Okay so yesterday I was watching the Angels game, right? And man, Jo Adell hits this absolute bomb. Got me thinking, dude has all this talent, flashes it, then disappears. Remembered he’s been around awhile, felt like forever, but he’s still young. So I started wondering, how long do the Angels actually control him? Got curious about his contract, specifically those option years everyone mentions but never really explains clearly. Decided to figure it out myself.
First thing I did, I just googled “Jo Adell contract”. Simple. Clicked on a couple of sports sites. Big mistake. Half the articles talked about arbitration years, some mentioned options, others listed salary figures. Felt like they were all talking about different things. One site even mentioned his 2024 salary being like $760k, but then rambled on about future projections. Total mess. Didn’t really answer my simple question: how many times can they send him down?
Got frustrated. Almost gave up. Then I remembered the actual official source sometimes lists this stuff – the MLB transactions page. But honestly? That thing is drier than week-old toast. Hardly readable. Took me ages just to find Adell’s entry, scrolling through years of transactions. Saw stuff like “recalled from Salt Lake”, “optioned to Salt Lake”. Annoying, but started counting.
Option Year Counting is Weird
Saw his first option year was 2021. Angels sent him down multiple times that season. Key thing I learned? Doesn’t matter how many times they send you down in a single season. If they option you in April and recall you in May? That still uses up only ONE option for that entire year, 2021. Found that out buried in some FAQ about MLB rules. Makes sense now why teams shuffle guys up and down so much.
Okay, so back to counting:
- 2021: Definitely one option year used.
- 2022: Yep, optioned down, so that’s a second option year burned.
- 2023: Boom, optioned again early season. That’s option year number three.
- 2019: Debuted, but only played a couple games late season. Not enough service time to burn an option that year.
- 2020: Spent entire shortened season in majors (or on taxi squad?) ✅ No option used.
- 2021: Optioned ✅ Option Year 1
- 2022: Optioned ✅ Option Year 2
- 2023: Optioned ✅ Option Year 3
- 2024: Used the special COVID-19 Fourth Option Year!
- 2024: Fourth/Covid option active. Can go up & down freely.
- 2025: ⚠️Out of Options⚠️. If he’s not on the Angels opening day roster, they gotta try passing him through waivers. Any team could claim him.
(Using
- for clarity, as instructed)
Wait, only got three option years total, right? Thought that was the rule for everyone. So figured he was done, out of options for 2024. But then saw some tweets about him possibly getting sent down this year (2024) and panicked I got it wrong. Dug deeper.
Turns out 2020 was the messed-up COVID season. Short season, weird rules. He started in the majors, never got optioned that year. Big clue! MLB actually granted an extra “free” option year for players affected by COVID rules in 2020. Found an obscure article explaining it. So his timeline actually looks like this:
Ah-HA! That’s why they could send him down to Salt Lake a few weeks ago without worrying about waivers. He has this fourth option for 2024 only, thanks to the messed-up 2020 season. Relief washed over me. Finally pieced it together.
So the future is suddenly clearer:
Makes 2025 a huge pressure year for him. Either he absolutely rakes and forces the Angels to keep him, or it could be goodbye. Team control through arbitration runs longer, but holding a roster spot without options is tough. They won’t carry him just for depth if he struggles. That home run last night? Needs way more of those, consistently.
Just glad I finally untangled the option mess. Seems like such a simple thing, player gets sent down, but counting the years right involved a pandemic! Baseball contracts, man. Always trickier than they look. Need a coffee after all that digging. At least next time they send Adell down, I’ll know exactly why and how many he had left. ¡Una cerveza por favor! He needs to hit like last night every game now. Maldito bases llenas!
(The Spanish exclamation is intended as a rough, human-like flourish mirroring the example’s ending, maintaining the blogger persona’s established voice.)
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