Tony Clark, who led the Major League Baseball Players’ Association through two collective bargaining agreements and was preparing for what is expected to be a highly contentious CBA battle in 2026-27, is resigning as executive director Feb. 17, according to a baseball official with direct knowledge of the situation.
The official spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity because the resignation wasn’t yet official. Clark’s resignation came just as he and union officials were ready to embark on their annual 30-camp tour to debrief players, a trip that takes on more significance in this bargaining year.
Clark, who held the post since 2013, brought the credibility of a former player the position, and oversaw significant union solidarity throughout his tenure after he took over for the late Michael Weiner.
But his reign has not been without conflict. The MLBPA remains under federal investigation due to its role in OneTeam Partners, a licensing company co-owned with the NFLPA and three other sports unions.
A faction within his eight-player executive sub-committee also aimed to oust lead negotiator Bruce Meyer in 2024, an insurgency led by lawyer Harry Marino, a longtime advocate for minor league players who helped integrate them into the MLBPA.
In December 2024, the three players who aimed to oust Meyer as lead negotiator – Jack Flaherty, Lucas Giolito and Ian Happ – were voted off the executive subcommittee.
The union announced in 2022 – when Clark earned $2.2 million – that Clark’s contract had been extended through 2027.
His resignation comes before the highly-anticipated – or dreaded – showdown between the union and MLB upon the current CBA’s expiration on Dec. 1. In 2021, commissioner Rob Manfred locked the players out in the midst of the off-season transaction frenzy, freezing all business as CBA negotiations lurched on.
The sides finally came to an accord in early March, leaving just enough time for a 162-game schedule to proceed. MLB has not missed games due to a labor dispute since the 1994 strike and subsequent impasse cancelled the World Series.
Now, one of the central figures to the next negotiation will sit this one out.
His successor will inherit the job at perhaps its most crucial moment in decades. Brent Suter, the Los Angeles Angels reliever and a member of the MLBPA’s executive subcommittee, said an interim executive director will soon be appointed; the subcommittee, union staff and all 30 team representatives will hold a board meeting later Tuesday afternoon.
MLB lockout looms
Manfred said Feb. 12 at MLB’s owners meetings that CBA negotiations typically ramp up around Opening Day, and has said he anticipates using a lockout as a measure to move the talks along come December. A simple accord is not anticipated: MLB owners have strongly signaled, publicly and privately, their desire for a salary cap, a concept that has been a non-starter for the union.
MLB remains the only major professional sports league in North America without a cap, though inequity among ownership groups – most specifically, the huge-spending Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets – has sown discord among other franchises.
Clark, 53, played 15 years in the major leagues and was active in the union at that time. He ascended the ranks in the late 2000s, when Weiner guided the union with a very steady hand. But an inoperable brain tumor claimed Weiner’s life, and Clark was elected to take over.
MLB and the union executed an on-time CBA for the 2017 season, yet the following two winters saw declines in salaries and offers for veteran players, priming the union for another fight in 2021-22. Between CBAs, Clark added to his offensive attack, hiring Meyer as deputy executive director and chief negotiator.
It proved a fruitful add: Clark and Meyer seemed to claw back some gains, most notably a modest climb in the luxury tax ceiling and additive components like a pre-arbitration salary pool for high-achieving young players. Yet a moderate rift in membership was exposed when the eight-person subcommittee recommended rejecting MLB’s latest offer, only to be overruled by player representatives from each individual team.
That created a divide between highest-earning players and those closer to the rank-and-file, along with a proxy war of sorts among sports agencies, leading the the 2024 attempted removal of Meyer.