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“BASEBALL UNION..IN CRISIS”
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The Cactus League and Grapefruit Circuit open this weekend.
There should be excitement.
Pitchers-Catchers reporting.
There should be excitement.
Last second free agent signings in the headlines.
There should be excitement.
Not at this hour.
Instead of ‘Play Ball’ in the conversation, we get words like ‘Bloodbath’…’All Out War’…’Salary Cap mandate’.
And on top of the excitement to see the Padres-Mariners-Dodgers-Angels opening weekend games, we have to deal with what happened with the Union.
MLBPA Tony Clark, removed from his position after 12-years on the job amid a black cloud of allegations.
A federal probe of Clark’s leadership and handling of funds from the ‘1-Team Partners Licensing Group’. The MLB Union and NFL Union formed an NIL partnership that has raised (2B) in a short amount of time. There is evidence that Clark created a ‘Profit Unit’ for himself as part of the deal.
The same movement by NFL Union chief Lloyd Howell led to his resignation-ouster months ago. Now Clark is out too.
On top of this is the allegation that Clark tried to use his power to crush a probe of the 1-Team Licensing Group, and tried to intimidate the NFL not to cooperate.
Add in the allegation of nepotism, that Clark hired his sister-in-law for a Union job and had affairs with her.
This chaos comes as baseball heads into the 2026-season, the final year of the CBA. Negotiations could begin as early as March to avoid a lockout-shutdown, but Clark will not be there at the table.
His point man negotiator Bruce Meyer will be there. His reputation is checkered. He tried to block a deal in 2022, but then watched the Players themselves override his veto of the Rob Manfred offer.
Meyer is viewed as militant, and willing to ‘die on the hill’ if the owners try to impose a Salary Cap in the next CBA. Meyer is also viewed as a ‘Yes Man’ for super agent Scott Boras.
Meyer got his traits from Donald Fehr, a Union militant from back in the day.
The Players should be concerned with whom to trust. The fall of Tony Clark is shocking. The rebuke of Meyer’s work was stunning.
Of course Rob Manfred and the owners need not to celebrate. They have their own Oil Fire to deal with.
Check these boxes off: Gross disparity in payrolls in baseball; the collapse of TV revenue for more than 20-MLB teams; the need to redo revenue sharing; the critical aspect of getting the big market teams to increase their share of TV contributions to a central fund for revenue sharing.
The Seidler’s and everyone else has a real in-house problem to deal with before they ever get to the negotiating table with the other side..
So instead of celebrating the Padres 6-free agent signings over the last two weeks, the AJ Preller extensio, or the Dodgers desire to ‘3-Peat’, we are dealing with statements like bloodbath-militancy-civil war and more.
Baseball looks like it’s in a crisis, the union’s house on fire, the owners’ solidarity filled with its own in-house cracks.
‘Play ball’ on the field. Yes starting this weekend.
‘Play ball’ you wish leadership on both street corners would do that.
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