Stripling: MLB's last offer 'was an easy no'

Major League Baseball made the decision to cancel the first two series of the season after negotiations with the players' union fell apart Tuesday.

The league and players had been bargaining all through Monday and seemed to be gaining traction. MLB pushed its self-imposed deadline for a deal to Tuesday evening. When the league tabled its last, best offer before the new deadline, though, the MLBPA rejected it - and it was apparently a simple decision.

"It was an easy no, man," Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Ross Stripling told Shi Davidi and Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet, "because we felt like we were giving them a fair offer and they just didn't budge on it this whole time. Since ... December (when the lockout was implemented), they've just hardly budged at all."

Stripling said there was infighting among the owners while they tried to negotiate with the players, which frustrated the union. He also asserted that Monday night's competitive balance tax proposal contained "stuff we had never seen before" and accused the league of "trying to sneak things through."

The two sides seemed to agree on at least a couple of things, including an expanded postseason format and the universal designated hitter. The competitive balance tax - including thresholds and penalties for exceeding it - as well as a bonus pool for pre-arbitration players remain sticking points.

MLBPA representative and St. Louis Cardinals reliever Andrew Miller said Tuesday that the players are "prepared" to sit out as long as they have to.

"Monday, man, it didn't look like we were close, and all of sudden we were kind of close - we weren't that close, but we were kind of close," Stripling said. "And if that deal would have gone down (Monday) night, we would have had guys packing up and in Florida by Friday. (Monday) night was like a good shock of how quick it'll happen once it happens."