Padres players with minor-league options on the 40-man roster

Minor-league options are key to roster building. As players develop, it becomes necessary at times for a team to send them back to the minor leagues in order to fix a hole in their swing or tinker with their pitching mechanics. Sometimes it has nothing to do with their performance, and that the team only has 26 spots available.

It can be tricky to navigate these roster moves unless you know how many minor-league options players have left. Each player begins his career with three minor-league options. A team can option a player multiple times throughout the season, but once a player has spent at least 20 days in the minor leagues, one of his options is now gone.

When it comes to the San Diego Padres 40-man roster, who has minor-league options remaining? How many players are out of options? All stats are provided by FanGraphs.

Padres players with minor-league options on the 40-man roster

Which Padres players have 3 minor-league options remaining?

• Ha-Seong Kim, IF
• Alek Jacob, RHP
• Fernando Tatis Jr., RF
• Stephen Kolek, RHP
• Jake Cronenworth, IF
• Steven Wilson, RHP
• Jairo Iriarte, RHP

The Padres players with three minor-league options remaining typically fall into one of two categories; they've either never been sent down to the minors leagues throughout their career, or they've recently added to the 40-man roster. Ha-Seong Kim, Jake Cronenworth, and Fernando Tatis Jr. would fall into the former.

Jairo Iriarte was the only player the Padres added at to the roster this fall, and Stephen Kolek came to San Diego by way of the Rule 5 Draft. Alek Jacob and Steven Wilson made their debut last season.

Which Padres players have 2 minor-league options remaining?

• Michael King, RHP
• Jeremiah Estrada, RHP
• Randy Vasquez, RHP
• Tom Cosgrove, LHP
• Jhony Brito, RHP
• Matt Waldren, RHP
• Glenn Otto, RHP
• Sean Reynolds, RHP

The Padres have a long list of pitchers who still have two minor-league options remaining. Three of them (Michael King, Randy Vasquez, and Jhony Brito) came to San Diego by way of the offseason trade with the New York Yankees. The other hurlers on this list will likely go back and forth between the big leagues and the minors this season as performance or injury necessitate a change.

Which Padres players have 1 minor-league option remaining?

• Luis Campusano, C
• Matthew Batten, IF
• Adrian Morejon, RHP
• Jose Azocar, OF
• Logan Gillaspie, RHP
• Brett Sullivan, C
• Eugy Rosario, IF
• Tucupita Marcano, IF

Players with one minor-league option remaining are teetering between a fringe player who can land on the Padres Opening Day roster, or someone who will begin the season at Triple-A. Luis Campusano is likely to be among the 26 players leaving Peoria when camp breaks at the end of next month, but there are question marks surrounding the other seven players on the Friars roster with just one option left.

Which Padres players have no minor-league options remaining?

• Manny Machado, IF
• Kyle Higashioka, C
• Robert Suarez, RHP
• Yuki Matsui, LHP
• Enyel De Los Santos, RHP
• Joe Musgrove, RHP
• Xander Bogaerts, IF
• Jay Groome, LHP
• Yu Darvish, RHP
• Wandy Peralta LHP
• Woo-Suk Go, RHP
• Pedro Avila, RHP
• Jurickson Profar, OF
• Luis Patiño, RHP

The overwhelming majority of players who don't have any minor-league options remaining will make the Padres Opening Day roster. Players like Manny Machado, Yu Darvish and Xander Bogaerts aren't going anywhere.

But two names jump out as potential roster casualties if a handful of non-roster invitees make some noise once Cactus League play begins. Enyel De Los Santos, Luis Patiño, and Jay Groome will be on thin ice this spring. If the Padres hope to keep them within the organization, they'll have to designate them for assignment and hope they pass through waivers if they're removed from the 40-man roster.