‘MLB has just chosen to kill time.’ Blue Jays’ Ross Stripling says players were hoping for more progress by now

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This article was published 17/02/2022 (1385 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Blue Jays should be in Florida right now.

The members of the 40-man roster, along with a bunch of minor-league invitees, were scheduled to report to their fabulous new training complex on Solon Ave. in Dunedin, a 10-minute walk from the Winn-Dixie, earlier this week to begin preparing for the 162-game grind that, for the moment, is still set to begin on March 31 in Baltimore.

They didn’t, of course, because they can’t.

On Dec. 2, Major League Baseball locked out its players in an effort, the league said, to jump-start negotiations on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The league then waited six weeks to present an offer to the players, one which was summarily rejected.

Negotiations continue, but now that we’re at the point where actual baseball activity is being missed, the players are getting antsy.

“Most of us are used to being in Florida and Arizona right now,” said Blue Jays player representative Ross Stripling as part of a wide-ranging, hour-long exclusive interview on the latest episode of my Deep Left Field podcast.

“Guys (are) wondering what’s going on. Should I get a place in Florida? Should I start renting a place? Do you think March 1?”

Stripling, unfortunately, doesn’t have anything to tell them.

“I wish I could give answers,” the pitcher continued. “I just relay what I know and what I’m hearing and what I get on the (union) calls as well. We knew this fight was coming and it’s going down pretty much the way we expected. I just think that we were hoping here in the middle of February to have more progress than what we’ve made.”

This is not, as it has often been framed, a battle of millionaires vs. billionaires.

“I read that 48 per cent of Major League Baseball players made the minimum last year,” said Stripling. A minimum salary that at $570,500 (US), it should be noted, is the lowest of any of the major professional sports in North America.

“There’s no middle class in baseball anymore,” Stripling continued. “There’s the Mike Trouts and (Nolan) Arenados and (Clayton) Kershaws of the world … and then there’s a bunch of guys making the minimum.”

If the minimum goes up, then maybe the middle-class benefits, as well.

“Teams are willing to not sign that middle of the road free agent who would probably be a huge asset for a team,” explained the righty, “and instead think they can get that kind of production from three minor-leaguers that they can call up at different times throughout the year. All in all you paid (them) a half-million dollars combined.”

While progress has certainly not been significant, the two sides have edged closer over the past month.

According to various reports, there has been agreement on a universal designated hitter and on the concepts of expanded playoffs and a bonus pool for players who aren’t yet eligible for arbitration. The owners want 14 playoff teams while the players want 12. As far as those bonuses go, the union originally suggested a pool of $105 million to be divided among players who perform at an elite level and the owners came back with an offer that the pool be just $10 million total.

It’s a large gap, to be sure, but at least they’re speaking the same language.

“Believe it or not,” said Stripling, who will compete for the Jays’ fifth starter job whenever camp opens, “you take it as a little bit of a (positive) because we’re in the same quote-unquote framework.

“You’ve got to get into the same framework and then from there you can negotiate numbers. So at least the owners’ side agrees (on the) framework and yeah, they lowballed us, but theoretically you start at 100, they start at 10, you make your way to 50 or 60 or whatever it is and you (shake hands) and call it a day.”

There are plenty of other things that the two sides have yet to agree on.

“We want to get rid of service time manipulation or at least drastically change it,” Stripling explained. “We want to ease up on the (luxury) tax thresholds and the penalties.

“I feel like we’ve said that over and over and MLB has just chosen to kill time, not make any kind of serious moves in our direction.”

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The union has spent a few years getting ready for this fight, assembling a war chest by collecting the players’ licensing cheques and putting them into a fund that would be paid out in the event that pay cheques are missed.

The first Grapefruit League games are scheduled for Feb. 26 – though it’s only a matter of time before they’re cancelled — but even with that looming, Stripling is optimistic.

“(Baseball will) be here before we know it,” Stripling said from his Houston home, a thousand miles away from TD Ballpark in Dunedin. “I think all of a sudden it’ll just be here and we’ll be out there playing in the sun and having a good time.”

Every baseball fan hopes he’s right.

Mike Wilner is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star and host of the baseball podcast “Deep Left Field.” Follow him on Twitter: @wilnerness