TAMPA, Fla. — The Major League Baseball Players Association said on Tuesday that Tony Clark had stepped down as president. This comes as a likely conflict over a pay limit looms during a federal inquiry into the union's finances.
"The full executive board of player representatives met this afternoon with MLBPA staff and outside counsel to talk about what to do next," the union stated in a statement. "The players are still focused on getting ready for collective bargaining this year, as they always are."
The players' association's eight-member executive subcommittee asked Clark to step down after the union's outside lawyer found proof that Clark had an inappropriate relationship with his sister-in-law, who had been a union employee since 2023, according to a source who was familiar with the union's discussions. The person spoke on the condition that their name not be made public.
Clark did not answer a text message asking for a comment.
He left when the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn, New York, was looking into OneTeam Partners, a licensing company that the union, the NFL Players Association, and RedBird Capital Partners started in 2019.
Marcus Semien, a member of the New York Mets, said, "A lot of people have known that the investigation has been going on." "I don't think it's too surprising that this happened during the investigation, but it still hurts and I'm still working through it."
The person told the AP that the union's executive board, which is made up of the subcommittee and player representatives from the 30 teams, did not choose a successor at the meeting on Tuesday.
Bruce Meyer, the deputy executive director, will be the main negotiator in the future labor talks, much like he was in 2021–22. Clark and Rick Shapiro were in charge of the 2016 discussions. Meyer was hired as senior director of collective bargaining and legal in August 2018 and was advanced to his current position in July 2022.
Semien said that he thinks Clark is departing to deal with the investigation.
He answered, "I think so," since up to this moment, before any investigations, I had complete faith in Tony Clark to lead this group of players. I have complete faith in Bruce Meyer to be the main negotiator for this group of players.
Before collective bargaining was set to begin in April, the decision was made to reach an agreement to replace the five-year labor contract that ends on December 1. Management seems to be on track to suggest a salary cap, which might lead to a work stoppage that would cancel regular-season games for the first time since 1995.
The union's executive subcommittee engaged Adam L. Braverman as outside counsel. He used to be the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles and the U.S. assistant deputy attorney general. Two persons who know of the group's decision told the AP. They asked not to be named because the union hadn't said anything about it yet.
The union called off the staff's annual trip of the 30 spring training camps, which was supposed to commence on Tuesday with the Cleveland Guardians in the morning and the Chicago White Sox in the afternoon.
Clark, who is 53 years old, used to be an All-Star first baseman and was the first player to lead the union.
He played from 1995 to 2009, and after going to his first executive board meeting in 1999, he quickly became a union leader.
In 2010, Clark was hired as the union's director of player relations. In July 2013, after union president Michael Weiner's health got worse because of a brain tumor, Clark was promoted to deputy executive director. Weiner passed on that November, and Clark became the union's executive director, following Marvin Miller, Kenneth Moffett, Donald Fehr, and Wiener.
Clark led players through negotiations that culminated to an agreement in December 2016, roughly 3 1/2 hours before the previous deal was supposed to end. There was also an agreement in March 2022 after a 99-day lockout.
Before joining the NHL Players Association in 2016 as senior director of collective bargaining, policy, and legal, Meyer worked for 30 years at Weil, Gotshal & Manges.
Jack Flaherty, Lucas Giolito, and Ian Happ were three members of the subcommittee who, in March 2024, called for Meyer to be fired. The effort was coordinated by former union lawyer Harry Marino. Clark supported Meyer, but the campaign failed, and those three players were taken off the subcommittee that December.
The subcommittee voted 8-0 against accepting the 2022 labor contract, and Meyer had pushed management to make an agreement that was better for the union. The team player representatives, who are in charge of the discussions, voted 26-4 in favor, bringing the total number of votes for ratification to 26-12.
Chris Bassitt, Jake Cronenworth, Pete Fairbanks, Cedric Mullins, Paul Skenes, Tarik Skubal, and Brent Suter are also members of the current subcommittee.
One Team asserts that since it was formed, it has added, among other things, the players' associations of the WNBA, MLS, NWSL, and the U.S. women's soccer national team. HPS Investment Partners, Atlantic Park Strategic Capital Fund, and Morgan Stanley Tactical Value bought RedBird's shareholding in 2019.
