Hat tip to Basil at Federal Baseball for pointing out this NY Times article regarding the pending labor agreement. Specifically, this portion
Draft-choice compensation for lost free agents will be reduced, not eliminated. Teams losing the top tier of free agents will continue to receive compensation.
This is great news if, in fact, the Nationals do lose OF Alfonso Soriano in free agency. The specifics of the reduction are still unknown, but it appears their will be some compensation for free agents lost. Additionally, there was no mention of an official draft pick bonus slotting system as referenced by Tracy Ringolsby.
Some potential good news for Monday morning.
UPDATE: From what I can gather from the bits of information out there, a reason for retaining the draft pick compensation in some reduced form is to keep the First Year Player draft as an item to be collectively bargained by MLB and the MLB Player’s Association (MLBPA). By keeping the link between draft pick compensation and free agent signings, the MLBPA can still collectively bargain any changes to the draft. More specifically, the introduction of slotting bonuses for draft picks. If MLB/MLBPA were to eliminate the compensation aspect in total, an argument could be made that the MLBPA had no right to speak on behalf on a population that they do not yet represent (draft eligible players).
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