A few weeks ago, MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald highlighted players who could choose to return to the free agent market through opt-out clauses. We will now look at the categories for those who have contracts that contain club, mutual or vesting options. That starts tonight with the AL East.
Although it’s early in the season, many of these offers are easy to predict. Similar options will likely be rejected by either the player or the team (usually the latter). Countermeasures are, in fact, illegal postponements during the term of the contract itself. The player agrees to pay back a percentage of the guaranteed money until the end of the deal in the form of a buyout option — paid after the end of the World Series rather than spread evenly over the course of the regular season as salary.
Baltimore Orioles
- RHP Zach Eflin: $25MM option ($2MM purchase)
Eflin’s return to the Orioles was hampered by another injury: a torn elbow that required Tommy John surgery. The O’s probably wouldn’t have signed up for a $25MM salary even if he had stayed healthy this year, but this is as clear a buy as these picks get.
Enns pitched well for the O’s long after the deadline trade from Detroit. The 34-year-old southpaw worked to a 3.14 ERA while striking out 28% of the batters he faced in 28 2/3 innings. Although he’s not even close to six years of MLB service, his contract contained a 2026 club option that likely had a clause guaranteeing he would become a free agent if the team declined. That’s normal for players like Enns who have spent the past few seasons playing in Asia.
Enns restructured Enns’ contract to pay him a $2.5MM salary and guarantee a $125K buyout with a $3.5MM team option for the ’27 season. He has walked five batters over 4 1/3 innings to start this season. Enns went on the injured list a few weeks ago with a foot ailment. He began a rehab assignment at Triple-A on Saturday. This one is too early to judge.
Mountcastle agreed to exercise a $7.5MM option to avoid arbitration last season. Speculatively, that’s probably due to a provision in the CBA that doesn’t fully guarantee the salaries decided at the arbitration hearing until Opening Day. If Mountcastle hadn’t settled, the O’s could have released him for a severance payment during Spring Training after making a splash Pete Alonso at the beginning of winter.
While the O’s were happy to get an extra year of control over the club, it probably won’t be much. Mountcastle broke a bone in his left foot last week and will miss at least two months. His second year in a row due to injury. He missed several months due to muscle strain in 2025. Mountcastle was already of a rare order who would make sense as a trade chip. Maybe he’ll come back in the second half and hit so well that the O’s feel the price of the pick is too good to pass up, but it’s unlikely this goes down.
The Boston Red Sox
- LHP Aroldis Chapman: $13MM mutual option ($300K purchase); ivest at $13MM in 40 innings pitched
Chapman’s option depends on if he reaches 40 innings this season and passes the end of the year physically. He has surpassed 40 frames in three consecutive seasons. That’s 7 2/3 innings so far. It would take at least one injured roster spot — perhaps a 6-8 week absence — for him to miss 40 innings.
Either way, the Sox would be happy to get him for that price if he’s healthy. Chapman may have been the best pitcher in MLB last season, pitching 61 1/3 innings of 1.17 ERA ball with a 37% strikeout rate. Punchouts are down early this year in a very small sample size, yet he has allowed one run and is 4-4 in save opportunities. He is sitting at the top of his game at the age of 38.
- RHP Sonny Gray: $30MM option ($10MM purchase)
Gray restructured his contract as a condition of the offseason trade that sent him from St. Louis to Boston. The deal originally came with a $35MM salary for this year and a $5MM buyout option. Gray agreed to return $4MM of salary in the buyout while picking up another $1MM as a condition of waiving his no-trade clause. He will be a free agent.
Whitlock’s contract comes with an $8.25MM team option that includes $4MM in an unspecified escalator. There is also a $10.5MM club option for the ’28 season. Whitlock has been one of the best setup arms in MLB throughout his career. He rebounded from an injury-riddled ’24 season to pitch 72 innings of 2.25 ERA ball with a 31% strikeout rate last year.
The righty’s command has been shaky this year and his sinker velocity is down a few ticks. Still, he allowed just two earned runs while striking out 11 in his first nine innings. No other Boston developer receives higher dividends on average. This is one of the best options to use.
New York Yankees
Tampa Bay Rays
- 1B Yandy Diaz: $10MM club option; converts to a $13MM option that automatically allows 500 plate appearances
Tampa Bay pre-locked in Díaz’s $12MM club option for the 2026 season during Spring Training ’25. In the trade, the first baseman gave the team a $10MM option for ’27 worth $13MM as long as he stays healthy enough to reach 500 plate appearances. Díaz is a little more than 20% of the way there. Even if he’s been plagued by injuries that have taken a commitment clause off the table, he’s been such a good hitter that Tampa Bay would likely be happy to exercise the $10MM option.
The cooperative option in the Martinez contract was one of the aforementioned accounting methods. The Rays aren’t paying him a $20MM salary even if he lives up to their expectations. You will be bought.
The same could happen to Mullins. The $10MM option price is rich in Tampa Bay unless the former All-Star has a breakout season — in which case, he could decline his expiration and look for a multi-year deal. The early returns are not encouraging, as Mullins is hitting .156 with two homers in his first 21 games. In the last calendar year, he hit .194/.257/.336.
- RHP Drew Rasmussen: $8MM club option ($500K buyout); the option could rise to $20MM depending on Rasmussen’s health and total innings
Before the 2025 season, the Rays signed Rasmussen to a two-year contract that bought out his final years of arbitration. It included a complex club option for 2027 that depended heavily on his health. The option comes with a base value of $8MM but includes up to $12MM in escalators based on starts and time spent on the injured list.
Rasmussen had just surpassed 80 MLB innings during his extension. He has been tweaked with his elbow several times and has cracked the league as a reliever due to durability concerns. Rasmussen has remained healthy over the past year-and-a-half. He pitched a career-high 150 innings en route to a top-10 Cy Young finish in 2025. He got off to a similarly good start in the ’26 campaign, allowing just four earned runs in his first 19 2/3 innings.
The value of the option will start to rise soon. It will jump to $8.5MM after he reaches eight starts and includes an escalator every fourth start to 28. If he makes 28+ starts, he could jump to at least $14MM. That’s just the beginning, as the value increases if he avoids a lengthy long-term injury list. It could be up to $20MM if he lasts the entire season without an arm injury.
At $8MM, Rasmussen is a solid deal even for the Rays’ low-paying club. The escalator will likely move up quickly enough that you will be a trade candidate. That could happen mid-season if the team isn’t in the playoff hunt or early next season if they make it at the deadline. If Rasmussen repeats last year’s production, he won’t be in danger of being bought out – as he is close. Pete Fairbanks that’s when the escalator pushed his option value from $7MM to $11MM.
Note: Rays hold $3.1MM club option on INF Taylor’s Walls. You will remain eligible for arbitration if the party refuses.
Toronto Blue Jays
- CF Myles Straw: $8MM club option ($1.75MM buyout); The Guardians paid Toronto $1.75MM at the end of the season as part of the 2025 trade
The Blue Jays have received straws in a trade to dump salary and relievers through the 2024-25 season. Toronto agreed to cover $11MM of the remaining two years and $14.75MM of Straw’s underwater contract. (He had gone unclaimed on waivers that same season and was no longer on Cleveland’s 40-man roster.) In exchange, the Rangers sent the Jays an international bonus spot. Toronto may increase their offer Roki Sasaki for an additional $2MM over time, an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to pry the star NPB pitcher away from signing with the Dodgers.
Sasaki’s decision to join LA makes this initially look like a complete shock for Toronto. To his credit, Straw redeems this initiative. He made the team in 2025 and did a good job in the fourth outfield role, hitting .262/.313/.367 while playing his dominant defense that often came from the outfield. He’s off to a good start this season as well and provides a top-floor depth option if Daulton Varsho you miss it anytime.
Will that be enough to convince the Jays to keep Trey? They certainly didn’t expect to exercise the $8MM option at the time of the trade. That was made clear enough by the teams’ agreement that the Rangers send Toronto a $1.75MM payment — matching the buyout — at the end of the ’26 season. Cleveland is sending the money either way, so it would be up to a $6.25MM call if the Jays want to bring Trey back.
That’s rich for a fourth outfielder, which Straw has been for the past few seasons. Varsho is an upcoming free agent and the Jays don’t have anyone waiting in the wings in the farm system. Straw’s play and the possibility of Varsho’s departure made this call more difficult than the Jays’ front office expected.
