Tony Clark is expected to step down as head of the MLB Players Association. It’s a bombshell resignation that drops less than 10 months before the current CBA expires, according to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale and other media outlets. There’s still a federal financial probe hanging over his tenure and obvious salary cap tensions threatening to blow up the sport’s next bargaining cycle.
MLBPA Executive Director Tory Clark Expected to Resign Feb. 17th
The current collective bargaining agreement expires at 11:59 p.m. ET on Dec. 1, meaning whoever takes over inherits the most volatile labor landscape in a generation. Clark took the reins in Dec. 2013 after Michael Weiner’s passing, arriving as a switch-hitting first baseman who’d spent 15 years in the league as a switch-hitting first baseman.
Clark’s exit blindsided the union on what was supposed to be day one of its Arizona camp circuit — a sit-down with Cleveland’s players never happened Tuesday after the session was scrapped without explanation.
A formal statement is expected at some point today, per the New York Post’s Joel Sherman. Clark’s contract — worth $2.2 million annually — had been extended through 2027 back in November 2022, meaning he chose to walk away with years still left on a deal the executive board handed him after contentious CBA talks produced a 99-day lockout between December 2021 and March 2022.
Federal Probe Clouds Clark’s Final Months
Federal investigators out of the Eastern District of New York have spent the better part of a year digging into OneTeam Partners, a multibillion-dollar licensing arm that the MLBPA and NFLPA launched together in 2019.
Federal investigators have reached out to no fewer than three union reps who hold leadership positions, asking questions about how OneTeam dollars moved, according to ESPN’s reporting. OneTeam stated it was “not the subject of the investigation and has not been accused of any wrongdoing in any way,” while the MLBPA said it intended to cooperate fully with any government inquiry.
Whether that investigation factored into Clark’s decision remains unclear, but the optics are brutal — the union’s top executive stepping aside while a federal probe still lingers over an entity his office helped create.
What Comes Next for the Players’ Union
The MLBPA now faces a leadership vacancy with the clock already ticking toward December. Owners appear willing to risk the 2027 season to force a salary cap into the agreement, a concept Clark publicly opposed at every turn — stating he favored “as free a market system as possible.”
Whoever replaces Clark inherits a negotiating landscape that looks nothing like the one he walked into back in 2013. But one thing is for sure–that person will be very busy.
The Clock is Ticking & MLBPA Just Lost its Leader Before CBA War