Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Ross Stripling. Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports

Blue Jays' Ross Stripling: Owners tried to 'sneak things' into fine print

By Chelena Goldman | Last updated 3/2/22

As if the stand-off keeping the MLB lockout going wasn't bad enough, now there's a claim that team owners tried to pull a fast one.

Toronto Blue Jays right-handed pitcher Ross Stripling, who serves as the ball club's union rep, told SportsNet on Tuesday that owners tried to "sneak" things into the fine print of the argued-upon collective bargaining agreement in order to pull a fast one over the Players Association in the wee hours of negotiations and ultimately get their way.

"It got to be like 12:30 [a.m.] and the fine print of their CBT proposal was stuff we had never seen before," Stripling said. "They were trying to sneak things through us, it was like they think we’re dumb baseball players and we get sleepy after midnight or something."

This is pretty notable stuff from Ross Stripling. https://t.co/2UjFgQMB9m https://t.co/yPpTtUKefg pic.twitter.com/NnmnGOVtoU
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) March 2, 2022

Stripling continued: "They pushed us to a deadline that they imposed, and then they tried to sneak some s**t past us at that deadline and we were ready for it. We’ve been ready for five years. And then they tried to flip it on us today in PR, saying that we’ve changed our tone and tried to make it look like it was our fault. That never happened."

The MLBPA remained vocal as commissioner Rob Manfred chuckled his way through announcing the first two series of the 2022 season have been canceled.