A lot of the newly-ratified Collective Bargaining Agreement was hotly debated between the league and the MLBPA. Some things in it, though, kind of materialized out of nowhere, and seem to be of general agreement to both sides. One of those things, which was pretty random, but made it into the final agreement, was a limit on the number of times a player can be optioned to the minors in a year until being exposed to waivers. Will this change have a dramatic effect on the game? Probably not. But it’s quirky enough to be worth examining, anyway.
Before we go any further, it behooves us to establish what exactly we’re talking about, because options are really confusing.