Both Ray King and Jim Bowden spoke a little while ago. Here's basically what's going on...

King, despite his service time, does not have the right to refuse the assignment. He's bound to the option he had remaining. However, he has 72 hours to decide whether or not to report. If he doesn't, he can retire but can't sign with another club. King has, however, asked Bowden to try to work out a trade in the next couple days, and if not, has asked to at least be released so he has the opportunity to sign with someone else. If not, though, the 34-year-old admitted he would consider retirement.

Here's what both men had to say...

RAY KING
Reaction to being optioned to Columbus:
"After 14, 15 years, to come in and tell you you don't have a job, it's very surprising. It’s kind of like when things go bad, we start looking for other avenues. And I guess I was the avenue that didn't fit today."

What he plans to do now:
"What I'm going to do now is I'm going to take today and the next day and really talk to my family and talk to my agent and see what's out there. I don't want to make a decision, say something that could hinder me from doing some other things. But right now, I'm not upset about anything. If I don't go to another team and I have to go home, I've had a great career. I've had a chance to pitch for great teams, bad teams, mediocre teams. I've been in the World Series. But maybe I'll become one of you guys now." (Yeah, right)

Would you report to Class AAA?
"I'm not going to say I wouldn't go. Like I said, I'm going to take the next couple days and we're going to see if I can possibly be a Manny [Ramirez] and ask for a trade somewhere. I would like to go somewhere else in the big leagues. I wouldn't like to go somewhere else and go to the minor leagues. Let's put it like this: I don't want to go to Triple-A. I'll say it like that. Don't say I won't. I’m just going to take the next couple days and see what's out there. And then if not, I'll be heading west."

JIM BOWDEN
Reason for the move:
"O'Connor is throwing extremely well down there. He pitched well in the spring. We're very pleased with how he's throwing. His velocity has come back from the surgery of a couple of years ago. Our bullpen is such right now the way we are that we don't have a lot of innings in the bullpen, which has been a problem. If a pitcher gets knocked out early in the game we don't really have a long guy to come eat those innings. That, compounded with the problem that Chad has not been closing, everyone has been put in a position that is not their perfect role. So our feeling is that Mike gives us a long guy right now that can help put people back in their role and not tax guys for the games we're trying to win. So the luxury of having a lefty specialist isn't real important in the games we're playing right now as it normally would be."

Does King have a choice whether to report or not?
"We've optioned the player. He has 72 hours to report, per the basic agreement. He's a 5-plus [year] player that had given us prior consent to a move, so we have 45 days from the end of spring training to send him out that he agreed to accept an assignment. So we've optioned him."

Do you look at O'Connor as a starter or reliever long-term?
"We think in the long run he's a starting pitcher."

On the possibility of trading King:
"I'm always open to making our club better. I'm always open to making a trade that makes our organization better."