https://theathletic.com/5352704/2024/03/18/mlbpa-unrest-players-bruce-meyer/?source=user_shared_article
There’s a growing mutiny inside the Major League Baseball Players Association. Major- and minor-league player leadership confronted executive director Tony Clark on Monday evening, urging him to replace his second-in-command, deputy director Bruce Meyer, with a former MLBPA lawyer, Harry Marino, people briefed on the call who were not authorized to speak publicly said. An informal vote was held on the call, but no formal action was taken.
The long and sometimes heated call included some of the 72 player representatives from across both the majors and minors. The call did not end with a clear resolution, however. Clark called the meeting after a text chain among player reps doubting Meyer circulated, a person briefed on the meeting said.
Meyer was on the call Monday as well, Marino was not, despite multiple players’ requesting the latter’s presence. Meyer and Marino had a strained relationship when they worked together at the MLBPA on the minor-league collective bargaining agreement last year. Meyer on the call accused Marino of coming for his job, a person briefed on the call said.
Many players and agents have long grumbled about union leadership, suspecting that agent Scott Boras has outsized influence, which Boras and union leadership have always denied. But player agents have maintained those complaints for years, particularly in regard to the fortunes of baseball’s middle class.
“It’s absurd,” Meyer said in 2021 of the Boras allegations. “The players run the union. Scott’s obviously an important agent to the extent he represents a lot of players, and we talk to Scott just like we talk to any agent who wants to talk to us.
iow boras has too much influence on the unionMarino was approached by major-league players and agents who were frustrated with the direction of the MLBPA. Some players want more money directed toward the union’s bargaining team.
Free agency has been a struggle this winter for players outside the cream of the crop, including for Boras clients. Teams other than the Dodgers have spent less than $2 billion combined so far, after clubs spent $3.9 billion a year ago, per Spotrac. With the Dodgers included, club spending is around $2.8 billion this winter — or closer to $2.5 billion when Shohei Ohtani’s contract is adjusted to present value.
Meyer joined the MLBPA in 2018 and was charged with toughening up the group for the 2021-22 negotiations after the union fared poorly in collective bargaining in the previous two deals, and his arrival might have saved Clark’s job. The major-league CBA, at least until this winter, had seemed to be bringing positive returns. Clark, Meyer and the players appeared to make significant gains during the 2021-22 lockout.
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