The new CBA and how it could impact the Orioles

A few thoughts as more and more details emerge about the new five-year collective bargaining agreement in Major League Baseball.

The All-Star Game: It will no longer decide home field advantage in the World Series. This was a terrible idea from the start and now the team with the best record will hold the home-field advantage. It was a surprise to me that MLB stuck with such a bad idea in the first place for so long.

The international signing rules: MLB did not get an international draft, but did make a move to limit spending on international amateurs. These are players that are not eligible for the June domestic draft. Jonathan Schoop and Eduardo Rodriguez are examples of players the Orioles signed and added this way.

It appears that the hard cap will be about $5 million - a little more for lower-revenue teams and a little less for higher-revenue clubs. Yahoo Sports reported that teams can trade money - they won't actually send dollars to another club (I don't believe) - to increase the team's total dollars. Teams can add up to 75 percent of their allotment.

The Orioles are not a big spending team on the international front and have never been. Under the current system, they have traded international bonus slots (they did this to acquire pitcher Chris Lee). If they don't spend their money here, they could make trades to acquire players. While many fans have wanted the Orioles to spend more on the international front, at least they can get something out of a trade rather than just leaving money on the table.

The new rules also will keep teams from spending massive amounts on the international market. This should keep the big spenders from hoarding some of the top international talent and perhaps, in a sense, level out the field a bit for the Orioles and other teams that are less active internationally.

The shorter DL: The 15-day disabled list is now the 10-day disabled list. This should allow teams to make quicker decisions on whether a player is injured enough to go on the DL. How many times over the years have we seen an Orioles player be listed as day-to-day, not go on the DL, yet still wind up missing about 10 days? Perhaps now all teams will more quickly DL such players and have fewer games where they essentially play shorthanded on the roster.

Will teams look to game the system here? Perhaps they have a starting pitcher that could benefit from skipping a start. Does that pitcher suddenly develop some elbow inflammation that might need about 10 days to heal?

The free agent rules change: Here is what ESPN's Jayson Stark wrote about the compensation for teams losing free agents:

"Teams that lose a free agent who rejects a qualifying offer will still get a draft pick. The details: For most teams, that pick would be a sandwich pick immediately following the competitive-balance picks that are awarded after the second round. However, if that team comes from the 15 smallest markets and is receiving revenue-sharing money, and it loses a free agent who signs a contract worth at least $50 million, that pick would follow the first round. And if the team losing that player is over the luxury-tax threshold, the pick would follow the fourth round."

A team signing a qualifying offer free agent will no longer lose a first-round draft pick. This had to be a big one for the players' side, as they've seen several players with greatly depressed markets in recent offseasons because they had the draft pick attached to their signing. It is one reason the Orioles got Nelson Cruz.

The new rules: Teams that sign a qualifying offer free agent, if it exceeds the luxury tax threshold, will lose second-round and fifth-round picks and $1 million in international bonus signing money. A team that signs a qualifying offer free agent, if it does not exceed the luxury tax threshold, will lose a third-round pick.

These rules don't go into effect until next offseason, but could they impact players now? A team signing Mark Trumbo now would lose a first-round pick. They lose less next year. Would that give Trumbo a better chance to score big dollars 12 months from now? It could. Would he consider signing for just one year now? It would be a gamble, coming off a 47-homer season.

How will this impact potential future Orioles free agents like Chris Tillman, Zach Britton and Manny Machado? Teams won't lose a first-round pick to sign any of them now, but the Orioles should still get a high pick should they lose any of them.

The luxury tax: Will the changes with teams going way over the tax threshold have real impact? My guess is no. Teams have shown over the years, on the international front for sure, that when the penalty is only dollars, they have plenty of them and will spend to get what they want. Baseball doesn't have a salary cap. A team that truly wants to go way over the luxury tax can do so any time it wants - it just costs money. The new rules, in my estimation, will not slow down a team that wants to spend big if they truly are convinced to do so for a certain player or a group of players. The Orioles have had to deal with big spenders in Boston and New York for a long while and that probably won't change now.

Non-tender talk: Tonight is the deadline for teams to tender contracts to their arbitration-eligible players. The Orioles have 10 and MLBTradeRumors.com projected the salaries they would get through the arbitration process.

$11.4 million - Zach Britton
$11.2 million - Manny Machado
$10.6 million - Chris Tillman
$3.9 million - Kevin Gausman
$3.4 million - Jonathan Schoop
$3.3 million - Vance Worley
$2.9 million - Brad Brach
$1.7 million - Ryan Flaherty
$1 million - Caleb Joseph
$700,000 - T. J. McFarland

My guess is that Worley and McFarland get non-tendered and become free agents. They could still could possibly return, even if this happens. Flaherty is a non-tender candidate but my guess is the O's value him and his super utility role enough to keep him at the price.