The Yankees have gained extra flexibility with three of their top young players, providing a boost to some much-needed depth.
Oswald Peraza, Yoendrys Gomez and Luis Gil all have one extra minor league option remaining, The Post has learned, meaning the Yankees can send them up and down between The Bronx and the minor leagues in 2024 without having to expose them to waivers.
Once players are added to a team’s 40-man roster, they typically get three seasons of being optioned to the minor leagues.
Peraza, like Gomez and Gil, had used all three of his options after being added to the 40-man roster following the 2020 season and being optioned in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
But according to the rules, and contrary to public information, Peraza, Gomez and Gil are eligible for an extra option year.
Players who have not spent at least 90 days on a major or minor league roster (often because of an injury) for five seasons are eligible for a fourth option.
For the Yankees, the added roster flexibility is critical.
In Peraza’s case, without the extra option year, the Yankees would have been facing the prospect of having to carry him on the big league roster all season, which would likely be in a bench role unless one of their starting infielders got hurt.
He still remains a trade candidate, even if his value is not where it once was when he was among the Yankees’ top prospects, but gaining an extra option could make him a little more attractive in a deal.
That is also the case for Gomez and Gil.
For now, their extra option will help the Yankees maintain some upper-level pitching depth, no small thing after their depth in that area was shortened this offseason by trades for Juan Soto and Alex Verdugo and the Rule 5 draft.
Being able to have pitchers who can swing between the majors and minors during the season — they can be optioned five times per season — is key.
The Yankees benefited from it last year in the cases of Jhony Brito and Randy Vasquez, two optionable arms who often rode the shuttle from The Bronx to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to provide spot starts or insurance in the bullpen.
With Brito and Vasquez now in San Diego after being included in the Soto blockbuster, the Yankees are in need of arms like them this season who can go freely from Triple-A to the majors without having to be exposed to waivers.
While they are still trying to fill out their rotation with an established major league starter this offseason, the Yankees at some point during the season will likely have to call on depth arms like Gomez, Gil, Cody Poteet, Clayton Beeter, Will Warren and Cody Morris, all of whom have minor league options remaining.
In 2023, the Yankees were stuck with a pair of players who were out of minor league options and took different routes.
Albert Abreu, often the last arm in the bullpen, would have been a candidate to be sent to Triple-A during his struggles, except the Yankees did not want to expose him to waivers and risk losing him to do so.
Meanwhile, Estevan Florial made the Opening Day roster, only to be designated for assignment one game into the season because he was out of options and the Yankees needed a roster spot.
He went unclaimed on waivers and remained in the organization, but the Yankees did not call him back up until September because they may have lost him on waivers if they had to take him off the roster again.
Instead, the Yankees were able to keep Florial on the roster for the final few weeks of the season and then traded him to the Guardians for Morris in December.