Nuts and bolts: KC Royals minor league player options

Baseball rules can be mysterious. Rule 11(c) regulates minor league options and can be both complicated and confusing, but it’s a critical rule for the KC Royals.

Rule 11(c) is like the other rules found in the “Major League Rules,” the compendium that regulates how the business of baseball is conducted. Like the rules of play, these rules can be complicated, confusing and difficult to understand. Rule 11(c) can, however, be distilled to this: Generally speaking, a player has three options; once exhausted, the player can’t be sent to the minor leagues without first clearing waivers.

Satisfying? Perhaps, but only to the extent that it might be enough to know each player gets three options, but not if one doesn’t know what an option is, how it’s used, and what exceptions might exist. It may be sufficient for some to know a player has, or doesn’t have, options; for others, knowing and understanding what lies underneath the word “option” is better.

What is an “option?”  A “minor league option” isn’t to be confused with a baseball contract option. They are two different things with two different purposes. The latter refers to a contract provision–if a player’s contract includes an “option” the player, or the club, can extend the contract beyond its base term by exercising, “or picking up,” the option. Options sometimes require the assent of both player and club, hence their identification as “mutual.”

A minor league option has nothing to do with a player’s contract, but everything to do with a club’s ability to send him to the minor leagues against his will. Kyle Zimmer can’t be demoted unless he has at least one option; if he does, the KC Royals can send him down and there’s nothing he can do about it. (In some cases, a player can consent to a minor league assignment, but players are usually reluctant to do so).

An option must be brought into being; professional ballplayers reporting to duty for the first time won’t find them in their lockers or among their equipment issues. Being placed on a club’s 40-man roster is what gives life to options–at that moment, the player is assigned his three options. It is perhaps more accurate to say the club has the options, because it’s the club that decides when and how to use them, not the player.

Don’t be misled. The term “option” can be confusing in and of itself: it isn’t plural on its face,  suggesting that it’s of singular, one-time utility. In a technical sense, it is, but the exercise of a single option involves more than using something once and losing it as a consequence. A minor league option is, instead, the ability to do something more than once in a specific time period–it permits the KC Royals to send Zimmer to the bush leagues as many times as it can within a single season.

How does it work? When Kansas City first put Zimmer on its 40-man, he was assigned the three options Rule 11(c) allows. During that season, the club could have demoted him (assuming he was first promoted to the big club) as many times as it wanted. Although he could have been demoted several times, those demotions collectively would have counted as only one option, leaving Zimmer with two.

So why was Zimmer, who made his major league debut in 2019, out of options when 2020 spring training began–how could he have been if he had never been demoted to the minors before last season, his first in the majors?

Here’s why. Under the option rules, a player on the 40-man who isn’t also on the active, 26-man major league roster when the regular season begins must be optioned to the minors. So, when Zimmer occupied a 40-man spot but didn’t make the team out of spring training, he and the Royals used up an option. Zimmer broke camp with the KC Royals last season with just one option left–the club used it the first time it sent him to Omaha, leaving him with no options when he reported to spring training with the rest of the pitchers this February 12.

But a few days later baseball, via its myriad of rules exceptions and discretionary moves, gave Zimmer back his last option, justifying the restoration on the complex injury history that deprived him of so much critical minor league development time. Now, the Royals can keep him in KC, solve a roster crunch by demoting him to make room for another player, or demote him to get him more work than he might get with the major league team.

What happens when a player runs out of options?  A player without options is at risk. Had baseball not awarded Zimmer a fourth option, the Royals couldn’t demote him unless he first cleared waivers, a sometimes complicated process that requires a club to place a player on waivers, thus exposing him to another club’s waiver claim and potential loss to that claiming team.

Are their exceptions or other relief from Rule 11(c)?  Yes. Players who have less than five years of professional service, determined by combining minor league seasons with any major league seasons, get a fourth option. (A “year of service” is determined by several variables, discussion of which isn’t necessary here to gain a basic working knowledge of options). An option isn’t used if a player spends less than 20 days in the minors during a season, or is injured for an entire season. And, like Zimmer, a player can get an extra option if circumstances warrant.

Finally, injury rehabilitation assignments don’t count as options, and Rule 9(d) prohibits demoting players with at least five years of major league service without their consent.

With all that in mind, what is the option status of notable KC Royals? Let’s find out using FanGraphs’ comprehensive roster tracking data.

The fact that some notable KC Royals are out of options may improve their chances of making the club. Others, however, may find themselves looking for work.

While having no options doesn’t matter to some KC Royals, lack of options does to others. Some players may survive spring training because they don’t have options; having none may spell the end of their KC days for others.

Not in any need of the options they don’t have are DH Jorge Soler and shortstop Adalberto Mondesi. Their jobs aren’t in doubt. And if Mondesi, recovering from last season’s injuries and subsequent surgery, requires an injury rehabilitation assignment, he can have one (or more) because rehab assignments aren’t options.

His lack of options probably won’t influence the Royals where pitcher Jorge Lopez is concerned. Despite his inconsistency, his stuff can be electrifying, and the club is focused on where to put him–the rotation or the bullpen–and not worried about sending him down.

Pitcher Mike Montgomery is almost certain to begin the season in the KC rotation. Even if he has a bad spring, the Royals aren’t likely to give up on him, and his lack of options would require the Royals to risk losing him through waivers if they wanted to send him down. Jesse Hahn also appears immune to his lack of options–that the club released him in December and signed him to a major league deal several days later suggests only a catastrophic Cactus League performance could cause it to lose faith in him.

Outfielders Bubba Starling and Brett Phillips were set to compete for at least one starting outfield spot this season, but the offseason acquisition of third baseman Maikel Franco pushed Ryan Dozier to right field, Whit Merrifield will play center and Alex Gordon spurned retirement to re-up for another year in left. The fates of Starling and Phillips may, or may not, hinge on their lack of options.

The new outfield alignment doesn’t change the Starling-Phillips competition, it just changes what they’re competing for. KC will keep at least one, and probably more, backup outfielders; if the Royals carry at least two, Starling and Phillips are the most likely choices, their chances enhanced by the facts they have no options and other promising outfielders, such as Nick Heath and Eric Mejia, do. But if Starling and Phillips fail this spring, their lack of options may not deter the club from trying to keep them by attempting to get them through waivers.

Randy Rosario‘s two spring appearances haven’t damaged his chances of landing a bullpen spot. Through Friday’s games, he has a save and hasn’t allowed a hit, a walk, or a run. He’s out of options which, together with his performance and the fact he’s a rare lefty among bullpen candidates, could help him earn a roster spot.

KC Royals with only one option left may influence who wins bullpen jobs. Others don’t need to worry much about options.

With at least 15 pitchers fighting for shares of limited bullpen space, minor league options give manager Mike Matheny much-needed flexibility. New roster rules limit Matheny and the KC Royals to 13 pitchers; five of those will be starters and Ian Kennedy, Scott Barlow, Tim Hill and Jorge Lopez are probably bullpen locks, leaving just four spots up for grabs.

The competition is close. Veterans Greg Holland and Trevor Rosenthal, both striving to recapture past dominance, have been stellar and Josh Staumont. Jake Newberry, Glenn Sparkman and Richard Lovelady have all pitched well. Randy Rosario has looked good but has no options. And Kyle Zimmer and Kevin McCarthy are definitely in the mix. Making room for even four of those nine (assuming they all continue to impress and he wants them) will force Matheny to use minor league options.

The Royals could option Zimmer, whose new option permits them to give him additional beneficial work, under less pressure, at Omaha; McCarthy’s option allows him to start the season there if necessary. Chance Adams, Braden Shipley, Conner Greene and Heath Fillmyer also have an option left.

Eric Skoglund‘s only spring appearance didn’t go well–he gave up three hits and three runs in two-thirds of an inning, a performance that, combined with his poor major league history and any future bad spring outings, may render his one option irrelevant. The Royals may not be willing to invest any more in him without soon seeing signs of improvement.

Although catcher Salvador Perez has returned after recuperating all last season from surgery and appears in fine form, making sure he has adequate backup is a priority. The primary candidates are internal–Cam Gallagher and Meibrys Viloria–the club can elect to keep only one and choose either because they both have an option left.

Hunter Dozier also has an option. It is one unlikely, of course, to be used.

Multiple available options are most valuable for strategic roster planning, an important consideration for the KC Royals.

Option issues are of more immediate concern when one, or no, options remain; cases involving two or three frequently bear more on future, rather than present, roster planning. In fact, present critical decisions based exclusively on players having two, or the maximum three, options are probably rare. That doesn’t mean having more than one option isn’t important–multiple option players also offer flexibility–it’s just less critical than knowing, in the tense heat of imminent roster crunches, that a player has just one. Or none.

Two or three option players can play a vital role in strategic roster planning; the KC Royals are a case in point. The club is well-stocked with players who may not be major league ready; immediately available multiple options allow the club to farm them out for more seasoning, leaving another one or two options available for future use.

Take, for example, the potential roster logjam the group of hot young Royal pitching prospects may pose. Brady Singer is soon to be a major leaguer; he may make the Royals’ Opening Day roster and is certain to make his big league debut this season. Close on his heels should be Jackson Kowar, Kris Bubic and Daniel Lynch; if they’re all ready next season, the resulting roster crunch will require immediate attention and relief.

The solution could easily involve players for whom immediate assignment to the minors will be beneficial and who may, at the same time, be more ready for big-league play next season but less critical then to the KC Royals than other players. Talented outfielders Nick Heath and Erick Mejia may be such players–Mejia played a bit for KC last season, Heath is on the verge of being ready, and both are getting long spring looks. Bubba Starling and Brett Phillips are prime candidates for backup outfield spots; if Mike Matheny chooses both, there probably won’t be room for others.

In that case, the Royals could send Mejia and Heath down without exhausting their options. Then, if both are deemed completely ready next season, but the club needs Singer, Kowar, Bubic or Lynch more, it can use those outfielders’ remaining options to avoid losing them.

(Using Mejia and Heath as examples isn’t meant to imply they’re not worthy of 2020 Opening Day roster spots or that Matheny won’t break camp with one or both of them–it’s simply to illustrate the positive implications of multiple options).

Then there are players with multiple options who can serve the same immediate roster relief purposes as players with one. Pitchers Glenn Sparkman, Scott Blewett, Jake Newberry, Richard Lovelady, and Josh Staumont all have two options left; unless it’s vital that they remain in KC, the Royals could use any one of their options to avoid letting fellow hurler Randy Rosario go or burning the last options of Kyle Zimmer or Kevin McCarthy. (The way Staumont’s spring is proceeding suggests his options won’t be touched). Ryan McBroom has three options.

Finally, some players may never need all, or any, of their multiple options. Ryan O’Hearn won’t require any of his two options if he returns to his 2018 breakout form; if he continues to decline this season, however, the Royals can use one to give him time in Omaha, but they may be inclined to end his KC days if he needs one next season. Nicky Lopez probably won’t need any of his three options; nor should Tim Hill and Scott Barlow need to use either of their two.

Minor league option rules are important but can be confusing. Hopefully, this article sheds light on those options and the rules that control them.