Major League Baseball’s newest collective bargaining agreement with players was ratified last week while I was on vacation, with some major implications on the game in general and on the draft in particular. In case your attention was elsewhere as well, here are some key points:

  • Teams will pay a penalty tax if they spend more than a specified amount to sign picks taken in the first 10 rounds. (With this kind of rule in place, the Dodgers would almost definitely not have signed Zach Lee in 2010, for example — unless the allotted funds were unexpectedly high.)
  • No draft pick compensation for free agents unless they spent the entire season with your team.
  • Compensation picks will be awarded if a team offered the departing free agent “a guaranteed one-year contract with a salary equal to the average salary of the 125-highest paid players from the prior season.” No more Type A and Type B free agents.
  • The signing deadline will be moved “to a date between July 12 and July 18 depending on the date of the All-Star Game.”

Many of you have already delved into this, but here are some handy links if you haven’t:

  • Jayson Stark of ESPN.com has a worthwhile Q&A with union chief Michael Weiner.
  • Buster Olney of ESPN.com says there are real questions of how the new deal will affect competitive balance.
  • Chad Moriyama breaks down the changes in the new CBA — I cribbed from his piece to give you the bullet points up top.
  • Matt Swartz of Fangraphs analyzes the impact of the draft compensation changes.
  • Thirteen teams will be in a lottery to earn one of six extra draft picks in the 2013 draft, writes Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com (via MLB Trade Rumors).