Get past the salaciousness of Tony Clark’s downfall, past the alleged inappropriate relationship with his sister-in-law — who was also an employee of the union he ran — past the federal investigation into his stewardship of the Major League Baseball Players Association, past the detritus of a decade-plus-long tenure that imploded spectacularly Tuesday, and what’s left is opportunity. Amid one of the lowest moments in more than half a century since its formation, the MLBPA can use Clark’s stunning resignation to help save the 2027 season.
Whoever ascends to the MLBPA’s vacated executive director position, which the union expects to fill as early as Wednesday, will inherit an organization facing its greatest challenge in a generation: MLB owners are intent on securing a salary cap upon the expiration of the current collective bargaining agreement Dec. 1. Players are primed to fight it. For the fight to be effective, though, they must acknowledge that the greatest priority is to ensure no games are missed following the league’s expected lockout. And that is where the players themselves must hold their new leadership more accountable than they did their previous one.
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Owners believe the union is weak, and in some regards, they are correct. The anonymous whistleblower complaint sent to the National Labor Relations Board in November 2024 that accused Clark of a variety of improprieties was initially dismissed by the MLBPA as «entirely without merit.» Between the nepotism that indirectly led to his ouster and the continued federal investigation into other elements of the complaint, its merit grows by the day and speaks to an organization with deeply flawed processes and unreliable checks and balances. It was widely known that Clark had hired his sister-in-law to run the massive new Arizona-based office that current and former union employees derided as «wasteful» and «unnecessary.» No one stopped it.
Despite the failed attempts to expel Meyer in 2024, players emerged from the rebellion intent on the union undertaking a full audit of its finances to highlight any wasteful or inappropriate spending. Instead, Clark commissioned a financial review — a far less in-depth look at the MLBPA’s books — that left players convinced the union’s unwillingness to embrace full transparency meant it was hiding something. It left the Eastern District of New York, which has empaneled a grand jury in its investigation of Clark and the union, wondering the same.
How cynical were the rank and file about Clark? Multiple Cleveland Guardians players, sources said, were planning to discuss whether he would be willing to take a pay cut from his $3.76 million salary before the union abruptly canceled its scheduled meeting with the team Tuesday.
That level of interest, though, is where the union evolves from a group that is often checked out or bored with the intricacies of labor relations into a powerful, intimidating group of 1,200. The MLBPA didn’t earn the reputation as the strongest union in the country during its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s by accident. It set goals, gamed out how to achieve them and banded together. As much as executive subcommittee members Tuesday preached solidarity, that is a characteristic better shown than spoken.
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And where that solidarity begins is from the bottom up. A strong labor union guides its leaders, not the other way around. It can have honest conversations about whether, even in an uncapped system, exceptional top-of-the-scale salaries give teams excuses not to spend on the middle class and whether there are remedies. It can say that, yes, the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets are great for players but that that greatness comes with a price that ultimately might hinder the union more than it helps.
Meyer’s leadership style is, as an ally of his said Tuesday, «furious indignation.» He is a fighter first, a born litigator, and while he has rubbed enough players the wrong way to find himself on the precipice of losing his job, they do not doubt his willingness to take on owners. They also know times of great import call for nuance and institutional knowledge, and whoever takes the reins needs to solicit the bright ideas of agents; lean on past union luminaries such as Donald Fehr and Gene Orza for guidance; and recognize that the union staff, for all of the institutional problems that exist, is competent and capable and would thrive in an environment that encourages it to find holistic solutions for complex problems.
There is hope in that, in an MLBPA that, even as MLB lashes at it with cap proposals, doesn’t forget its purpose by getting lost in its opponent’s. The Tony Clark era, home to questionable decision-making, ended with an unresolved federal investigation and a disgraced executive director. The next incarnation of the MLBPA must be something better. It’s not just the union that needs it. The whole game does.
