The Donut Contract
That club option entails the decision regarding whether or not to continue the contract with said player, along with for how long and for how much, is all up to the team’s management. Obviously, that is significantly less desirable to players than the player option, which allows those decisions to be decided by the athlete.
So, in simpler terms, if a player (typically a pitcher) agrees to a donut contract they are agreeing to quite a bit of uncertainty. The game of MLB is one of money – any of the $9 billion that are not paid to the players goes straight to the already fat wallets of the owners of the franchises. These contracts are just giving more power to the already hard hitting bats of teams, and less to the actual players.
“I think these contracts are unfair to the players. They’re the ones actually playing the game, and they don’t deserved to be treated this way by their teams,” said Nick Amaya, junior.
To break down how prevalent these contracts are becoming, of the 209 contract extensions that MLBTradeRumors.com cited, 73 have a club option for one season, 21 with two club options, and eight with three club options.
For those players that have club options on their contracts, this is not simply a matter of not being able to play with the team you have been with for years, or to be playing alongside your buddies.
This is an economic issue. The fear that pitchers and fielders alike deal with of contracting an injury before the end of your contract is very real; especially for those Latin-American players who did not grow up teeming with wealth. Donut contracts truly emphasize the negative side of baseball; the side more popularly referred to as money ball.
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