Review process for players with 2013 contract options begins now for non-playoff teams

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By Nathan Aderhold | @AdrastusPerkins

As 10 teams begin their quest to World Series glory today, the other 20 are already laboring over how to best begin their offseason. The first step heading into the winter for many of these squads is the quandary of whether or not to exercise the contract options they have on players for the 2013 season.

Teams only have until a few days after the conclusion of the World Series to decide on picking up options for the following year giving front offices about a month from Game 162 to square everything away. While these options typically manifest themselves in four varieties – club, mutual, player and vesting – an overwhelming majority (49 of the 54) are club options*. In fact, there is not a single player option for 2013 and the only two vesting options still on the table – Brett Myers and Alex Gonzalez – did not actually vest, making the players effectively free agents.

*Club option means exactly what it sounds like it means: the team has first and last say in whether or not they want to retain the player or buy him out, regardless the wishes of the player.

As the chart indicates, no team in baseball has more than four players with a 2013 option. Only five teams are without any options to mull over, making the average number across the MLB roughly two.  The split between pitchers and position players almost breaks even – slightly favoring pitchers 28 to 26 – though just a single team (the Pirates) holds more than one option with only position players.

A few teams that had contract options to settle at the beginning of the season already dealt with them mid-way through the year so are not included in the graph. For instance, the Cardinals and Padres already picked up their mutual options on Jake Westbrook and Huston Street, respectively, by signing them to contract extensions in July and August.

While some of the biggest names with contract options – David Wright, R.A. Dickey, Robinson Cano – will undoubtedly be retained by their clubs, other household names like Dan Haren, Jake Peavy, James Shields and Curtis Granderson could very well find themselves to be hot commodities on the open market in a few weeks’ time. Other players like Miguel Olivo and Jose Contreras may have a hard time finding any team to take them on once their options are bought out.

Recent performance likely plays a large part in the decision-making process of whether to exercise an option or not, but tangible numbers are probably not always the deciding factor. Team salary, roster space and a team’s farm system must also be taken into consideration.

Once the postseason comes to an end we will check in on the 50+ contract options across baseball and analyze why each team chose to make the decision they did with regard to their options.