I'd still love to see the minor league options fixed...I dont know if you want me to spell it all out again, but I will anyways
There is a loophole in the game that allows players who are on your 40 man roster, in the minor leagues and out of options to remain in your organization at the minor league level for however long the team sees fit.
Any player who is on the 40 man roster and does not make the opening day 25 man roster, gets "Optioned" to a minor league team. If that player is out of options, he then has to be exposed to irrevocable waivers, if he clears, the player can then be sent to the minors.
To quote Le Grande Orange from a post about 6 months back on the issue, since he says it better...
"The ONLY way a player on the 40-man roster can be in the minor leagues is if he's on an optional assignment (meaning the major league club can recall him to the 25-man active list). If the player is out of options, then he CANNOT be on the 40-man roster AND in the minor leagues at the same time. He can only be on the 25-man active list if he's has no option years left.
To assign a player out of options to the minor leagues, this means removing him from the 40-man roster. This is called an outright assignment, which means the major league club no longer has any title to the player and cannot recall him to the majors like they can with a player on an optional assignment. Whenever a player is being outrighted, he first must clear waivers (outright assignment waivers to be precise) which gives all the other clubs in the majors the chance to claim him if they want. If no club does, then the player is assigned to the minor league club and removed from the 40-man roster. "
So just some sort of check at the beginning of each season to verify whether a player has options remaining or not and if does not, the team either has to keep him on the big league 25 man roster or expose him to waivers.
JT