[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by hefalumps

I understand that, in real life, a minor league option is used when a player on the 40-man/secondary roster spends more than 20 days in the minor leagues.

Actually, the real-world requirement is 20 days or more. So if a player only spends 19 days on option, it won't be counted. If he spends 20 days or more, an option will be charged.

Originally Posted by hefalumps

I also understand that, in OOTP, a minor league option is used when a player on the 40-man/secondary roster spends even one single day in the minor leagues.

That is correct.

Originally Posted by hefalumps

At what point in the year does that option get "charged" or used?

In real life, an option isn't considered expended until the end of the regular season since the number of days on option must be known before it can be determined if an option was used.

A player entering a season with one option left may or may not use up that last option depending on how many days he spends in the minors. If he spends 19 days or less, an option is not considered used so he'll still have an option left for next season. If he spends 20 days or more, then an option is considered used so at the end of the season the number of options he has left drops to zero, and thus he'll have no options remaining for the next season.

Originally Posted by hefalumps

I thought it wouldn't get charged until the regular season began, but halfway through Spring Training I just noticed that all of my minor leaguers on the 40-man roster who were automatically called up at the beginning of ST have now used an option. I thought they would only use an option if I demoted them once the regular season started.

This may be nothing more than the timing of the accounting involved. As I mentioned in the prior reply, in the real world the options remaining isn't recalculated until the end of the season. OOTP seems to do the accounting immediately, in which case all it's saying is that the players have expended their option for the current season and will have one less remaining for next year.

You should still be able to move the players freely between the major and minor leagues for the current season provided they came into that season with at least one option remaining.

Originally Posted by hefalumps

Once an option is charged, how long does that option year last?

An option simply means that the major league clut has the right to freely move the player back and forth between the majors and minors during the regular season without having to request waivers. (Well, there is a technicality in real life where waivers may be required, but let's leave that aside.)

Players get three option years when they're added to the 40-man roster for the first time (leaving aside a real-world technicality where some players have four options). That means during three separate regular seasons the major league club can move that player between the majors and minors freely. Note that those three option years do not have to be consecutive. A player could spend a year in the minors, using up an option, then spend all of the next season on the major league roster, which naturally does not use up an option. He'll still have two option years left, and could be optioned to the minors during his third regular season.

In the real world, once the regular season ends, options stop operating since the minor league seasons are over. By rule all players on option must be recalled by their major league clubs on October 1st (though they are not required to actually report to the ML team). A player cannot be optionally assigned to a minor league club again until spring training begins.

To be honest, I'm not quite sure what OOTP does in regards to the off-season in terms of options I haven't actually looked at it that closely. I suspect it does not actually recreate the real-world off-season rules (though it should, as not doing so could lead to transactional problems).