Just to be technical, but players on the IL count as on the active roster, since they accrue service time. on the 40-man, not the 25-man I think this is kind of a sticky wicket in the labor agreement. If a player has options, and has used an option in a year in which he gets injured while on the 25-man roster then it is advantageous for the team to option the player before putting him on the IL, as then he does not accrue MLB service time (nor salary). This would be poor management, of course, and rarely happens. However, it gets trickier when that player comes off the IL and is on "rehab." If his play hasn't been MLB worthy (Burnes) and he has already used his option that year (Burnes), it only makes sense to option the player rather than "rehab" the player, even though he may have been on the 25 man at the time he was injured. Anyways, I think there is going to be some major re-hauls to the "options" system in the next labor agreement.