Among the other changes to the CBA there are changes to the compensation that teams get for losing free agents:
- There are no longer Type A and B free agents (after this year). The incredibly strange Elias rating system is gone.
- Teams will get a compensation pick if they offer their free agent a one year contract at or above the average salary of the top 125 contracts in baseball the year before. That will save most relievers from having a harder time signing with another team. No team is going to want to offer a reliever a contract like that.
- Only a player playing a full season with the team losing them will gain the team compensation. So there is no more trading for players that look to be Type A or B free agents with the hope of picking up the draft pick.
- The team losing the free agent will get the top pick from the signing team, unless it is a top 10 pick.
- Some of this year's Type A free agents have been moved to a 'modified Type A' level, including Kelly Johnson. Now the teams losing the these players will not lose a draft choice but the former team of the player will get the get a draft pick one above the signing team's first round choice. The change has likely made Kelly Johnson a lot of money and made it that much harder for the Jays to sign him, if they want him.