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Scott Boras, Harry Marino Discuss MLBPA Dispute

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Recent reporting has painted a picture of a divided MLBPA, where some players are pushing for deputy director Bruce Meyer to be replaced by Harry Marino. One of the charges coming from the pro-Marino camp are that Meyer and executive director Tony Clark are too aligned with agent Scott Boras. Evan Drellich of The Athletic spoke to Boras and Marino while also reporting on various other factors of the feud.

“If you have great ideas, and you want those ideas to be promulgated in a manner that is beneficial to the union and the players they represent, you go to Tony Clark with your plan,” Boras said. “You discuss it with him first, and the many lawyers in the union. If you have issues with the union and you want to be involved with the union, you take your ideas to them. You do not take them publicly, you do not create this coup d’etat and create really a disruption inside the union. If your goal is to help players, it should never be done this way.”

Marino also provided comment: “The players who sought me out want a union that represents the will of the majority. Scott Boras is rich because he makes — or used to make — the richest players in the game richer. That he is running to the defense of Tony Clark and Bruce Meyer this morning is genuinely alarming.”

It’s understandable why there is frustration among the players right now, as the offseason has clearly not been kind to them. Many notable free agents remained unsigned into Spring Training and some are even languishing on the open market right now. Various teams are claiming to be at their respective spending limits, often due to uncertainty around TV revenue or competitive balance tax concerns.

Players like Jordan Montgomery, J.D. Martinez, Michael Lorenzen, Brandon Belt, Donovan Solano, Tommy Pham, Robbie Grossman and many others are currently unattached. In recent weeks, players like Michael A. Taylor, Adam Duvall, Tim Anderson, Gio Urshela, Amed Rosario, Randal Grichuk and others have signed for $5MM or less. Players like Blake Snell, Cody Bellinger and Matt Chapman were predicted for nine-figure deals at the start of the offseason but had to recently pivot to short-term, opt-out laden pacts.

On top of that, the players seem to have been rankled by the peculiar situation involving J.D. Davis and the Giants. He and the club went to an arbitration hearing, which he won, as the arbiters awarded him a $6.9MM salary for this year instead of the $6.5MM figure the club sought. Arbitration salaries are guaranteed if the sides avoid a hearing but not if they go to one. After the Giants signed Chapman and no longer needed Davis as their third baseman, they released him, only owing him 30 days’ termination pay of $1.11MM. He later signed with the Athletics for a $2.5MM guarantee and $1MM of incentives. Even if he unlocks all those bonuses, he’s still wind up losing more than $2MM by this series of events.

Casey Mize, the Tigers’ MLBPA player rep, spoke to Drellich about the various issues causing the upset. “I think if you went around the room and asked, I think everybody would give you a different answer,” Mize said. “Coming off the heels of this free agency is a pretty glaring one. But there’s tons of details. You could look at the J.D. Davis situation. You could look at free agency. I think you could look at the taxes of the CBT (competitive balance tax) stuff. So many guys are going to give you different answers, whether it’s service time or whatever. I don’t want to get into details of what frustrates me or what I heard last night, but in general, we’re just looking for ways to get better. Those are discussions we have all the time, and yeah, we had one last night.”

Drellich reports that this winter’s frustration has “banded together some agents and players” who have had past dissatisfaction with the union but without being spurred into action until now. The earlier reporting had suggested there was a “strained” relationship between Marino and Meyer, and Drellich depicts a split in the MLBPA between a Marino camp and a Meyer camp. The report adds that the fates of Clark and Meyer are tied, so that both would depart the MLBPA if Marino has enough support to be put into a leadership position. A scenario where Marino effectively replaces Meyer and works alongside Clark is seen as unlikely at this point.

Though it’s plain to see why the players may not be thrilled with the developments of this offseason, it’s surprising from a distance to see such animosity bubbling out into the public, as this isn’t the first time the players have faced difficulties with the economics of baseball. The executive director of the MLBPA has historically been a lawyer or labor leader, but Clark became the first former player to hold the position in 2013. The 2016-21 collective bargaining agreement, this first of his tenure, was widely panned for being a poor result for the players. Meyer was brought aboard in 2018 to help negotiate the next CBA, bringing with him his three decades of experience working with the player unions of the NBA, NHL and NFL.

It was generally perceived that the players made some gains with the current CBA that came out of the 2021-22 lockout. The minimum salary went up from $570K to $700K in 2022, and would continue to have annual increases, set to be $740K in the upcoming season. A pre-arbitration bonus pool was created to get more money to younger players. Salaries for arbitration-eligible players, which were previously not guaranteed for any of them, became guaranteed for those that avoided a hearing. A draft lottery was implemented with the hope of disincentivizing tanking.

The competitive balance tax lines also moved up noticeably, with the base threshold going from $210MM in 2021 to $230MM in 2022, further increasing annually with that threshold at $237MM this year. The other two thresholds holds moved up by comparable amounts. Though the current CBA did feature the addition of the fourth line, whereas there had previously only been three.

Harry Marino, meanwhile, led the effort to unionize minor leaguers. The MLBPA eventually became the collective bargaining arm of minor league players, which led to the first ever CBA for minor leaguers. Marino left the MLBPA after that, with Drellich reporting that his relationship with Meyer “soured significantly” during their time working together on that, but Marino appears to have resurfaced as the attempts to push out Meyer and/or Clark have gained momentum.

The exact nature of those disagreements isn’t clear but it seems that the frustrating offseason has brought them back to the surface and divided the players corps. It appears Marino and those in his camp are accusing Clark and Meyer of being too aligned with Boras. This is a charge that has arisen before, with Meyer calling it “absurd” back in 2021.

Drellich points out that Boras was upset when the players accepted the current CBA, believing they should have held out for more, particularly in terms of pushing the CBT. Though he also adds that many other players and agents viewed things from the opposite side. Based on the wording of Marino’s statement above, it appears his argument stems from the accusation that the union focuses too much on the “richest” players to the harm of others.

The MLBPA has an executive board that consists of 72 members and it was reported earlier today that 38 of those are major leaguers and 34 are minor leaguers. This report from Drellich specially mentions Jack Flaherty, Lucas Giolito and Ian Happ as players that are both on the board and also Marino supporters.

How Marino would do things differently to the Clark/Meyer leadership is unclear. Per Drellich, Marino’s supporters have been circulating a PowerPoint presentation consisting of eight slides. The full details of this aren’t clear but it apparently questions some of the MLBPA’s own spending decisions, in addition to the recent CBA negotiations.

Supporters of the Clark/Meyer camp, on the other hand, are pointing to track record. Meyer, as mentioned, has three decades of experience working with player unions in other sports. He has only been with the MLBPA since 2018 but has already gone toe-to-toe with MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and deputy commissioner Dan Halem, enduring a lockout that lasted more than three months and saw the players make some of the aforementioned gains. The Davis situation, though understandably frustrating, was possible with all arbitration-eligible players until this current CBA. While the new deal didn’t close that loop completely, it at least made arbitration salaries guaranteed for those who avoid a hearing. The CBT impacting league spending is also understandably annoying, but those thresholds moved up considerably with this CBA.

Marino, meanwhile, is just 33 years old and has far less on his résumé. Drellich relays that MLB found Meyer difficult to deal with and would be happy to see him go, something his defenders point to as a positive. As Drellich also points out, the league is naturally happy with any discord between the players as it will only help them in negotiating future CBAs.

Per today’s reporting, it seems the outcome is a binary, where the union will either stay the course with Clark/Meyer or make a significant pivot by going with a largely unknown quantity in Marino, a decision that could have ramifications for the players for years to come. The current CBA runs through the 2026 season.

Players Reportedly Pressuring MLBPA Director Tony Clark To Replace Deputy Director Bruce Meyer

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As frustration bubbles among players regarding the state of free agency this offseason, a significant portion of their ranks are pushing for changes in union leadership. Reports from Evan Drellich and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic and from Jeff Passan of ESPN indicate that during a call between union reps and union leadership earlier this week, players pushed executive director Tony Clark to replace deputy director Bruce Meyer with Harry Marino.

Marino, the former head of Advocates For Minor Leaguers who temporarily joined the MLBPA, worked alongside Meyer to spearhead negotiations on the minor league collective bargaining agreement. That agreement was hammered out last year when minor leaguers unionized and were formally adopted by the MLBPA. Marino and Meyer have a “strained” relationship from their time working together on that effort, per Drellich and Rosenthal.

Meyer, 62, joined the union in Aug. 2018 after the union had been panned for its negotiations of the 2016-21 MLB collective bargaining agreement, which was widely viewed as a success for the league. He’s spent more than three decades working with unions for other major sports, including players unions in the NFL, NHL and NBA.

Frustration from the players’ side of things stems from a number of topics. The stalled market for top free agents, the erosion of the middle class of free agency, an overall decrease in free-agent spending and the peculiar J.D. Davis release after he’d won an arbitration hearing all contribute to the unrest, per the reports.

Passan notes that support for Marino’s ascension to the No. 2 spot in the union was not unanimous among players but was broadly supported. Detractors question his youth (33 years old) and lack of experience in high-profile negotiations prior to his work with the minor league union. Notably, Marino was not involved on the call, and Clark rebuffed player requests that he be present. Support for Marino isn’t a big surprise, given the rather surprising 38-34 split of the union’s 72 executive board slots first reported by Drellich and Rosenthal (38 big leaguers, 34 minor leaguers).

The lingering presence of many top free agents has been attributed to myriad factors: uncertainty surrounding the television broadcast rights of roughly a third of the league due to the ongoing bankruptcy proceedings at Diamond Sports Group (which owns Bally Sports Network), a slate of typically high-spending clubs running into top-level luxury tax penalties, and the large contingent of Boras Corporation clients atop the free agent market. Rival agents, according to both The Athletic and ESPN, have pushed the idea that Meyer is influenced and ideologically aligned with the Boras Corporation more than other agencies. Meyer called allegations of Boras’ influence on collective bargaining negotiations “absurd” back in 2021 and has continued to push back on them.

The presence of Blake Snell, Cody Bellinger, Jordan Montgomery, Matt Chapman (and to a lesser extent, J.D. Martinez) lingering atop the market into the late stages of spring training has been an oft-cited point throughout the winter. Someone as vocal as Scott Boras is always going to have his share of detractors — both in terms of rival agents and a vocal portion of the MLB fanbase that sees him as bad for the game.

It’s undeniably been a tough offseason for the top clients of the game’s most recognizable agent, though it’s worth pointing out that beyond the “Boras Four,” his agency has negotiated Major League contracts for 13 other free agents (Jung Hoo Lee, Rhys Hoskins, Sean Manaea, Nick Martinez, Kenta Maeda, Erick Fedde and Frankie Montas among them). That’s not presented as a means of defending the series of disappointing outcomes for the top of this year’s class but rather to simply provide context on the offseason as a whole. Both reports suggest that fellow agents are the root of a good bit of the pushback regarding Boras and whatever influence he may or may not have, though it stands to reason that many clients of those rival agencies harbor similar suspicions.

More concerning than the top end of the market stalling out — at least for many players — is the fading middle class of free agency. Surprising as it may be to see players like Bellinger and Snell settling on short-term deals with opt outs, it’s surely every bit as concerning for players to see veterans like Gio Urshela ($1.5MM), Amed Rosario ($1.5MM) and Adam Duvall ($3MM) sign for a relative pittance after struggling to find much of a market.

Also telling is the dwindling number of long-term free agent deals. There were 17 contracts of four or more years doled out in free agency last offseason. In the 2021-22 offseason, 19 such deals were brokered. During the current offseason, there have been 11 deals of four-plus seasons — five of which went to international free agents coming over from the KBO or from NPB. Only six established MLB free agents have signed a four-year deal (or longer) this offseason, and one of those was reliever Wandy Peralta, who took an uncommon opt-out laden structure with a light AAV after apparently not finding a deal more commensurate with market norms for a setup reliever of his caliber.

As far as the Davis situation is concerned, it’s understandable if players are uneasy with the manner in which things transpired. Davis’ agent, Matt Hannaford of ALIGND Sports, has accused the Giants of negotiating in bad faith, making only one offer less than an hour before the deadline for players and teams to exchange figures. Hannaford said he and Davis felt they were left with little choice but to go to a hearing, which they won — only for the Giants to release Davis midway through spring training at a point when only one-sixth of his $6.9MM salary (approximately $1.15M) was guaranteed.

Davis spoke to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle about his frustrations over the manner and his concern that future instances along these same lines may occur. “If one team does this after going to arbitration then it turns into 70% of teams, what’s to stop teams from just making the lowest possible offer knowing no one will take them to arbitration?” Davis asked rhetorically. “That bothers me for future players in this situation.”

Meyer and his defenders (presumably including Clark) can point to the fact that the Davis situation was actually something that could have happened (and in the past has happened) to any player — and not just the ones who go to an arbitration hearing. Under prior collective bargaining agreements, all arbitration salaries were non-guaranteed unless specifically negotiated otherwise (which was rare). Any player who’d agreed to a one-year deal in arbitration was subject to the same rules: they could be cut for 30 days’ termination pay (roughly one-sixth their salary) with 15 or more days remaining in camp or for 45 days’ termination pay with fewer than 15 days until the season commenced.

That the majority of players were protected from this fate was viewed as a win for the union. Of course, Davis’ concerns that some clubs could just make low-ball offers, push for hearings and then move on from fringe players who best their teams in a hearing is not without merit.

Other perceived wins for players under the leadership of Clark and Meyer were the increase of minimum salary ($570K in 2021; $740K in 2024), the creation of a pre-arbitration bonus pool for young players, a draft lottery designed to cut back on aggressive tanking/rebuilding, and notable increases to the base thresholds for the luxury tax/competitive balance tax ($210MM in 2021; $237MM in 2024). In exchange, the players conceded to the creation of a fourth luxury tier with particularly stiff penalties and the expansion of the playoff field from 10 to 12 teams — among other elements.

Clark has not made a formal declaration on Meyer’s future with the union. Unrest notwithstanding, it’s not yet clear whether any significant changes to union leadership will be made.

MLBPA Director Tony Clark Discusses Pitch Clock, Free Agency, Olympics

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MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark spoke to reporters, including David Brandt of the Associated Press, today about an array of topics including the adjustments made to the pitch clock this offseason and the state of the free agent market.

The players on MLB’s competition committee voted against the slate of rules changes which were approved back in December, and Clark made clear that he feels adjustments to the pitch clock, which was implemented prior to the 2023 campaign, are being made much too quickly. Clark noted that the rules changes “warranted a much longer dialogue” before being put into place. The clock, which allowed 15 seconds between pitches with the bases empty and 20 seconds with runners on last year, will allow only 18 seconds with runners on in 2024. No adjustments were made to the clock when the bases are empty.

“We just had the biggest adjustment this league has ever seen in regards to length of game and how the game was affected, by including a clock,” Clark said, as relayed by Brandt. “Rather than give us another year to adjust and adapt to it, why are we adjusting again, and what are the ramifications going to be?”

Clark added that his primary concern regarding the pitch clock is pitcher health, noting that shortening recovery time between pitches could leave the game’s hurlers more susceptible to injury. The pitch clock modification wasn’t the only change made to the rules this winter. The runners’ lane has been widened to allow players to take a more direct path to first base, the maximum number of allowed mound visits in a game has been reduced from five to four, and pitchers who are sent to warm up for an inning cannot be replaced without entering the game to face at least one batter.

Also discussed during the presser was the possibility of a free agent signing deadline, which MLB commissioner Rob Manfred advocated for earlier this month. Manfred suggested that a deadline in December would allow “two weeks of flurried activity” surrounding the annual Winter Meetings, though he noted that the MLBPA had rebuffed the idea of a signing deadline in the past. Clark confirmed the union’s opposition to the idea, suggesting that “A deadline, in all likelihood, is going to do more damage to players in those conversations than the other way around.”

The possibility of a signing deadline has become a hotly debated topic in the media and among fans this winter thanks at least in part to lack of movement at the top of the free agent market in recent weeks. With Spring Training already underway, four of the top seven free agents from this winter’s addition of MLBTR’s Top 50 free agents list remain unsigned in Cody Bellinger, Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery, and Matt Chapman. Each member of that quartet is represented by the Boras Corporation, which has developed a reputation for encouraging its clients to be patient upon hitting free agency. It’s a tactic that has yielded a range of results in the past; while Bryce Harper famously landed a $330MM guarantee back in March of 2019, Carlos Correa instead settled for a surprising short-term deal with the Twins in March of 2022.

While it’s clear that the league hopes to curtail the ability of both agencies and clubs to slow-play free agency and create a short, active signing window akin to those seen in other major North American sports leagues, the MLBPA’s resistant to such a plan makes it unlikely that a proposed deadline would find much suggests when collective bargaining talks begin in advance of the current CBA’s expiration on December 1, 2026.

Clark also spoke to reporters about the possibility of MLB players partaking in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, a possibility which has begun to gain steam as MLB has suggested they’ll consider the possibility. In his comments, Clark echoed Manfred by noting that while the possibility of big leaguers participating in the Olympics is an exciting one for players and that there’s been “a lot of dialogue” about it, there remains a long way to go before making the idea a reality. In addition to working out the logistics of having major leaguers participate with the International Olympic Committee, both MLB and the MLBPA would need to sign off on players participating in the games.

MLBPA Hires Carlos Gómez

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The Major League Baseball Players Association has hired Carlos Gómez, per Tenchy Rodriguez of Z101. The former big leaguer will be a special assistant to MLBPA executive director Tony Clark.

Gómez, now 38, retired in 2021 after a 13-year career in the big leagues. He played in 1,461 big league games between the Mets, Twins, Brewers, Astros, Rangers and Rays. He hit 145 home runs and stole 268 bases while providing excellent outfield defense, leading to a career tally of 25.9 wins above replacement from FanGraphs.

It seems his post-playing days will see him get involved with the union, which has naturally been in a prominent role in recent years. After a few decades of relative labor peace, Major League Baseball locked out the players in the 2021-2022 offseason. A new collective bargaining agreement was eventually agreed to, which saw significant changes, including increasing pay for younger players, big bumps in the luxury tax, measures to decrease service time manipulation and more.

Beyond that, the MLBPA also began representing minor league players and eventually worked out a new CBA between those players and the league. That agreement led to pay increases for minor league players as well as some medical and pension provisions and other details. Another wrinkle was just reported last night by Jeff Passan of ESPN, who relays that the union is now certifying agents who only represent minor leaguers. Previously, an agent needed to represent at least one 40-man roster player.

Julio Rodríguez Tops 2023 Pre-Arb Bonus Pool

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Mariners center fielder Julio Rodríguez will receive $1,865,349 from the $50MM bonus pool for pre-arbitration players, the highest of the 2023 recipients, per a report from Ronald Blum of the Associated Press. The AP later released a full list of bonus recipients.

A notable new element of the current collective bargaining agreement is that $50MM is to be taken from central revenues annually and distributed to players that have not yet qualified for arbitration. Certain portions of the money are to be based on awards voting:

  • Rookie of the Year: $750K for first place, $500K for second place
  • MVP and Cy Young: $2.5MM for first place, $1.75MM for second place, $1.5MM for third place, $1MM for fourth or fifth place
  • All-MLB: $1MM for being named “First Team,” $500K for being named “Second Team”

As Blum highlights today, a player is eligible to receive the bonus for one of those achievements per year, earning only the highest amount. Rodríguez finished fourth in American League MVP voting, meaning he got $1MM for that, which accounted for the majority of his payout. After the bonuses, the remainder of the pool is divided on a percentage basis among the top 100 players based on the joint MLB/MLBPA-created version of WAR.

Players are still eligible even if they have signed extensions, as long as they would have been pre-arb without signing such a deal. Rodríguez and the Mariners signed a convoluted extension towards the end of his rookie season in 2022 but he’s only at two years of service time now. Since he would have been pre-arb without that extension, he was able to top this year’s pool.

The following 10 players got more than $1MM:

Last year, Dylan Cease got the biggest slice of the 2022 pie, taking home $2,457,426.

MLBPA Head Tony Clark On League Economics, TV Deals, Minor League CBA

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The newly-formed economic reform committee comprised of five team owners drew some criticism from MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark, who told The Athletic’s Evan Drellich that “the underlying theme” of the committee is reducing and controlling player payroll rather than any significant reshaping of the league’s business.

“The economic reform committee is not a new idea.  They had a Blue Ribbon panel, and even an economic committee that was put together back in 1991….Those two in particular, and perhaps even this third, based on the comments that came out today, is focused in on how best to depress player salaries,” Clark said.

The MLBPA declined to make an initial comment last week when the committee was announced, though it naturally isn’t surprising that the union and the owners would have greatly differing perspectives on economic inequalities within baseball.  For starters, Clark feels that “baseball is doing very well,” which seems to belie the existence for the committee in the first place.

“There was a lot of discussion in 2020 about the challenges that the industry had.  There were a number of positions taken suggesting that the industry was in harm’s way, and was unlikely to come out of it for years following,” Clark said.  “And yet, 2021 (league-wide) revenue was nearly back to what it was pre-pandemic; 2022 is above what it was pre-pandemic.  And so the industry is doing well.”

The possible bankruptcy of the Diamond Sports Group is the primary reason for the committee’s creation, as 14 different MLB teams have broadcasting deals with Bally Sports (the regional networks owned by Diamond Sports).  This will certainly have a major impact on the revenue streams for those teams, but only in the near future, Clark argues.

“We think, based on the expertise that we’re receiving, that over the long term, growth will still happen,” Clark said.  “Live events, sports itself, have still done remarkably well.  It’s the [regional sports network] model that appears to be challenged, not fan interest in sporting events.”

While certain teams could be harder hit depending on the specific length of their TV contracts, the potential also exists for those game broadcasts (and thus revenues) to be covered via new deals with streaming platforms, as opportunities could emerge in relatively quick fashion should a bankruptcy trigger a resolution to any pre-existing contracts with the Diamond Sports Group.

To this end, it is possible a good portion of the Bally Sports-related problems could be solved well before the end of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, which expires at the end of the 2026 season.  Given how the CBA was only settled less than a year ago in the wake of a 99-day lockout, much could still change between now and 2026, though the league seems quite likely to continue to push revenue disparities between teams as a prime motivator for an overhaul of baseball’s financial structure in the next CBA.

Commissioner Rob Manfred noted last week that the league’s exploration of the Bally Sports issue has led to a broader discussion between owners of revenue disparities, which is the other purpose of the economic reform committee.  A salary cap doesn’t appear to be on the table for now since even the owners, Manfred said, would have difficulty in finding a cap ceiling that would be agreeable to all parties.

That said, Clark reiterated the longstanding MLBPA tenet that “we’re never going to agree to a cap….we’re not going to agree to a cap.  A salary cap is the ultimate restriction on player value and player salary.  We believe in a market system.  The market system has served our players, our teams and our game very well.”  The last round of CBA talks did involve the union exploring the idea of a salary floor, which Clark said was “similar to what currently exists on the top” in terms of the current luxury tax structure rather than an actual cap.  However, “we have yet to have a conversation with the league that doesn’t include something far more restrictive on the top end.  That makes the conversation null and void to this point.”

Unsurprisingly, Clark praised the Padres’ increased spending, which has come under public criticism from some owners (including the Rockies’ Dick Monfort).  Though the Padres play in a relatively smaller market, Clark feels the team’s willingness to spend and compete at the upper levels “should be celebrated, not questioned.”

“The question that should be asked in regards to one team’s payroll versus another, is whether or not that team is making a conscious decision to have its payroll there, or whether it has the ability to increase its payroll?” Clark said.  “The answer is the latter, and not the former.  So at the end of the day, particularly when you see teams in smaller markets — aka San Diego, in this instance, as the best example — provide a level of engagement for their fans, and a level of excitement in being one of the seven smallest markets we have, it begs the question as to why they made that decision, and why others aren’t.”

Returning to labor talks, the union and the league are in ongoing negotiations about another CBA, the first agreement between MLB and minor league players.  Though no deal has been reached since the two sides began talks in November, Clark doesn’t feel a work stoppage is likely if an agreement isn’t in place by Opening Day, since “the greater likelihood is that the terms and conditions that currently exist will likely continue as we continue to negotiate.”  According to Clark, one of the roadblocks is that the league has again looked to reduce the size of minor league rosters, which the union considers a “non-starter” of a proposal.

MLBPA Executive Director Tony Clark Given Five-Year Extension

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The Major League Baseball Players Association has voted to extend the contract of executive director Tony Clark, according to Evan Drellich of The Athletic. His previous extension was set to expire at the end of the year, but he will now stay on through 2027. Since the new collective bargaining agreement expires after the 2026 season, Clark is now set to remain at the table to be involved in negotiating the next CBA.

Clark, 50, spent 15 years in the majors as a player, from 1995 to 2009. As detailed by Drellich in a lengthy profile, Clark then became a protege of Michael Weiner, the previous head of the union. Weiner had only taken over the job in 2009 but received tragic news of a terminal cancer diagnosis in 2012. When he passed away in 2013, Clark was voted to take over the position, just a few years after concluding his playing career.

At the time, MLB and the MLBPA seemed to be on relatively good terms, as there had not been a work stoppage since the 1994-1995 strike. However, the first CBA negotiated under Clark in 2016 was almost universally panned as being too skewed to the owners’ interests. Though the union did earn some modest gains on things like the minimum salary and changes to the schedule, the most significant changes saw increased penalties for teams that went over the competitive balance tax line and a hard cap on signings of international amateur free agents.

Despite the poor reception of that CBA, Clark was given an extension in November of 2018. At that time, work was already being done to prepare for the next round of negotiations. The MLBPA hired Bruce Meyer in August of 2018 with the title of senior director of collective bargaining & legal. Meyer brought years of experience to the table, having previously worked for the NHLPA and having provided outside counsel to the NBA and NFL unions.

Clark’s time since signing that extension has been quite active, to say the least. Before even getting to the next round of CBA negotiations, the league was trying to purchase licensing rights from the union. The MLBPA didn’t like the offer and instead joined with the NFLPA to form OneTeam Partners alongside RedBird Capital in 2019. OneTeam reached an exclusive deal with the trading card company Fanatics and the Wall Street Journal gave the company a $2 billion valuation last year.

Then the MLBPA had to deal with the COVID pandemic disrupting the 2020 season. Though a shortened 60-game season was eventually played, it was clear that the relationship between the league and the union was at a low ebb with just one year remaining in the CBA. Negotiations didn’t lead to a deal and MLB locked out the players on December 1 of 2021, the first work stoppage in over 25 years.

The lockout would eventually drag on for 99 days, resulting in a new CBA being agreed to on March 10 of 2022. By all accounts, Clark and the union did much better this time around. The lowest threshold of the CBT jumped $20MM, from $210MM to $230MM, the largest single-year jump in its history. It will reach $244MM by the end of the agreement. A notable jump in the minimum salary was secured, in addition to a pool of $50MM to be distributed among pre-arbitration players. Concerns over service time manipulation were addressed by creating incentives for teams who promote top prospects on Opening Day, while those who debut later can still earn a full year of service time based on awards voting. In order to achieve these goals, the players gave the league new revenue sources, including extra playoff games and advertising on uniforms.

That’s not to say that everything is sunshine and rainbows for the MLBPA. The union represents over 1,000 players who are at different stages of their careers and will naturally have different ideas about the priorities of the union. The MLBPA’s executive board voted 26-12 in favor of the new CBA, but all eight members of the executive subcommittee were in those 12 votes against. I think we accomplished a lot,” catcher Jason Castro tells Drellich. “There were things that we could have still kept fighting for, hence the ‘no’ vote for me. But at the end of the day, we were representing a large number of guys, and the priorities aren’t necessarily there. … You’re not going to get everything all at once, unless you’re just happy with sitting out and not playing. Which I mean, some guys were definitely for.” Bruce Meyer framed the situation similarly. “We said, ‘Here’s the deal. We think it’s a good deal. We think it’s the best deal we could have negotiated at this point without missing games. If we miss a bunch of games, it’s possible that we could do better, but can’t guarantee it.’ And based on that, the majority of the players approved it. But it was not in any sense a rebuke of the union.”

Beyond the work done in the CBA, the MLBPA also took the monumental step of unionizing minor league players, something that had never been done in the long history of Major League Baseball. The minor leaguers will have their own separate bargaining unit under the MLBPA umbrella and a minor league CBA will be negotiated independently of the one that applies to those in the majors. A minor league CBA is not yet in place but the negotiations have begun, which could potentially lead to progress on longstanding issues for younger players like substandard pay and housing conditions. The MLBPA has also joined the AFL-CIO, opening opportunities for players to access further benefits.

Time will tell whether the new CBA has paid off for the major league players but the early returns seem to be positive for the MLBPA. Six teams went over the luxury tax line in 2022, with the Mets going over the new fourth threshold, while prospect promotion seems to have increased. One prospect who missed the start of the season due to injury, Adley Rutschman, ended up earning a full year of service time by coming in second in Rookie of the Year voting, meaning he will reach free agency one year earlier than he would have under the previous CBA. Based on those positive signs, Clark has earned himself another extension. His salary is not public at this time but will be revealed later as the union continues to publish its financial reports. He made $2.25MM in 2021.

In other MLBPA news, Drellich also noted on Twitter that a new executive subcommittee has been voted on. Scherzer, Castro, Andrew Miller, Zack Britton, James Paxton and Gerrit Cole are out, being replaced by Jack Flaherty, Lance McCullers Jr., Ian Happ, Austin Slater, Lucas Giolito and Brent Suter, with Marcus Semien and Francisco Lindor the two holdovers.

Quick Hits: Twins, Rays, Minor League CBA

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The Twins announced that they have hired Nick Paparesta to be the club’s head athletic trainer. Paparesta has spent the previous 12 years in the same role for the Athletics. Prior to that, he spent five years with the Rays and 11 years with Cleveland.

A new head athletic trainer usually wouldn’t be especially noteworthy, but there are a couple of reasons to think this could be an impactful move for Minnesota. Reporting on the vacancy last week, La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune pointed out that there’s been a large amount of turnover in the club’s strength and conditioning departments, including having three different head trainers since 2016.

Also, the Twins were leading the AL Central for much of 2022 before a rash of injuries dragged them down to a 78-84 finish. While the training staff can’t be reasonably blamed for every health issue that pops up, any improvement in that department could have big ramifications for the club. If Paparesta can provide some stability to the department, it could help the Twins on the field, especially with a roster that features some players with injury concerns, such as Byron Buxton, Tyler Mahle, Jorge Polanco, Royce Lewis and others.

Some other notes from around the league…

  • The Tigers recently hired Rob Metzler to be their assistant general manager, plucking him from the Rays organization. Since Metzler had been working as senior director of amateur scouting for Tampa, that left them with a vacancy in their scouting department. The Rays turned inward to replace Metzler, as Marc Topkin of the Tampa Times reports that they promoted Chuck Ricci to director of amateur scouting. Ricci has spent the past nine seasons as national crosschecker for the Rays and has evidently impressed the organization enough to get a bump up the ladder. Additionally, David Hamlett was promoted to assistant director of amateur scouting. The Rays have earned a reputation for finding talented young players from various areas, something that is essential for their success as a franchise that typically doesn’t spend at high levels. Though the departure of Metzler will surely create challenges for them, the club will be hoping that Ricci and Hamlett can step up and fill the void.
  • In recent months, the Major League Baseball Players Association sought to represent minor league players in negotiations with the league, an effort that ultimately proved successful. The arrangement became official in mid-September, with an arbiter validating the organization efforts of the union and the league agreeing to recognize the MLBPA as the bargaining representatives for minor leaguers. It was reported around that time that minor leaguers would be negotiating a separate agreement to the one that affects major leaguers, and Evan Drellich of The Athletic reports that those talks have now begun. As the recent MLB CBA negotiations showed, these situations can drag on for months, so it’s unclear how long this agreement will take. It might also prove to be even more challenging since these are uncharted waters, with minor leaguers having never been unionized before. More details will surely emerge as the negotiations play out, but many minor league players have been vocal about dissatisfaction with various elements of their work environments, including housing and payment, among others.

MLBPA Representation Of Minor Leaguers Becomes Official

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The MLBPA’s efforts to represent minor leaguers have officially paid off, according to Evan Drellich of The Athletic and Jeff Passan of ESPN.

Just over two weeks ago, it was reported that the MLBPA had taken initial steps towards unionizing minor leaguers, with those players being asked to vote on designating the MLBPA as their collective bargaining representatives. About a week later, the MLBPA announced that a “significant” majority of minor leaguers have signed authorization cards in favor of the MLBPA creating a minor league bargaining unit, with the MLBPA requested that MLB recognize this effort. A few days later, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced that the league would indeed recognize as the bargaining representatives for minor leaguers. Today, an arbiter validated the card count with MLB then voluntarily recognizing the union.

MLBPA executive director Tony Clark released a statement on Twitter, which reads:

“I applaud this extraordinary group of young Players and welcome them to the MLBPA. This historic achievement required the right group of Players at the right moment to succeed. Minor leaguers have courageously seized that moment, and we look forward to improving their terms and conditions of employment through the process of good faith collective bargaining. I also want to acknowledge the tireless efforts of Harry Marino and the dedicated group he led at Advocates for Minor Leaguers, without whom this historic organizing campaign would not have been possible.”

Recent reporting revealed that every member of the Advocates for Minor Leaguers staff resigned and took on new jobs with the MLBPA. Membership in the union will now grow from 1200 to more than 5,000, though an MLBPA official told MLBTR last week the proposed unionization efforts would give minor leaguers their own separate bargaining unit under the MLBPA umbrella, adding that any minor league CBA would be negotiated independently of the Major League CBA that was completed earlier this year. Players in the rookie level Dominican Summer League will not automatically be included because it’s based outside the United States, but the MLBPA plans to bargain over DSL working conditions despite those players not officially joining the Association.

Congresspeople from both parties recently expressed an interest in reconsidering MLB’s antitrust exemption. Low rates of pay for minor leaguers has been one of many legislators’ critiques, but recognition of a union and signing a collective bargaining agreement with minor leaguers would take that issue outside the realm of antitrust law and into labor law territory.

Today’s news brings minor leaguers officially into a union for the first time in history, setting the stage for them to also negotiate the first ever CBA for minor leaguers. The various substandard working conditions of minor leaguers have become increasingly highlighted in recent years, with a focus on the low rates of pay and poor housing. There had been some small progress, with reporting in October of last year revealing that MLB was requiring teams to begin to provide housing for all MiLB players, something they were not previously required to do. In July, MLB paid $185MM to settle a lawsuit that began in 2014 related to low wages and minor league players not being paid for Spring Training. These issues, and any other issues minor leaguers may have, will now be addressed through collective bargaining between the union and the league. The MLBPA also recently joined the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), which will likely impact minor leaguers more than their major league counterparts since the benefits of AFL-CIO programs are in areas such as mortgages and car purchases.

All told, it seems like significant changes for Minor League Baseball and its players could be coming over the horizon, though the exact nature of those changes won’t be known until the bargaining process begins in earnest.

Manfred: MLB Plans To Recognize MLBPA’s Representation Of Minor League Players

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TODAY: The card-check agreement has been finalized, ESPN’s Jeff Passan and Jesse Rogers report, and a neutral arbiter will receive the MLBPA’s union authorization cards on Wednesday.

SEPTEMBER 9: Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred announced today that the league is prepared to voluntarily recognize the MLBPA as the new collective bargaining representatives for minor league players. The announcement comes less than two weeks after the MLBPA sent authorization cards to minor leaguers seeking to represent them, and just days after the union received “significant” majority support and formally requested that the commissioner’s office voluntarily recognize the seismic shift in player representation. According to Evan Drellich of the Athletic (Twitter link), the recognition is pending agreement between the league and union on a card-check resolution — essentially an independent verification of the authorization cards sent last month.

MLBPA executive director Tony Clark released a statement in response to MLB’s announcement (relayed by James Wagner of the New York Times):

“We are pleased (MLB) is moving forward with this process in a productive manner. While there are significant steps remaining, we are confident discussions will reach a positive outcome.”

Had the league not agreed, the MLBPA would have engaged with the federal National Labor Relations Board to prompt an election among minor leaguers. Assuming a majority of those who voted approved of MLBPA representation, the NLRB could then have forced MLB’s hand in recognizing the unionization. Those extra steps won’t be necessary, following today’s announcement by Manfred.

An MLBPA official told MLBTR last week the proposed unionization efforts would give minor leaguers their own separate bargaining unit under the MLBPA umbrella, adding that any minor league CBA would be negotiated independently of the Major League CBA that was completed earlier this year. The MLBPA recently announced it had hired all members of the group Advocates For Minor Leaguers, a move which bolstered the union’s leadership ranks in preparation for the shift, which will see MLBPA membership grow from 1200 to more than 5000.

MLB’s announcement figures to accelerate the process for eventually getting minor league players under the MLBPA umbrella. League recognition would serve as an implicit acknowledgement that the majority of minor leaguers would likely have voted in favor of unionization had the PA petitioned the NLRB for an election.

It now seems all but certain minor leaguers will soon become members of the MLB Players Association. It’s completely uncharted territory for minor leaguers, who have never previously been part of a union. In a full post earlier this week, Drellich spoke to a handful of minor league players about the process. Drellich noted that players in the rookie level Dominican Summer League will not automatically be included because it’s based outside the United States, but the MLBPA is now likely to represent players from domestic complex ball up through Triple-A and plans to bargain over DSL working conditions despite those players not officially joining the Association.

Drellich wrote this evening that both the league and MLBPA believe it possible to hammer out a CBA for minor league players in time for the start of the 2023 season. Negotiations figure to start not long after MLB grants its formal recognition (assuming it transpires), and Drellich notes it’s possible the card-check agreement could be reached in the near future, barring setbacks.

As he points out, the expected recognition comes just a couple months after Congresspeople from both parties expressed an interest in reconsidering MLB’s antitrust exemption. Low rates of pay for minor leaguers has been one of many legislators’ critiques, but recognition of a union and signing a collective bargaining agreement with minor leaguers would take that issue outside the realm of antitrust law and into labor law territory.

It’s set to be a monumental change for the MLBPA, which also joined the AFL-CIO this week. The union’s efforts at both expanding its membership and increasing its communication with labor leaders in other industries comes on the heels of a few years of labor strife. Clark pointed to the contentious return-to-play negotiations after the 2020 COVID shutdown and last winter’s lockout as reasons for affiliating with the AFL-CIO.

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