Andy MacPhail had been working all winter before the 1991 season to sign free agent Jack Morris, but the then-Twins GM couldn’t come to a deal with the ace righty. In a moment of inspiration — “desperation, really,” MacPhail says now — he offered Morris the chance to get out of his contract after the first season and re-enter the free agency sweepstakes.
And thus the modern opt-out clause, all the rage this winter among most top-tier free agents, was born. Although MacPhail, now president of the Phillies, simply referred to it back then as a “player option.