Daily Red Sox Links: Free agency, Chaim Bloom, Rob Manfred

Thursday was a momentous day for baseball, a sport desperately in need of one of those, as the players and league finally came to an agreement on a new CBA, ending the owner-imposed lockout. It was great news, but, uh, what took so long? (Peter Abraham; Boston Globe)

CBAs are often hard to judge right away because they can often be rife with unintended consequences. That said, Sean McAdam tries to look at some immediate winners and losers. (Sean McAdam; Boston Sports Journal)

As Evan Drellich writes, the players made a lot of good strides in this deal and should feel good about the final outcome, though they also could justifiably feel that they could have done more. (Evan Drellich; The Athletic)

With the lockout over and transactions back on — though we didn’t get any that first night! — it’s worth taking a look back at what the Red Sox did prior to the lockout. (John Tomase; NBC Sports Boston)

And, of course, the bigger question is: What do the Red Sox do next? (Chad Jennings; The Athletic)

An important factor that goes into that will be figuring out how much money exactly the team has to spend. (Christopher Smith; Masslive)

One of the bigger stories to come out of this process was the expanded playoff field to 12 teams. What will that look like, and how will it work out for the league? (Zach Crizer; Yahoo)