Phils could get first-round and compensatory picks for loss of Ryan Madson, Roy Oswalt and Jimmy Rollins

Baseball announced its new five-year collective bargaining agreement Tuesday, and the ramifications for the Phillies were mostly positive.

The new deal includes blood testing for human growth hormone (HGH) that is scheduled to begin in spring training next year. Major League Baseball will become the first North American professional league to test for HGH. Baseball already had testing in place for other performance-enhancing drugs.

Testing positive a first time would result in a 50-game suspension, which is the same first-time penalty for other performance-enhancing substances.

For the Phillies, the best news was about their potential free-agent compensation in the 2012 draft.

The Phillies knew they had forfeited their own first-round pick to the Boston Red Sox when they signed closer Jonathan Papelpon to a four-year deal, but there was some question as to whether they would lose a chance to regain a first-round pick if reliever Ryan Madson signed elsewhere.

Provided they offer salary arbitration to Madson by Wednesday's midnight deadline, the Phillies will be compensated with a first-round pick and a compensatory pick. The first-round pick would come one spot ahead of the team that signs Madson, who is sure to be offered arbitration by the Phillies. Any team that signs Madson would retain its first-round pick, a change from the previous rules for Type-A free agents.

The Type-A rules remained the same for Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins and pitcher Roy Oswalt as well as six other free agents, including Papelbon. So if the Phillies offer Rollins and Oswalt arbitration, they will be compensated with a first-round pick and a compensatory pick for each player. If another team signs them, however, they lose their first-round pick. The Phillies would have lost their first-round pick even if they had waited until the new CBA was in place before signing Papelbon.

The Phillies are certain to offer salary arbitration to Rollins, but less likely to make that offer to Oswalt, who made $16 million last season and could get a raise above that number if it went to the arbitration process.

The rules for free-agent compensation will be entirely different next offseason. To receive compensation, teams will have to offer a guaranteed one-year deal with an average salary that matches or exceeds the average salary of the 125 highest-paid players from the previous season. Teams that sign players who have been offered the one-year deals will surrender their first-round draft picks, although teams with top 10 picks will retain their first-round selection and forfeit their second-highest pick.

Because they had the highest payroll in the National League last season and flirted with surpassing the luxury-tax threshold of $178 million, the Phillies most certainly had an interest in the new luxury-tax rules put in place by this CBA. The number will remain at $178 million in 2012 and 2013 and then rise to $189 million during the final three years of the agreement.

The good news for the Phillies is that the tax will decrease from 22.5 percent to 17.5 percent next season for first-time offenders. The Phillies currently have $123 million committed to 13 players for 2012 and are expected to be up around $175 million by the time the roster is completed.

Young players entering professional baseball were perhaps the most impacted by the new CBA. Teams will be heavily penalized for overpaying draft picks and international players based on specified guidelines that correspond with where a player was selected. Teams exceeding those guidelines could forfeit money and draft picks.

As expected, the new agreement also will lead to an expanded playoff format. There will be two wild-card teams in each league starting either next season or 2013 and they will play a one-game playoff to determine which team advances to the divisional series round.

The agreement means baseball will go 21 straight years without a work stoppage, the longest such streak since the players union formed in 1966.

"Nobody back in the '70s, '80s and early '90s, 1994, would ever believe that we would have 21 years of labor peace," commissioner Bud Selig said during a news conference in New York.