A
baseball team’s bench and bullpen are inexplicably and intrinsically linked.
Backup position players and (in essence) backup pitchers. In many people’s brains,
the bench and bullpen are mere afterthoughts. In reality, though, they play a large part
in the fortunes of baseball teams.

A
major league baseball team’s bench is a motley crew of three to five not-quite-everyday-players
that spend most of the season seated on – you guessed it – the bench, just
waiting for a slow runner to get on base late in the game, or for an everyday
player to require a sporadic day off.
We’re
motoring towards the end of Spring Training, so as of this point, the 2014 Blue
Jays version of The Bench is looking as such:
- Back-up catcher (RA Dickey’s best
friend Eric Kratz)
- Back-up infielder (the Blue Jays $3-million
man Maicer Izturis)
- Back-up outfielder (out-of-options
Moises Sierra)
Closer
(BJE*: Casey Janssen)
Set-up
man (BJE: Sergio Santos)
Lefty
Specialist (BJE: Brett Cecil)
Long-man
(BJE: Esmil Rogers)
Random
Reliever (BJE: Aaron Loup)
Random
Reliever (BJE: Steve Delabar)
(*BJE
= Blue Jay Equivalent)
The
Blue Jays, of course, will feature two extra, utterly superfluous “Random
Relievers”. And why is that? No, as you may be thinking, it’s not necessarily
because of the Blue Jays lack of quality starting pitching depth, what messes
everything up for the Blue Jays is their overabundance of “Out of Options”
players. What does “Out of Options” mean? Well, thank you for asking! It means
that in order to send certain players down to AAA Buffalo, these players will
have to be passed through waivers, which will allow any team to claim them,
ensuring the Blue Jays lose them and will get nothing in return. (For a
detailed explanation of “options”, please scroll below).
The
out of option players on the 2014 Blue Jays* are: the aforementioned Jeffress, McGowan
and Redmond, plus Brett Cecil, Luis Perez, Esmil Rogers, Sergio Santos and Moises
Sierra. Cecil, Rogers, Santos and Sierra are virtual locks for the team; Perez
is still recovering from Tommy John surgery, so he’ll probably be put on the
Disabled List to start the season. Whether they’re deserving or not, that
leaves three pitchers to occupy the final two spots – Jeffress, McGowan and
Redmond. *Source:
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/03/out-of-options-players-al-east.html

And
one final note: when you think about it, considering the Blue Jays are using
“options” (or the lack thereof) as a way to form their roster, how prescient is
it that the acronym for “Out of Option Players” works out to “OOOPs”?
_______________________________________________________________________
Boring
Explanation of “Options”
A
common misconception, based on the phrase, "out of options," is that
a player may only be moved between the major and minor leagues a restricted
number of times. On the contrary, a player has a finite number of option years
in which he may be moved between the major and minor leagues an unlimited
number of times. If a player is on the 40-man roster but not on the active
major league roster, he is said to be on optional assignment—his organization
may freely move him between the major league club and the minor league club.
The rules for this are as follows. (In all cases, an assignment of a player on
a major-league disabled list to the minors while on a rehabilitation assignment
does not count as time spent in the minors.)
- 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.
·
A
team may have a fourth option year on a player with less than five full seasons
of professional experience, provided that both conditions are met below.
1.
A
player has not spent at least 90 days on an active professional roster in a
season. Minor leagues that play below Class A Advanced have seasons that are
shorter than 90 days, and as such, any player who spends a full season in a
rookie or Class A (short-season) league will receive a fourth option year.
2.
A
player has not spent at least 60 days on an active professional roster AND then
at least 30 days on a disabled list in a season. Only after 60 days have been
spent on an active professional roster does time spent on the disabled list
count towards the 90-day threshold. As with the prior example, this cannot
occur with players who spend a full season in a rookie or Class A (short
season) league.
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