The final push of the 2025 season is upon is, which means postseason chases for fans lucky enough to root for contending clubs and offseason dreams for those whose clubs are already out of the running. It also means that players with vesting clauses in their contract and/or performance incentives are beginning to unlock bonuses related to plate appearances, innings pitched, games finished, etc. In particular, there are a handful of club options that are worth keeping an eye on either for incentive purposes or for season-long rehabbers wholl have a limited September window to audition for next years club. of note last month, but well still take a look at how those players are tracking and also shine a light on six more club/mutual options thatll have some present financial ramifications as well as potential Brandon Hughes Jersey 2026 roster implications. Here are nine options to keep in the back of your mind as the seasons final weeks play out , RHP, Rays Fairbanks three-year, $12MM extension with Tampa Bay contained a $7MM club option for the 2026 season, but hes boosted that options value considerably. Fairbanks already triggered $1.5MM in escalators based on his total appearances in the first three seasons of the deal, and hes maxed out a set of escalators based on his number of games finished in 2025, tacking another $2MM onto the option price. His option at this moment is valued at $10.5MM, but if he appears in even two more games this year, hell boost his 2023-25 appearance count to 150, triggering another $1MM escalator. If he appears in seven of Tampa Bays final 22 games, hell bump his 2025 appearance total to 60 and hit another $1MM escalator. Despite all those escalators, MLBTR has learned that the option maxes out at $11MM. That salary for a reliever is steep for the Rays, but Fairbanks has pitched a career-high 52 1/3 innings and logged a 3.10 ERA, 25.2% strikeout rate and 7% walk rate en route to 24 saves. Even if the Rays were hesitant to commit $11MM to a frequently injured reliever wholl turn 32 in December, a team with le ser budgetary concerns would be willing to do. The option will very likely be picked up either way, but the steeper the cost, the likelier an offseason trade becomes. , RHP, Mariners Muozs four-year, $7.5MM contract has become one of the games great bargains. At the time of the agreement, hed made just one appearance for the Ms and had only 23 2/3 major league innings under his belt due to Tommy John surgery. The four-year term bought out his final pre-arbitration year and all three arbitration seasons, while also giving Seattle options on his first three free agent years. Its easy to say now that Muoz wouldve earned more through arbitration, but its hard to blame a 22-year-old whod scarcely pitched in the majors for locking in that life-changing payday, and there was some modest risk for the Mariners in the deal as well. The first of those three option years has a $6MM base value, but Muoz has already boosted that by $500K. He unlocked $250K option escalators when he reached 20 and 30 games finished on the season. Hes finished 39 games now, and hell hit additional $250K escalators when he finishes his 40th and 45th games of the season. The first of those is a lock, and the second is certainly within reach. Muozs contract also has an $8MM club option for 2027 and a $10MM club option for 2028. He can boost both those figures by $1MM with the same set of escalators based on his games finished in the next two seasons, and beginning next year, he can also earn an additional $2MM per season based on games finished. , LHP, Guardians Coming off his second career Tommy John surgery, Means signed a one-year, $1MM deal with the Guardians. Cleveland knew full well hed mi s most of the season recovering from last summers UCL operation. Means has a $6MM club option, with no buyout. He cant boost that sum any further, but hes on the cusp of returning to the majors and making whatll amount to a two- or three-start audition. Means, 32, has made four minor league rehab starts and has pitched well. Hes to sed 13 1/3 innings and yielded four earned runs (2.70 ERA) on eight hits and five walks with 13 punchouts. Hed been slated to make his final rehab start today before being scratched with an illne s, but a return to the majors could happen as soon as next weekend. When healthy, Means has been a high-quality starter. Hes posted a 3.68 ERA in 401 big league innings, all coming with the Orioles. Hes a former Opening Day starter and All-Star for Baltimore who has twice topped 140 innings in a season. A pair of UCL surgeries has limited him to just 52 1/3 innings since Opening Day 2022, however. that as long as Means is healthy, the option will be picked up. The Guards have committed a full year to rehabilitating the talented lefty. And, , Cleveland has an uncharacteristic need for some pitching upgrades. A $6MM gamble on Means isnt exactly a pricey roll of the dice, but the Guardians are one of the sports lowest-payroll clubs. If Means returns next week and gets rocked in his only two or three big league starts this year, it doesnt feel like a given that theyll dedicate that $6MM sum to him. If he looks even close to his old form, it seems like a reasonable risk to take. His handful of starts will be worth watching with a careful eye for Cleveland fans. , RHP, Tigers Urquidy is in a very similar situation to that of Means. Hes rehabbing from a second career Tommy John surgery and signed a one-year, $1MM deal with a $4MM club option for the 2026 season. Like Means, hes on a minor league rehab a signment right now and could be activated in the near future. The former Astros righty to sed three scorele s innings for Triple-A Toledo three days ago and has now pitched 14 2/3 minor league innings with a 4.30 ERA and a 12-to-3 K/BB ratio. Urquidy and Means have nearly identical career innings totals, though Urquidys 405 frames have come in a more condensed five seasons. From 2019-22, the right-hander posted a 3.74 ERA with a 20.3% strikeout rate and 5.2% walk rate in 342 innings for Houston. He was hit hard in a 2023 season that was shortened by shoulder troubles (5.29 ERA in 63 frames) and didnt pitch in 2024 due to the elbow/forearm discomfort that eventually prompted his Tommy John surgery in early June last year. If Urquidy comes back anywhere close to that 2019-22 form, a $4MM option should be a no-brainer, but a rocky performance could give the Tigers reason to pause. Urquidys return will also be worth monitoring since he could pitch his way into postseason roster consideration for Detroit. , RHP, Braves Atlanta looked past Kinleys dismal 5.66 ERA with the Rockies and acquired him in July, clearly believing that the hard-throwing righty was only a few tweaks away from succe s. Its been a masterstroke. Kinley has pitched 13 2/3 innings and allowed just one run since being traded to Atlanta in exchange for 26-year-old Double-A righty . The Braves have Kinley throwing even more sliders and working with a slightly lower release point, and the results have been stellar albeit in a small sample. The Braves were out of the postseason chase by the time the deadline rolled around, so the mere fact that they traded for a potential free agent with a 2026 club option signaled that they were open to exercising that option in spite of his struggles. Kinleys succe s in Atlanta makes it quite likely hell return, but theres a good chance it wont be at the $5MM base price of his value. His contract contains option escalators based on games finished, the first of which kicks in at 20. Kinley has currently finished 18 games this year, including three with Atlanta. If he finishes two more, hell boost next years option to $5.5MM and hell also unlock a $500K bonus for the current season. Its not a major change, but those incentives would bump him from a $2.08MM luxury tax hit to $2.875MM. A suming the options on Kinley, , , and are all exercised, Atlanta will have $207.5MM committed to next years books when the offseason begins (before accounting for arbitration raises). , OF, Phillies Bader has proven to be a terrific pickup for the Phils, hitting .307/.374/.477 in his first 99 plate appearances since being traded over from Minnesota. Hes up to 406 plate appearances on the season, which is just enough for his incentive structure to kick in. The $1.5MM buyout on Baders $10MM mutual option jumped to $1.7MM when he reached 400 plate appearances, and itll climb to $1.9MM at 425 plate appearances and $2.1MM if he reaches 450. Its a minor bump, but for a Phillies club thats a third-time luxury payor in the top tier of penalization, theyll pay a 110% tax on the prorated portion of that extra $600K. Given the strength of Baders play, theyll happily pay that, of course, and the increased buyout does nothing to change the fact that Bader will return to free agency this winter. Its been over a decade since the last time both sides of a mutual option were exercised in MLB (Brewers, in 2014). Baders plus defense and strong season at the plate should position him for a multi-year deal in the offseason. , INF, Mariners Polanco is nine plate appearances shy of converting his 2026 mutual option into a $6MM player option. Hes also already tacked $2MM onto his 2025 salary via plate appearance incentives, and when he hits the 450 mark needed to trigger that player option, hell unlock another $500K. Thatll bump the veteran switch-hitter up to a $9.5MM salary in 2025. Hed get another $500K if he can make it to 500 plate appearances, but its not a guarantee hell get 59 plate appearances in between now and seasons end. Though hes slumped considerably in the middle months of the season, Polanco has heated up again in the past three weeks. Hes slashing .254/.319/.471 with 23 homers and 17 doubles in only 441 plate appearances miles better than the down year he had with the Ms in 2024 before undergoing offseason knee surgery. Hes played well enough that hes probably going to decline a $6MM player option anyhow, but itll be a nice safety net in the event of an injury (so long as its not a lower-half injury, as his contract contains language thatd prevent the player option from kicking in if hes dealing with an injury related to that offseason knee procedure). , LHP, Phillies Strahm is on the cusp of having his contracts 2026 option vest. While that originally came at a $4.5MM base value, hes already boosted the option value to $6.5MM via $1MM escalators at 40 and 50 innings pitched. Once he reaches 60, the option value increases to its maximum $7.5MM. The contract also stipulates that if Strahm pitches 60 innings and pa ses a physical at the end of the season, itll automatically vest. Strahm has been excellent in 2025, logging 56 1/3 frames of 2.88 ERA ball with a 27.9% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate. Hes saved six games and tallied 17 holds. The Phillies wouldve picked up the option anyhow, but this removes any doubt. , RHP, Red Sox Giolitos two-year, $38.5MM contract with Boston couldnt have started much worse. The typically durable righty went down with a UCL injury in spring training last year, ultimately requiring surgery that wiped out his entire 2024 season. His 2025 return didnt appear to be going well early on, either. Through his first seven starts, the 31-year-old was shelled for a 6.42 ERA in just 33 2/3 innings. Since June 10, however, Giolito has returned to form. Hes started 15 games, totaled 91 2/3 innings and logged a pristine 2.26 earned run average. His 21.1% strikeout rate and 8.6% walk rate in that time are both about half a percentage point worse than league average among starting pitchers, but its been a strong run overall, pushing his season ERA down to a tidy 3.38. That turnaround would make Giolitos $14MM club option likely to be picked up but its not likely to remain a club option. The right-handers contract stipulates that with 140 innings pitched this year, that option converts into a $19MM mutual option with a $1.5MM buyout. With 125 1/3 innings under his belt, Giolito only needs another 14 2/3 frames in the final three weeks to convert that option to mutual status. If and when he reaches that point, Giolito is a lock to decline his half of the mutual option, collect that buyout and return to free agency in search of a multi-year deal. The Sox could and likely would counter with a qualifying offer, but the hefty contracts for mid-rotation arms like (four years, $80MM), (three years, $75MM), (four years, $72MM), (four years, $68MM) and (three years, $67MM) in recent offseasons all suggest that Giolito can reasonably seek a pricey three- or four-year deal ahead of whatll be his age-31 season. Andrew Saalfrank Jersey