The Big Lead

MLB players 'don't have a strong opinion' about Tony Clark, per report

By J.P. Hoornstra

Major League Baseball Players Association executive director Tony Clark arrives for contract negotiations at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Florida on Feb. 23, 2022.
Major League Baseball Players Association executive director Tony Clark arrives for contract negotiations at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Florida on Feb. 23, 2022. / GREG LOVETT/THE PALM BEACH POST / USA TODAY NETWORK
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August is generally an infertile time for stories about labor relations in Major League Baseball. The players are playing. The businessmen — team owners, league executives, and their assorted minions — are watching ratings in-between watching the games themselves. With 30 teams playing 162 games plus a postseason, the churning of baseball's economic engine offers little time for reflection.

ESPN's Jeff Passan touched on this in his most recent guest spot with Puck's John Ourand on The Varsity podcast.

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In noting the churn, however, Passan hinted at something far less than a full-throated endorsement for the head of the MLB Players' Association, Tony Clark, among his constituents.

"I'm not going to say there's a lot of support for Tony Clark," Passan said. "I'm also not going to say there's a lot of pushback against Tony Clark. I think players right now are stuck in that middle area where, because they don't know exactly what's going on, and because it's the middle of the season and they don't really have the inclination to go and find out, and because they're not getting some of the answers that they would like, I think they just don't have a strong opinion one way or the other right now."

Ambivalence rarely constitutes news, but it's at least noteworthy at a time when commissioner Rob Manfred is meeting with teams individually ahead of a Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiation that could prove contentious. Players on the Philadelphia Phillies — notably star Bryce Harper — pushed back when Manfred visited their clubhouse in July.

MLB's current CBA expires Dec. 1, 2026. Many in the industry are bracing for a lockout. Since team owners rarely give interviews, it's impossible to take the temperature of support for Manfred within his constituency.

But anything less than full support for the head of the players' union among players could signal a relatively weak position. Or not. It might just be that the season itself is too heavy a mental lift for the players to give an honest assessment of their tenured leader. File this under "developments to watch."

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