TAMPA, Fla. — Tony Clark intends to resign as head of the Major League Baseball Players Association, a person familiar with union's deliberations said Tuesday.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because his decision, first reported by ESPN, had not been announced. The person said an announcement was likely later Tuesday.
Clark's decision took place during an investigation by the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn, New York, into One Team Partners, a licensing company founded by the union, the NFL Players Association and RedBird Capital Partners in 2019.
The decision was made ahead of an expected start of collective bargaining in April for an agreement to replace the five-year labor contract that expires Dec. 1. Management appears on track to propose a salary cap, which possibly could lead to a work stoppage that causes regular-season games to be canceled for the first time since 1995.
The union on Monday canceled Tuesday's start of the staff's annual tour of the 30 spring training camps, which was to have begun with the Cleveland Guardians in the morning and and the Chicago White Sox in the afternoon.
Clark, 53, is a former All-Star first baseman who became the first player to head the union.
He played from 1995-2009, becoming a union leader shortly after going to his first executive board meeting in 1999.
Clark was hired as the union's director of player relations in 2010 and was promoted to deputy executive director in July 2013, when union head Michael Weiner's health declined because of a brain tumor. Weiner died that November and Clark was elevated to executive director, following Marvin Miller, Kenneth Moffett, Donald Fehr and Wiener as union head.
