The Tigers have announced that Magglio Ordonez is being benched indefinitely. 2007 was obviously a fluke (.381 BABIP), 2008 he came back to around his "usual" level, and then this year his numbers are way down - .273/.347/.344/.690. probably the most alarming part is that he's not being hurt by bad luck with balls in play (.313 BABIP), but rather that his power has completely evaporated - only 9 doubles and 2 home runs. the complicating factor is ordonez' contract: so far, ordonez has 242 PAs in 2009 and 865 PAs in 2008-09, meaning that he only needs 215 more PAs for his $18M option to kick in for next season. if ordonez has started to decline, clearly that contract would be a disaster. plus the tigers' attendance is way down since the michigan economy is in the toilet. the questions: 1. What should the tigers do here? Should they bench Ordonez now and hope that he picks it up when they start playing him again? Should they just release him outright, so that there's no chance that option vests? Should they continue playing him without thinking about that option? 2. Are they justified in reducing his playing time based on his performance this season? 3. If he gets little playing time and his option doesn't vest, does he have a grievance? 4. Are playing time options a good idea? What about performance-based options - I don't think these are approved by the MLBPA, but should they be? Should MLB teams be allowed to reduce playing time because they don't feel that the player will not perform up to the value of their future options?