there are 23 days left in the season. a player burns his option if he spends 20 days or more on optional assignment. if a player is sent on optional assignment, he must meet a 10-day requisite stay unless being recalled to replace a player on the injured list (including the special covid-19 injured list), the bereavement list, the paternity list, or as the 29th man for a doubleheader. consider this: the brewers have three days with doubleheaders (all against the cardinals) which allows them to recall a player as the 29th man. j.p feyereisen has spent 17 days on optional assignment. if he is optioned again, he most likely will burn his first option. he is a likely candidate to be sent down when corey knebel is activated, unless the club decides to option a position player. mark mathias has spent 19 days on optional assignment. if he is optioned again, he definitely will burn his first option. phil bickford and justin topa were both sent on optional assignment 4 september. if they stay optioned the rest of the season (hitting 20 days within 24 days), they will each burn their first option. orlando arcia, corbin burnes, mat gamel, josh hader, keston hiura, omar narvaez, freddy peralta, drew rasmussen, brent suter, luis urias, devin williams, brandon woodruff and eric yardley all have spent their entire 40-man roster time on the active major league roster. any of them could be optioned for just the requisite 10 days (plus a few more for padding), without burning that option to keep any of bickford, feyereisen, mathias or topa on the active roster and from burning their options. jacob nottingham and tyrone taylor, both currently on the active roster, have already burned their 2020 options. obviously, the club needs to evaluate the cost of removing any of the aforementioned players from the active roster in their efforts to gain a postseason berth, and the value of the recalled player as a replacement--if the motivation of the move is to keep a player's option from burning. if a player goes down with an injury, or if the brewers tank, it makes sense for the club to recall a player who has yet to burn his option, rather than turning to the pool of david freitas, ryon healy, eric lauer, angel perdomo, corey ray, ronny rodriguez or bobby wahl (who is currently injured and likely not available for recall)--all of whom have already burned their options this year.