SURPRISE, Ariz. — With about two months until a pivotal round of collective bargaining begins, the Major League Baseball Players Association is scrambling to name a new leader. It’s hardly an ideal moment for player leadership to be in disarray. The league is expected to make a strong push for a salary cap, and a weakened union could help their efforts to push through changes that players might otherwise reject.
In conversations with players and agents, union officials have positioned Bruce Meyer, the deputy director of the MLBPA who led negotiations during the last round of bargaining, as the most logical candidate to succeed Tony Clark. Clark — who resigned Tuesday in part because of an inappropriate relationship with his sister-in-law, a union employee — has also been under federal investigation for the union’s money management.
“Just on a personal level, I think we’re all fairly devastated by things that have happened the last 48, 72, hours,” Meyer said Wednesday in his first public comments since Clark’s ouster. “It’s fair to say that we were all personally upset, concerned about Tony. But I think this was something that players determined had to happen at this particular point in time.”
Sans Clark, the union staff visited with the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday as part of their annual spring tour, the start of which was delayed a day because of Clark’s resignation. When Meyer spoke to the press afterward — a duty that Clark used to handle — he pushed back at the notion that the union’s bargaining power has been diminished.
“Anybody who’s going to assume that and act on that is really making a mistake,” Meyer said. “I’m not going to say this is a great thing. This is unforeseen. There have been some issues hanging over, as you know, and in some respects, it’s good to get them out of the way sooner rather than later.
“At the end of the day, bargaining is the most important thing. It’s always been the most important thing. Our team that’s been preparing for that, again, for years, remains in place. Players have been getting educated on the issues that are going to come up for years. And so it’s not going to affect bargaining in any respect.”
Austin Wells, the New York Yankees’ player representative, said in Florida on Wednesday that “we’re just as strong as we were Friday versus today.”
A vote on an interim executive director appears likely to come Wednesday evening, just a day and a half after Clark submitted his resignation. The vote would be handled by a group of 72 players — 38 major leaguers and 34 minor leaguers, the latter a group that is also represented by the MLBPA.
Meyer didn’t declare himself a candidate, nor did he address the possible outcomes. But the process thus far suggests that if players are to hold a widespread search at some point, it won’t happen until 2027 at the earliest, after bargaining. The current big-league labor deal expires in December, when a lockout is likely to begin.
“We’ll make a decision here soon,” said Will Smith, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ player rep.
No other union officials would comment on their potential candidacy. Possible internal names besides Meyer include: Matt Nussbaum, the general counsel; Ian Penny, an MLBPA senior advisor who was previously general counsel; 16-year veteran Andrew Miller, a special assistant; and Kevin Slowey, the managing director of player services who played seven seasons.
“We want the union to be in a good place,” Meyer said of the replacement process. “We want the union to remain strong. That’s all any of us care about.”
Royals players plan to have another meeting later Wednesday to discuss their collective position ahead of the vote call, said John Schreiber, the team’s union representative. Schreiber said he believes there will be a new director by the end of the day. He’s supposed to reflect his clubhouse’s position in the vote he ultimately casts.
“We definitely have recommendations,” Schreiber said. “Team reps want to meet with the clubhouse today just to give information out to everybody, and process the information. And I’m sure I’ll talk to the guys later today, what we’re going to be meeting about.”
Meyer indicated he believes it would be wise to name a new director sooner rather than later.
“There’s a need in terms of stability, both internal and otherwise, for ideally a quick decision,” Meyer said. “But on the other hand it’s more important for players to make the right decision, and they recognize that, and they’ll take as much time as they feel they need.”
The responsibilities of the executive director role could be chopped up somewhat differently than they are today in the union’s new order. For example, while Meyer could be named interim director, Nussbaum, who’s been at the union for more than 15 years, could handle some of the day-to-day workload that might otherwise have fallen to Clark.
Meyer said the executive director position requires a leader, “essentially a CEO.”
“But it’s never, never been a one-man operation with Tony or anybody who came before him,” Meyer said. “We have grown to a size where we have an infrastructure and we have people in place and in bargaining … I’ve been leading since I got here, and so we’ll move forward.”
Meyer is a controversial figure to some agents, who sense he favors the powerful agent Scott Boras, a claim Meyer has denied over the years. A small group of players and agents tried to push Clark to remove Meyer two springs ago in what’s often referred to as a failed coup attempt.
Whether or not he is named director, Meyer expects he’ll continue to handle bargaining opposite deputy commissioner Dan Halem of MLB.
“Again, everything’s up to the players, but I don’t anticipate that anybody’s gonna be leading negotiations other than me,” Meyer said.
Some players and agents assume at this point that an internal candidate will get Clark’s old job, but want the union nonetheless to have an open mind to additional help. Could the PA try to bring back someone like Don Fehr, the former head of both the baseball and hockey unions, in perhaps an advisory role?
Other voices want the union to look outside straight away: to an ex-player such as Daniel Murphy, perhaps.
“There’s phone calls, a lot of them,” Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers said generally. “But I actually think that the outreach and the feedback that we’ve got from a lot of players has been a really positive thing. The communication has been really good, and I think that’s something we put a point of emphasis on, just communicating from top to bottom.
“I don’t think it’s overwhelming for any of us. It’s just, how do we get to the next thing? How do we keep making progress and moving forward? This is uncharted territory, a little bit. … But we have the right people in place to make decisions and make decisions effectively, especially going into a bargaining year.”
Said one union official on the condition of anonymity: “I really think that any suggestion that folks are jockeying or trying to be opportunistic about this is not what it’s about. I don’t care about titles. We got a lot of work ahead of us.”
Meyer declined to explain how the union will handle the contractual matters stemming from Clark’s exit. Clark was in line to make $3.76 million in 2026, according to public records the union shares. Meyer’s contract calls for a $1.59 million salary this year.
The union could also still feel ramifications from Clark’s tenure via the federal investigation that the Eastern District of New York has undertaken. It’s unclear if or when there will be an indictment, or whether any other union staff members could become embroiled.
“I’m not gonna comment on anything related to the investigation,” Meyer said. “We have counsel, that counsel has been working very closely with the players on the (executive) board and (the eight-player executive) subcommittee and reporting directly to those players.”
Internal governance matters — such as a review of the union’s nepotism policies — also remain in the wake of Clark’s office relationship.
“Tony resigned 10 a.m. yesterday, so we’re in flux,” Meyer said. “It’s fair to say there are issues that will be addressed. … To the extent that there are changes that need to be made in terms of our procedures or any in any other respect, we’re going to be, in the coming days and weeks, looking very carefully at all of it.”
The employee whom Clark engaged in an inappropriate relationship was not in a “no-show” job, Meyer said.
Clark leaves a checkered legacy. After taking over as executive director in 2013, he helped grow the union’s financial might. But he also negotiated a CBA for 2016-21 that has often been criticized by players and agents. The current CBA, the second Clark oversaw, has fared better for players than the first.
“I’ll leave that to the players to speak on that,” Meyer said of Clark’s legacy. “All of us have personal feelings about Tony. Tony’s done a lot of great things for this union. … With recent events, or other things may come out, I hope that his positive impact on the players and the organization is not entirely lost.”
Lance McCullers Jr. of the Houston Astros, a former union executive subcommittee member, said he was “not going to vilify Tony.”
“Tony was asked by our executive board to resign and so he did so,” McCullers said. “He made a really, really poor decision. It has already affected him and it’s going to affect his family, obviously. He’s going to have to deal with that.
“He gave years of his life dedicated to the union. He was involved in the union when he played and he’s dedicated his post-baseball career to our union. He made a decision that us players couldn’t live with.”
— The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner, Cody Stavenhagen and Chandler Rome contributed to this report.