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Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark answers a question during a news conference in New York on March 11, 2022. (AP Photo\/Richard Drew, File)<\/p>\nBy\u00a0Ronald Blum\u00a0<\/p>\n
Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark answers a question during a news conference in New York on March 11, 2022. (AP Photo\/Richard Drew, File)<\/p>\n
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) \u2014\u00a0Tony Clark<\/a>\u00a0resigned as head of the Major League Baseball Players Association, the union announced Tuesday, as a possible salary cap fight looms during a federal investigation of its finances.<\/p>\n \u201cThe full executive board of player representatives met this afternoon with MLBPA staff and outside counsel to discuss next steps,\u201d the union said in a statement. \u201cAs always, the players remain focused on their ongoing preparations for collective bargaining this year.\u201d<\/p>\n Clark was asked to resign by the eight-man executive subcommittee of the players\u2019 association after an investigation by the union\u2019s outside counsel discovered evidence that Clark had an inappropriate relationship with his sister-in-law, a union employee since 2023, a person familiar with the union\u2019s deliberations told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because that was not announced.<\/p>\n Clark did not respond to a text message seeking comment.<\/p>\n His departure took place\u00a0during a probe<\/a>\u00a0by 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.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people have known that the investigation has been going on,\u201d said the New York Mets\u2019 Marcus Semien, a member of the subcommittee. \u201cI think that this happening during the investigation is not like, as a subcommittee, is not like overly surprising, but it still hurts and it\u2019s still something I\u2019m processing.\u201d<\/p>\n The union\u2019s executive board, which includes the subcommittee and the player representatives of the 30 teams, did not make any decisions about a successor during Tuesday\u2019s meeting, the person told the AP.<\/p>\n 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\u00a0promoted to his current role in July 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n Semien said he believes Clark is leaving to deal with the probe.<\/p>\n \u201cI think so,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause up to this point, before any investigations, I\u2019ve had the ultimate confidence in Tony Clark to lead this player group. I\u2019ve had the ultimate confidence in Bruce Meyer to be the lead negotiator for this player group.\u201d<\/p>\n The decision was made ahead of an expected start of collective bargaining in April for an agreement to replace the five-year\u00a0labor contract that expires Dec. 1<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n Adam L. Braverman, a former U.S. associate deputy attorney general and U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, was hired by the union\u2019s executive subcommittee as outside counsel, two people familiar with the group\u2019s action told the AP. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the union hadn\u2019t announced that.<\/p>\n The union on Monday canceled Tuesday\u2019s scheduled start of the staff\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Clark, 53, is a former All-Star first baseman who became the first player to head the union.<\/p>\n He played from 1995-2009, becoming a union leader shortly after going to his first executive board meeting in 1999.<\/p>\n Clark was hired as the union\u2019s director of player relations in 2010 and was promoted to\u00a0deputy executive director in July 2013<\/a>, when union head Michael Weiner\u2019s health declined because of a brain tumor.\u00a0Weiner died that November<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Clark was elevated to executive director<\/a>, following Marvin Miller, Kenneth Moffett, Donald Fehr and Wiener as union head.<\/p>\n Clark led players through negotiations that led to an\u00a0agreement in December 2016<\/a>, about 3 1\/2 hours before the prior deal was set to expire, and another in\u00a0March 2022 after a 99-day lockout<\/a>.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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,\u00a0the effort failed<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0those three players were dropped off the subcommittee<\/a>\u00a0that December.<\/p>\n