ST. LOUIS - The same thing that made Robbie Ross Jr. miserable was something Kyle Kendrick literally had negotiated into his contract.
 
By his own words, Robbie Ross was shocked when the Red Sox optioned him last month. 
 
He said in spring training that he was starting to feel established. All winter, he was regarded as the team’s top lefty reliever. But he didn’t get off to a great start (his ERA is currently at 6.14) and because he had options remaining, the Sox could send him to the minors at their will. 
 
They did on April 28.
 
“It’s a shock when you got optioned, especially when you do feel like you are established, and you know, I feel like, you know, you’ve worked as hard as you have and you’ve done what you needed to do the right thing and put yourself in the right situation,” Ross said. “But sometimes, it’s pulled out from under you and you don’t realize it. So, yeah it’s shocking sometimes. And sometimes like I said, it’s a good thing.
 
“Ultimately you have to man up and go prove what you can do, do what you have to do to get back. And ultimately it’s not that feeling — there’s a difference between feeling established and a different feeling of comfortable. I think I felt established to the point where I proved for two years where I’m capable of doing it here in Boston...Comfortable’s a totally different feeling.”
 
Kendrick, 32, is a veteran. And without getting too technical, veterans are generally protected from being optioned. 
 
When you’re trying to re-establish yourself as Kendrick is, being optioned can be a help. You may want the ability to be able to move freely between Triple-A and the majors. Better that than go through waivers, where other teams can claim you, and you may enter a less favorable situation.
 
There was language in Kendrick’s contract that allowed the Sox to option him: advance consent, it’s called. And after Kendrick did poorly in two starts, the Sox optioned him on May 11.
 
They recalled the 27-year-old Ross.
 
Ross knows there will probably be a time in his career he’s thankful he’s out of options and someone else on the team isn’t. And he knows he could be in Kendrick’s position too.
 
“Options could be a good thing and they can be a bad thing,” Ross said. “Sometimes in a career, you see some guys that are good pitchers and do really well and have good seasons. But, they end up getting put in a situation where everyone else doesn’t have one [option] and you have, you are the odd man out. 
 
“You’re ultimately the one person that has something left, so the only one they can do it with where they can send you down. And sometimes that sucks, obviously, and it doesn’t matter … how good you’re pitching or not pitching sometimes. It just depends really on like, I guess, what they’re looking for in the situation.”
 
Ross has seen the scene play out in his time with the Rangers, too.
 
“Multiple times I saw guys with Texas and with Boston where I was like...dang man, I’m shocked that move is made,” Ross said. “And then understood that, OK, somebody had an option. And sometimes it sucks man.”
 
It’s not just leaving the major leagues that hurts on its own. Matters like arbitration salaries can be impacted. Ross has one year of arbitration left.
 
“I guess you could say you get in that situation where number games matter. You know, like, personally,” Ross said. “But there’s a lot of guys who have burnt options and it ends up being good for them. But then there’s times when you’ve burnt your options and it’s not good and you just happen to have a slip up where you didn’t pitch well and you don’t have an option...and they have to designate you. So that’s where it hurts.”
 
“It’s a double-edged sword.”