Tony Clark's surprise resignation leaves MLBPA without a leader as CBA negotiations loom

In a stunning move Tuesday morning, Major League Baseball Players Association executive director Tony Clark resigned from his position after 12 years atop the union. The unexpected news, first reported by The Athletic, sent shockwaves across the baseball world and places the union on unsteady footing ahead of collective bargaining negotiations this upcoming winter. The current CBA expires Dec. 1, and negotiations are expected to be particularly contentious.

The exact reason behind Clark’s surprise resignation has yet to be determined, though it is thought to be connected to a pair of ongoing investigations related to financial improprieties at the MLBPA.

Clark, the first executive director to have played in Major League Baseball, is currently in Arizona and was slated to begin his annual tour of spring training complexes on Tuesday at the Cleveland Guardians’ facility in Goodyear. Media members were clued in on his appearance and were expected to interview Clark following his chat with the Guardians. But both meetings were abruptly canceled. The MLBPA has yet to release a statement.

A meeting among union officials, the eight-player executive subcommittee and all 30 team representatives is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, according to various reports. That should provide more clarity, as players were clearly caught off-guard upon reporting to camp Tuesday. 

Mets second baseman Marcus Semien, a member of the executive subcommittee, admitted to reporters that he’d yet to digest the news.

“It's still something I'm processing,” he explained. “And I just want our player group to move forward this year and be able to have a good year of negotiating with leadership that cares about what players want.”

However, Semien also expressed that he wasn’t completely surprised that Clark’s resignation came amidst the multiple investigations into MLBPA’s finances. There are two separate allegations linked to Clark, one related to a youth-baseball organization called Players Way and the other revolving around OneTeam Partners, a sports-licensing company partly owned by the union.

According to ESPN reporting from 2025, Players Way received more than $3 million in funding from the MLBPA over a five-year span but failed to organize a commensurate number of events. Much of that money is alleged to have been misappropriated, used to either enrich Clark directly or to reward members of his inner circle as “consultants.” As of Tuesday morning, Players Way’s website was not functioning, its X account had not posted since November, and its YouTube page had not been updated in nearly two years. The investigations into Clark’s relationship with OneTeam Partners involve claims of improper self-enrichment via equity.

Among MLB players, Clark had become a polarizing figure, criticized by some for conceding too much ground during his handling of the 2022 CBA negotiations. In 2024, a contingent of players attempted to remove Clark’s No. 2, deputy director and chief negotiator Bruce Meyer. Harry Marino, a former minor leaguer who spearheaded the successful unionization of minor leaguers, was rejected by the executive subcommittee as a potential replacement. That saga appeared to solidify Clark’s and Meyer’s standing atop the union, though frustration has continued to ferment in certain corners of the rank and file. 

Clark’s resignation further complicates what was already shaping up to be one of the most contentious CBA negotiations in recent memory. MLB’s growing payroll disparity — the Dodgers’ 2026 luxury tax payroll will eclipse $500 million, while the Marlins remain under $80 million in total — have precipitated calls for a salary cap. Although they haven’t outright admitted as much, owners and the league are widely expected to push for a cap this winter. But a salary cap has long been a line in the sand for the union, a line on which Clark was expected to stand strong. 

That will now be somebody else’s job. 

Brent Suter, an Angels reliever and member of the executive subcommittee, told The Athletic on Tuesday that he didn’t anticipate a full job search to transpire with negotiations approaching so rapidly. Suter claimed he had an inkling of who might take the reins in an interim role, but he declined to share specifics. Meyer or Kevin Slowey, the union’s managing director of player services, were both mentioned by Yahoo Sports sources as interim options. Slowey, who pitched for Minnesota and Miami across a seven-year career, has taken an increasingly front-facing role within the MLBPA over the past few seasons. His reputation in clubhouses, as a former player, is generally better than that of Meyer, who comes from a litigation background.

Whichever brave soul takes on the job will need to clean the union’s dirty laundry and get the players all pulling in the same direction before bargaining commences this winter. A lockout is widely expected, with CBA negotiations likely to last well into 2027. Missed games are a real possibility. And while the MLBPA remains ideologically unified, losing the executive director months before bargaining certainly doesn’t make the union’s prospects any better.

And so, Clark’s tenure, which featured many ups and many downs, ends on a shockingly sour note. On Tuesday, various players expressed to Yahoo Sports their frustration about the manner and timing of Clark’s exit. After more than a decade in the proverbial trenches, Clark simply up and left without warning, leaving his former comrades in the lurch.