list as possible.
Scott Mathieson will be a tough call for the Phillies. They got him through waivers last year but I doubt they’ll be so lucky a second time. They thought highly enough of him to bring in Bruce Sutter as a consultant to teach him the splitter last year. Mathieson might be a good trade candidate if they decide to go with someone else (Kyle Kendrick, Vance Worley, and Michael Stutes are all vying for the last bullpen slot as well).
Never mind – Mathieson was in the original post but was deleted. It looks like he has an option left. He’s a strange case (he was on an unusual form of revocable waivers last year, probably due to the years lost to arm injuries).
Stutes may have the inside track. They stretched him out to 3 innings yesterday against the Twins – no runs, no hits, one walk. If he can pitch longer outings, he might get the job so Worley and Kendrick can prepare as starters in AAA.
I read an article that said he was out of options, so I put him in, but on Twitter Matt Gelb said he wasn’t so until I hear something firm on him I will leave him out.
Is Brooks Conrad from the Braves not out as well?
He’s not out.
Diory Hernandez has to be coming pretty close
Can players on the Restricted List be claimed off waivers? As I understand it, Restricted List players are by definition not on the 40-man roster, and they cannot be sent to the minors. It seems to me that before a team can claim a restricted player that they must first be taken off the Restricted List, and when or if this happens is up to the team that holds their contract.
No, they can’t claim Belisario. 😉
If not, why not? It appears to me that, technically at least, a restricted player can be claimed off waivers. Do you have information to the contrary?
Why isn’t jeff samardzija on this list? I know it says players with multiyear deals are excluded, but he is much more likely to be sent down than a lot of the players listed (Geovany Soto, Nelson Cruz, etc.)
Samardzija in particular has a unique contract, with his no-trade clause being a huge obstacle for the Cubs to send him down.
He’s not having a good camp… Regardless of whether the Cubs keep him as their 12th pitcher, he’s still out of options & not on your list. What is your source for this list? I tried googling around & all I got was this site & “definitions of” sites… So I know the rules, but there isn’t one site that says a guy was on the 40 man for x amount of years… It only says that they are on the 40 man now… So no way of adding up & figuring them out myself on a player by player basis.
In addition to the journalists listed, I talked to team executives to compile the list. Samardzija is off the list given the noted multiyear deal exception, plus his no-trade clause.
Thanks for the reply… I didn’t know you talked to the team execs as well, thanks. I saw your journalists listed but I also just thought you had a MLB website or other similar “source” other than the journalists… thus why I asked.
Back to Samardzija. Not trying to keep beating that horse, but I still feel he should be on the list & feel it’s incomplete w/out him… LoL! Trade clause or not, I don’t see how that factors in to the “list”… They could still choose to put him on waivers for purpose of assignment… of course risk losing him, but even if he didn’t have a trade clause, they would still have risked losing him… or keep him on the 25 man out of spring. So I don’t quite understand why that was a condition of your “list”.
Tim, Tyler Greene is out of options. At least, according to the sources I have read. One of the reasons that Matt Carpenter, while lighting up Spring Training, will likely be sent down.
Do you have a link? I don’t believe that is the case but I could be wrong.
Greene has been on the 40 man roster for the past three years. This will be his 6th professional season so he doesn’t have a 4th option year. So if he is tried to be sent down, he’d have to go through waivers.
I’ve read a blog or two that have mentioned it but obviously not the most credible sources. I know a bunch of Cards posters over on the MLB.com forums that are pretty knowledgeable and all have mentioned it before. Facts seem to check out given the rules.
Tim, there a few A’s players you can add to that list, if you want. I know that Ellis, Crisp, DeJesus, Balfour, Fuentes and Wuertz wouldn’t qualify, since they are on multiyear deals. But there are 5 others who might:
Josh Willingham and Conor Jackson can’t be optioned (they have options, but also have the 5 years of ML experience needed to decline). And those two are only on one year agreements for their final year of arbitration.
Hideki Matsui and Rich Harden are on one-year free agent contracts, and can’t be optioned without approval (if they even had any left).
And Craig Breslow is under a one-year deal that just covers his first year of arbitration, and he had his final option year used while still in Boston.
Hopefully some of this can help you with your list. I’m 100% positive on every one of these players. I did my own research, and then had it confirmed by two different A’s beat writers, who said they had confirmation from the team.
We’re leaving off 5+ service time players, which is most of those guys, except Breslow.
Makes sense. I just wanted to throw all the guys out there who I was positive about. I’ve been a geek on the topic of options for about a year now, and now that I finally fully understand how they work, I actually have a list of the exact amount of option years each A’s player has remaining. lol
Does anyone have an answer to my question about claiming an out-of-options Restricted List player? According to my reading, a restricted player can be claimed off waivers by another team, but the team holding the player’s contract must be compensated. Nothing I’ve seen explains how they’d be compensated.
I’m pretty sure that players on the restricted list — much like players on the 60-day DL — cannot be claimed by another team. Even though they don’t actually count against the 40-man roster, they’re still considered a part of it. The player would probably have to be DFA’d before anyone could claim them.
According to baseball-reference.com, “A player on the restricted list cannot be signed by another team unless compensation is paid to the team who placed him on the list.” The grammar of that statement aside, it implies a situation where a restricted player can be claimed by another team.
Thank you, Tim Dierkes. This is the type of info, I don’t get from other websites.
Xavier Paul will be up for grabs. Could be a nice catch for a non-contender. Has had stellar numbers throughout his minor league career.
Nick Evans will be on another team at some point this year. He’s gone back to AA more times than Lindsey Lohan
It’s funny because she’s a trainwreck.
Just curious. How many options does a player have from the beginning? I’ve never understood how that all works, with how many options they have and all.
I believe it’s 3. And they only have like 3 or 4 yrs. once they are placed on the 40 man, depending if they had not had any options used… There’s a website that explains it all. If I come across it again I’ll post it.
Once a player gets added to the 40-man roster, they have 3 ‘option years’. And each year they get optioned, they can be sent up and down multiple times that season, and it still only counts as one ‘option’.
And if a player gets called up, and doesn’t get sent back down again for 2 or 3 seasons they still keep all of their unused option years, and can always be sent back down until all of their options are finally used up (or until they’ve accumulated the 5 years of major league service time required to be able to refuse any remaining options).
There is also a rare 4th option year that some players qualify for. But that only happens to players who have less than 5 years of professional experience (which includes the minors), and players who have spent a significant amount of time on the DL (in those cases the team can request a 4th option year through the commissioner’s office).
Hopefully I made that understandable enough!
Thank you.
Matt Tolbert is also out of options for the Twins (not that it matters that much)
Here’s a link for Tim: startribune.com/sports/twins/blogs/117957779.html
Don’t think so despite this article.
Matt Tolbert is also out of options for the Twins (not that it matters that much 🙂 )
i think joey devine on the A’s is out-of-options too
Devine actually won’t be out until next year. He qualified for the rare 4th option.
k thanks
A key thing to remember is “IF” if the player is sent to the minors.I look at some names, and you obviously have to not worry about it…. Guys i dont plan on seeing sent down, but would like to see claimed by my team? I like Baltimore’s Jake Fox, I believe. LOL. (it’s early) Jeremy Guthrie is worth taking a stab at, if on waivers. Cameron Maybin as well. I believe he is a talented guy, he just wasn’t brought up thru the majors the correct way. Minnesota and Kansas City (along with my team Cleveland) have few players each team wouldn’t want to lose for sure! Minnesota’s Alexi Cassilla and Delmon Young probably could start for most teams, let alone last on the waiver wire long. Young more so then Alexi C. I also like their pitcher Glen Perkins, who is out of options as well. I really like the royals whole minor league system, but the players who are out of options, are nice too! Luke Hochevar is their Ace! Melky Cabrera is their starting Center Fielder. Seattle has a really impressive late inning relief pitcher/closer in David Aardsma. Chicago’s young catcher Geovany Soto would be a great addition not to mention, if Cleveland got him there is a chance Geovanni Soto (the pitcher) could be throwing heaters to Catcher Geovany Soto. That could be a confusing game ecspecially with him being a starting pitcher, 6 innings of jokes. It would be a riot.Texas Rangers outfielder Nelson Cruz would make any team in the league, and crack their line up too. (same could be said for the great Shin-Soo Choo)
Boston’s Darnell Mcdonald is a gamer, i have seen him live a few times, he impresses me as a bench player, or a guy covering for an injured player for a period of time if needed. Toronto’s Dustin McGowan is pretty interesting in my eyes, I havn’t seen him pitch in person, but I believe he has what it takes to be a difference maker at the end of rotation for most clubs.
I know he’s not on the Indians’ 40-man roster (yet), but does Travis Buck have any options left?
I’m 99% sure the A’s used up his third and final option, last year.
The Red Sox handled the out of options business with Okajima, Aceves, and Atchison pretty well.
Interesting list, thanks for sharing.