Originally Posted by
medford
There's a technicality in the option rules, basically if you spend less than 20 days of service in the minors and the rest in the majors, then you don't burn an option and all service time is counted as major league service time.
For example, Dennis Phipps is place on the 40 man roster at season's end to protect him from exposure to the Rule-5 draft (I don't know if he's eligible or not, just an example) With Alonso, Heisey, Stubbs, Drew, big offseason pickup, etc.. they feel like they're set in the OF and have no real plans for him at the majors next year, so he starts out in AAA. 18 days into the season, Bruce blows out his pinkie so they bring up Phipps. Phipps tears things up and stays up with the team all season long. Even when Bruce's pinkie is back to 100%, they send somebody else down and Phipps goes on to win rookie of the year. At season's end, Phipps would have 1 full season of service time, rathr than 1 full season - the 18 games, he would also have all 3 options available should the reds decide to send him back down to AAA the following season.