Baseball fans rejoiced Wednesday when the Major League Baseball Players Association and team owners struck a new collective bargaining agreement, extending labor peace through the 2021 season. As specifics of the deal trickled out through the night and well into Thursday, both parties continued to draft the entirety of the agreement.

Much remains to be seen, while the immediate impact is that the offseason will go on, uninterrupted. All 30 clubs will convene just outside Washington, D.C., next week for the winter meetings, with a torrent of activity in the forecast. The Padres, now waist-deep into their rebuild, will be a spectator for many of the more glamorous proceedings.

In the meantime, the new labor agreement could be the top news item for a while. Here is an examination of some of the unofficial changes to the CBA and what they could mean for the Padres:

Hard cap for international spending

The implementation of a hard cap for spending on international prospects — roughly $5 million per year; reportedly $5.75 million for small-revenue clubs — might be the change most deeply felt in San Diego. Just this signing period, the Padres have doled out more than $30 million in bonuses to foreign amateurs, and overage taxes will effectively double that expenditure.


The Padres’ decision to splurge now looks even more prescient. The days of signing a single prospect for, say, $11 million — as San Diego did with Cuban left-hander Adrian Morejon — are over. Beginning next summer, all 30 clubs will operate in an environment with far greater cost control. (According to Yahoo Sports, teams can trade away any percentage of their international bonus pool. They can trade for up to 75 percent of their pool.)

Under the new rules, teams with a particular focus on international scouting figure to have an advantage. Many would consider this an area of obsession for A.J. Preller; the Padres’ general manager, who was hired largely because of his overseas experience, spends more time in Latin America than any of his peers. Of note: Because the Padres blew past their bonus pool, they still will be barred from giving any individual player more than $300,000 over the next two signing periods.

Qualifying-offer system tweaked

Beginning next offseason, clubs signing free agents who declined a qualifying offer will no longer be required to surrender a first-round draft pick. Instead, according to reports, a revenue-sharing recipient, such as the Padres, would forfeit its third-highest pick. A revenue-sharing contributor would lose its second- and fifth-highest picks, as well as $1 million in international bonus funds. All other teams would give up their second-highest pick along with $500,000 in international cap space.

On the other hand, if a player declines a qualifying offer, his former team will receive a compensatory draft selection after the first round only if the player signs elsewhere for more than $50 million. Should that player sign for less than $50 million, compensation would come in the form of a pick after “competitive balance round B.”


While the new system theoretically helps free agents and offers teams more incentive to sign them, it all appears largely irrelevant for the Padres, at least over the next year or two. San Diego, which won’t be spending significant sums this winter, would be wise to continue exercising restraint.

Minimum DL stay trimmed

In a continuation of the status quo, roster sizes will remain at 25 players until September, when teams can again expand up to a full 40.

The league-minimum salary reportedly will increase to $535,000 in 2017, with slight raises due in subsequent years. The Padres will be paying more league-minimum players than most next season, but the overall bump will hardly be noticeable.

Meanwhile, the 15-day disabled list will be replaced by a 10-day disabled list. In many cases, that should ease the decision to place someone on the DL. The Padres suffered a rash of injuries in 2016 and occasionally played a man short of a healthy 25. By encouraging more player movement, the rule change should more or less eliminate such scenarios.


Other notables

The luxury-tax threshold reportedly will increase from $189 million to $195 million in 2017, before maxing out at $210 million in the final year of the CBA. While penalties for going over the tax line will be harsher, this, of course, isn’t applicable to the Padres and their young roster; payroll might not crack $80 million next season.

More details on changes to the revenue-sharing system remain to be seen. The Padres are traditionally one of the biggest beneficiaries. There are reports that the largest-budget clubs could be required to pay a smaller percentage than they were under the previous CBA.

According to the New York Post, the regular season’s 162 games will be spread out over about 188 days, starting in 2018 — an increase of five days from 2016. That would mean several more off-days throughout the year.

The result of the All-Star Game will no longer determine home-field advantage for the World Series. Sanity prevails.

dennis.lin@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @sdutdennislin