Arbitration rule change

By Jason Wojciechowski on December 2, 2006 at 6:51 PM

I saw today in Lee Sinins' ATM Report that "[p[reviously, if the free agent wasn't offered arbitration, his old team couldn't re-sign him until May 1. That rule was repealed in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement." I hadn't known this. I'm not sure how often it actually comes into play, what the intent of the original rule was, or what the intent of the repeal is, but it'll be interesting to see how things play out with the change. Will teams be less reluctant to non-tender guys now?