No More Options For Melky

From MLBTR by way of RAB, we get the word that Melky Cabrera is out of options. For the uninitiated, Rob Neyer’s amazing transaction primer explains the “option” concept:

After three years as a pro, a player must be protected on a team’s 40-man roster, or he is eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Once he’s served those three years, and assuming he is added to the 40-man roster, his club then has what are called “options” on him.

When a player is on the 40-man roster but not on the 25-man Major League roster, he is on “optional assignment.” One common misconception about the rules is that a player may only be “optioned out” three times. Actually, each player has three option years, and he can be sent up and down as many times as the club chooses within those three seasons.

When you hear that a player is “out of options,” that means he’s been on the 40-man roster during three different seasons, beginning with his fourth as a pro, and to be sent down again he’ll have to clear waivers.

Basically, Melky cannot be freely passed down to Scranton anymore, as he must pass through waivers first. Considering that his name has come up frequently in trade talks, I have to believe that he would be claimed by somebody were the Yankees to send him down. Melky has one last shot to show the Yankees that he belongs. If he fails, the Melk man may find himself trying to deliver in a different city.

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