MLBPA: Clark pay almost doubled to $4.25M in ’23

Main League Baseball Gamers Affiliation govt director Tony Clark acquired greater than $4.25 million in compensation in 2023, with a $3.25 million wage and $1 million bonus, almost doubling his complete the earlier yr, in line with a union monetary report launched Monday.

The revelation of Clark’s wage, which was $2.25 million in 2022, comes within the wake of an rebellion on the union by which legal professional Harry Marino attempted to garner support from players to replace the union’s deputy executive director, Bruce Meyer.

Whereas Marino could not rally the necessary backing to oust Meyer, his efforts calling for an inside audit on union funds gained important traction amongst participant management, sources instructed ESPN.

Clark’s wage is within the vary of his contemporaries who’ve run main sports activities unions. Former NFLPA govt director DeMaurice Smith made $4.5 million in 2021 and $2.72 million in 2022. Former NBPA govt director Tamika Tremaglio acquired $3.1 million in her remaining yr on the job. And NHLPA govt director Marty Walsh has a reported wage of $3 million after his predecessor, Donald Fehr, reportedly made $3.5 million per yr.

In his first full yr as govt director of the union in 2014, Clark acquired a wage of $1,993,525, in line with the MLBPA’s LM-2, an annual submitting that particulars union spending. The wage was almost double that of his predecessor, Michael Weiner, who died of most cancers in November 2013. Weiner and Fehr, the earlier union govt director, capped their salaries at $1 million going again to the Nineties. Clark is predicted to obtain slight will increase in his annual wage for the rest of his contract, which runs by way of 2027.

The union’s revenues have grown considerably since Clark’s appointment. In 2014, the MLBPA’s complete receipts had been $64.7 million, in line with the LM-2. Final yr, the quantity was $191.8 million. The most important funds from 2023 embrace $49.6 million from Topps, $44 million from Fanatics, $28.6 million from the group licensing agency OneTeam Companions and $10.2 million from trading-card producer Panini.

MLBPA spending on worker salaries has elevated in recent times, in line with the LM-2. In 2021, staff acquired $11.9 million, in 2022 it jumped to $15.4 million, and final yr it was $16.6 million.

Marino, who helped arrange minor league gamers and finally combine them into the MLBPA, labored for the union for lower than a yr earlier than leaving amid clashes with prime union officers. In a one-page letter he distributed to gamers advocating for the necessity of recent management on the MLBPA, Marino mentioned he would “trim the waste and extra” of the union’s spending, writing, “Our job is to make you wealthy, not the opposite manner round.”

On a name two weeks in the past that included members of the MLBPA’s 68-player govt board, gamers went forwards and backwards on various topics, together with Meyer’s health for the job and the dearth of communication from union officers. Throughout discussions concerning the present management’s health for the job, sources mentioned, a number of participant leaders mentioned they had been unaware that the union had given Clark a five-year contract extension in November 2022.

Clark’s deal adopted a 99-day lockout by MLB of the gamers who bridged a lot of the 2021-22 offseason. A bountiful winter, by which gamers acquired $3.9 billion in assured cash, adopted the primary yr of the brand new deal, however free agent spending lagged in some areas this offseason, prompting participant leaders to query Clark and Meyer’s stewardship.

The contretemps died down a couple of week after Marino instructed Clark he had important participant assist to be put in as the brand new deputy govt director. Whereas the complete physique of minor leaguers continued to again him, main league participant assist waned, and the MLBPA’s govt subcommittee — made up of eight elected gamers — finally disavowed the efforts after members of the group initially backed Marino.

Nonetheless, a number of participant representatives instructed ESPN they intend to name for an audit of the union’s funds, with the hope for it to begin within the close to future.