Clark vows to keep deliberations internal after failed attempt to oust baseball union negotiator

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Baseball players' association head Tony Clark vowed to keep the union's deliberations internal following a failed attempt in March to remove his chief labor negotiator.

Harry Marino, a former union lawyer who spearheaded the organization of minor leaguers, marshaled an attempt to get the union's executive board to oust deputy executive director Bruce Meyer, who led talks for the 2022 collective bargaining agreement. Clark issued a statement at the time from the eight-man executive subcommittee appearing to reject Marino's effort.

“All of those discussions ... are going to happen out of the limelight and in preparation for what is always the most important, which is the collective bargaining discussion that we’ll have when our expiration of our current agreement happens in 2026,” Clark said Tuesday.

Clark, a former All-Star first baseman who has headed the union since 2013, answered questions from the Baseball Writers' Association of America ahead of the All-Star Game.

“Our organization has been around since 1966. The idea that leadership hasn’t been challenged in the last 50 years is laughable.” Clark said. “What’s of interest now is that there are more headlines and people sensationalizing a lot of the challenges associated with what we do. I don’t lose any sleep on being challenged. I'm 6-7, 300-too much (pounds).”

“If someone wants to challenge us as a result of what they think happened, then challenge us," he said. "But I’ll live and die with our fraternity, our active, our former, the next generation, and not lose any sleep.”

Major League Baseball and the union agreed to a five-year contract in March 2022 following a 99-day lockout that caused the season to start a week late. The work stoppage was the sport's ninth, but first since the 1994-95 strike forced cancellation of the World Series. The current deal expires in December 2026.

An unprecedented eight teams paid luxury tax for 2023, led by the New York Mets at a record of nearly $101 million. But overall MLB spending this year is roughly flat overall at $5.7 billion to $5.8 billion, according to luxury tax payrolls.

While the Mets dropped their luxury tax payroll by about $40 million from a record $375 million, this season started with nine teams projected to go over the tax threshold: the Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, Yankees, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Houston, San Francisco, Texas and Toronto.

“We have more teams over the threshold than ever before, and that is a testament to not just the thresholds themselves being higher but also the rules associated with those thresholds as you do change levels,” Clark said. “Are teams going to treat it as a cap because they want to treat it as a cap? They may very well do that. And so it’s not going to be the taxes or the thresholds themselves perhaps that are the reason why the club may act a certain way. If they want the excuse to not add additional talent because they’re not as interested in being the last team standing, then they won’t go through the threshold.”

Players have in the past proposed that teams be able to trade draft picks. MLB has opposed the concept and that only ones that can be swapped are the competitive balance round selections. Among 14 of those this year, three were traded.

“Been a product of a balance between flexibility in terms of utilizing the resources available to you on the one hand and paternalism on the other,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said. “That is, I’m going to prevent you from doing X 'cause I think it might be stupid. I don’t think we have that many stupid clubs. We’ll see how it shakes out when we go through our bargaining. The clubs are really sophisticated now, and I do think that there’s a really good argument that allowing them to decide how to utilize their resources is economically efficient.”

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