TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — resigned as head of the Major League Baseball Players Association on Tuesday as a possible salary cap fight looms, a move made during a federal investigation of the union’s finances.
“The full executive board of player representatives met this afternoon with MLBPA staff and outside counsel to discuss next steps,” the union said in a statement. “As always, the players remain focused on their ongoing preparations for collective bargaining this year.”
Clark’s decision took place by the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn, New York, into OneTeam Partners, a licensing company founded by the union, the NFL Players Association and RedBird Capital Partners in 2019.
“A lot of people have known that the investigation has been going on,” said the New York Mets’ Marcus Semien, a member of the union’s eight-man executive subcommittee. “I think that this happening during the investigation is not like, as a subcommittee, is not like overly surprising, but it still hurts and it’s still something I’m processing.”
The union’s executive board did not make any decisions about a successor during Tuesday’s meeting, a person familiar with the deliberations told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because that detail was not announced.
Deputy executive director Bruce Meyer is set to be the primary negotiator in the upcoming labor talks, as he was in 2021-22. After Clark and Rick Shapiro led the 2016 negotiations, Meyer was hired in August 2018 as senior director of collective bargaining and legal and was .
Semien said he believes Clark is leaving to deal with the probe.
“I think so,” he said, “because up to this point, before any investigations, I’ve had the ultimate confidence in Tony Clark to lead this player group. I’ve had the ultimate confidence in Bruce Meyer to be the lead negotiator for this player group.”
The decision was made ahead of an expected start of collective bargaining in April for an agreement to replace the five-year . Management appears on track to propose a salary cap, which possibly could lead to a work stoppage that causes regular-season games to be canceled for the first time since 1995.
Adam L. Braverman, a former U.S. associate deputy attorney general and U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, was hired by the union’s executive subcommittee as outside counsel, two people familiar with the group’s action told the AP. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the union hadn’t announced that.
The union on Monday canceled Tuesday’s scheduled start of the staff’s annual tour of the 30 spring training camps, which was to have begun with the Cleveland Guardians in the morning and the Chicago White Sox in the afternoon.
Clark, 53, is a former All-Star first baseman who became the first player to head the union.
He played from 1995-2009, becoming a union leader shortly after going to his first executive board meeting in 1999.
Clark was hired as the union’s director of player relations in 2010 and was promoted to , when union head Michael Weiner’s health declined because of a brain tumor. and , following Marvin Miller, Kenneth Moffett, Donald Fehr and Wiener as union head.
Clark led players through negotiations that led to an , about 3 1/2 hours before the prior deal was set to expire, and another in .
Meyer, 64, spent 30 years at Weil, Gotshal & Manges before joining the NHL Players Association in 2016 as senior director of collective bargaining, policy and legal.
Three members of the subcommittee, Jack Flaherty, Lucas Giolito and Ian Happ, were among the players who in March 2024 advocated for the ouster of Meyer in an effort led by former union lawyer Harry Marino. Clark backed Meyer, and that December.
and Meyer had advocated pushing management for a deal more favorable to the union. Team player representatives, the overall group supervising negotiations, voted 26-4 in favor, leaving the overall ballot at 26-12 for ratification.
In addition to Semien, the current subcommittee includes Chris Bassitt, Jake Cronenworth, Pete Fairbanks, Cedric Mullins, Paul Skenes, Tarik Skubal and Brent Suter.
OneTeam says since its formation that it added, among others, the players’ associations of the WNBA, MLS, NWSL and the U.S. women’s soccer national team. RedBird sold its stake in 2019 to HPS Investment Partners, Atlantic Park Strategic Capital Fund and Morgan Stanley Tactical Value.
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