On the eve of December 1, 2016, Major League Baseball players and owners reached a new collective-bargaining agreement (CBA); hours before the deadline. The new deal is to start in the 2016 off-season and last until 2021. Many changes were made in the new CBA; effecting front office management to on-field play. What works and doesn't work from the new deal might take time, but in the days following the deal's completion, it is a win for the Player's Association.

One of the largest disputes surrounding the new CBA was the plan for an international draft. The owners and commissioner, Rob Manfred, advocated heavily for an international player draft, but the players' union thought this would prevent many international players from receiving a major league pension. They compromised on a cap system instead. Depending on the market, the cap for higher market teams will have about $4.75 million to spend on international players whereas lower market teams get about $5.75 million. International players won't be able to rake in $15 million a year from the start anymore like Masahiro Tanaka under this new clause. This doesn't completely help international prospects from earning the major league pension, but it's still a win for the players because they scrapped the international draft.

The revamped draft-pick compensation clause is a tremendous benefit for the players. Under the old rule, if a player rejects a team's qualifying offer and signs with a different team, that team loses a first round pick (after the tenth pick) and the team that made the qualifying offer gets an extra draft pick between the first and second rounds. The problem was that teams with the 11th or 12th or 19th picks were reluctant to sign qualifying offered free agents because they did not want to lose a good draft prospect.

The new rule is more complicated, but benefits free agents. SB Nation gives a great breakdown:

• If a team gets revenue sharing and signs a player who received the qualifying offer, they would lose their third-highest draft pick.
• Teams that pay into the revenue-sharing pool will lose their second- and fifth-highest picks.
• Those rich teams would also lose $1 million from their international signing cap.
• The medium-market teams — the ones who don’t receive or pay revenue-sharing money — would give up their second-highest pick and $500,000 in international money.
• A team that loses a player who declines the qualifying offer before signing for $50 million or more will get a draft choice between the first and second round.
• If that player signs for less than $50 million, the pick will be after round B of the competitive-balance round, which is after the second round.
• Reminder that the Cardinals occasionally get extra picks in the competitive balance round, which is still just the stupidest thing.
• If a team is over the luxury-tax threshold, they’ll still get a pick for losing a top free agent, but it will be after the fourth round.
• This all starts next offseason.

So this is 950x more complicated than the old you-get-this-if-you-do-this-and-that-happens rule, but it makes it less risky for most teams to sign free agents and not to tank so they can get more good draft picks.

A couple "smaller" wins for the players' union: earlier season start time and higher minimum salary. The earlier season start means more days off for players; the season ends around the same time as usual. The slight increase in minimum salary is just some icing on the cake.

As far as one of the larger components of the new CBA is concerned, the All-Star Game losing its determination of World Series home-field advantage, that is a win for both players and the owners. Maybe more so for the players because it puts less pressure on them to win the game and risk an injury, but also a win for the owners because they don't have to worry about sending their prized superstar to the All-Star Game as well.

Most of all, the fans won the deal. There will not be a lockout for baseball fans to worry about, and the off and regular seasons will proceed as expected for the next five years.