When younger Major League Baseball players struggle, it's not uncommon to see them optioned back to the minors until they turn things around. However, for players with at least five years of service time-or players who have been optioned in at least three previous seasons-that is no longer, well, an option. When teams want to remove those players from their 26-man roster, the player can reject a minor league stint and instead has to be designated for assignment, or DFA'ed.