This morning, ESPN’s Jeff Passan and Don Van Natta Jr. reported that Players Way, a company owned by the Major League Baseball Players Association, is under federal investigation. The MLBPA is already under investigation for its association with OneTeam Partners, which Passan and Van Natta reported on back in May.
Players Way is a youth baseball company founded in 2019. The Union purports to have spent $3.9MM on the venture, though Passan and Van Natta cite multiple sources who have pegged the figures closer to $10MM. “I don’t think any of us realized it cost as much as it did,” one anonymous player told ESPN.
An anonymous whistleblower complaint from November 2024 cited Players Way, which led to a criminal investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn. The complaint lodges multiple accusations against MLBPA executive director Tony Clark, including nepotism related to hiring decisions involving Players Way.
“Any suggestion that Players Way has not been supported by our elected Player representatives and broader membership is patently false,” Clark said in a statement to ESPN. “Players Way has been front and center at every annual meeting of the MLBPA Executive Board in recent memory, and our dialogue with Players regarding youth development continues throughout the calendar.”
Readers are encouraged to check out Passan and Van Natta’s full story on the investigation, which contains more info on Players Way and MLBPA’s connection to it. Details include the company headquarters being a mailbox at a UPS Store in Florida and a YouTube channel with one subscriber. Allegations against Clark include abuse of power and improper usage of the union’s resources.
OneTeam Partners is a joint venture between the MLBPA and the NFL Players Association, along with a private equity firm, focused on player-related issues outside the collective bargaining agreement. That investigation stemmed from an anonymous complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board that included accusations against Clark regarding “improperly (giving) himself and other executives equity” in OneTeam, according to the May report from ESPN, cited above.
Clark has led the MLBPA since 2013. He had previously been the organization’s director of player relations, beginning in 2010. Clark faced internal pressure to replace deputy director Bruce Meyer back in March of last year, a change that could’ve also resulted in his own departure. Clark and Meyer ultimately survived the attempted ousting.
The allegations surrounding the MLBPA come at a crucial time for the players and the league, with the current collective bargaining agreement set to expire in December 2026. The CBA and a potential lockout will be hot topics over the coming 13 months.
People with power and money doing crooked things….shocking.
Yep. Tony Clark is a MLB puppet who rips off the people who is supposed to be representing. The players union should be fighting to raise the floor for its lowest earning members like minor leaguers. MLB players better get rid of this crooked clown before the labor negotiations.
That’s why Jack Flaherty and others were removed from union positions for calling for Harry Marino to replace Bruce Meyer. Something this website conveniently left out.
Reminds me of the story about the two friends who go to a party at a billionaire’s home.. One says to the other, “This guy makes more in one week than you’ll make in your entire life” to which his friend replies, ” Yeah, but I’ve got something he’ll never have.. Enough.”
15 year big leaguer and still just as crooked as the slimiest politicians
Tony Clark’s translator is sweating bullets right now.
Rob manfred is going to get a translator so he doesn’t have to comment on any corruption he knows about
Manfred doesn’t represent the union.
Man for a bunch of “smart” guys they all did some stupid stuff. This will cost Clark his job.
Greed always overpowers intellect.
This situation just happened with the NFLPA’s prez, of course union bosses are linked to this stuff
Players getting paid off by gamblers, Clark getting equity in this venture… Most of them will be wealthy, and good for them, but why cheat? I know, greed knows no bounds.
Nothing in the report read as slam-dunk illegal—the real estate dealing referenced in passing seemed like the highest potential avenue for prosecution, but scant details were provided. It seems like a stretch, but I do wonder if MLB got some help from their political friends.
Bottom line, the current report offers no smoking gun—but that might not be necessary to oust Clark.
Fraud is illegal, yeah. If they raised money for this company under false pretenses of what it was going to do, that would be fraud,
That’s not really alleged in the article. It sounds like they just made bad hires and threw more money after it.
We’ll see how it shakes out. Didn’t sound like fraud to me. Nepotism and incompetence, yes.
I picture dollar bills with bad haircuts hanging around outside a 7/11 drinking from paper bags… money loitering.
“Money loitering” is a very different thing than money laundering.
“Money loitering” only lasts awhile when it’s just small sense, dollahs always get scooped up quickly
Sounds like someone is familiar with the champagne room.
My favorite anecdote from the piece is he paid his daughter $13k for 5 months of work. That’s unskilled temp wages! To his own daughter!
My next favorite thing to come out of this story is your reference to “money loitering.”
“Hey, you! Youse think you can loiter round here just cuz ya some kinda money or somethin? Get outta here.”
I am guessing he either was stupid and just thought he could get away with it, or he figured he would eventually get caught but would be able to weather the storm and be richer on the other side.
Tony Clark looks more like some sort of wizard every time I see a new picture of him.
He’s certainly a wizard with money! He’s got that Harry Potter money duplicating spell lol
How does Tony still have a job?
He has the support of the Boras clients in the players association.
Because he’s GRRRRRRRRREAT!
Run Clark out and then MLB Owner’s Association aka Manfred can argue for more oversight, help install his guy in there, and then boom salary cap and then the owners can sit there and rake in the money and tell the players too bad. Sounds like a nice plan for the bad guys
The government accusing people of nepotism? I had to laugh. 😂
That is indeed rich.
I guess I need to read up on this. Baseball reference shows him making over $22M in his MLB career. I mean it’s not Elon Musk money, but should provide a comfortable life, one where you wouldn’t need to sneak your way into creating more income. You should be able to volunteer for the rest of your life with that much banked.
Tell that to Rozier and Billups.
Feels like people lose sense of scale when they’re regularly making millions. The rich are constantly after more and more and more that they don’t even need 🤷♂️
A corrupt union representative?! Say it ain’t so!
And slimy too!
As Montgomery Burns once said when asked about his millions, “Ah, yes. But I would trade it all for a little more”.
Rendon makes over 200 million dollars a year for sitting on his couch and eating potato chips. Stephen Strastberg pitched around 30 innings and got 250 million dollars, complained his poor hand hurt, and now sits at home and does nothing. Jed Lowre sat out for 2 years for his contract with the Mets and got around 20 million. Why aren’t these dogs under federal investigation?
Let me take a wild guess. They didn’t do anything illegal.
200 million a year? That’s a lot.
Strasburg pitched his arm off for the team. His body just gave up after awhile and he earned his money through all the underpaid years he gave his team. He doesn’t belong in the same breath with Rendon.
Strasburg also isnt sitting at home doing nothing. He’s heavily involved as advisor/coach/fundraiser for SDSU baseball program
Rendon excluded, could be because they signed contracts and got injured. What is there to investigate, exactly? This may win the award for the most ridiculous comment of the day.
Prelude to the coming strike.
I am about at the point where I am starting to question the need for pro sports in this country at all. 90% of it is either involved with gambling or corruption and more money than anyone needs. If I sound cynical, it is because I am cynical. It’s just like politics, I am almost at the breaking point where I want nothing to do with it anymore..
Gambling has been involved in sports ever since the first ape got another to foot race him. It’s not going away. Same for politics.
Oh I know it is not new, but it is far more open now. Before it was behind the scenes and if you didn’t look for it, you could remain blissfully ignorant. That is not possible anymore.
After reading, it looks like he took a page from the homeless industrial complex playbook. The youth org looks like a kickback scheme. They also set up Players Inc. a for profit company to handle MLBPA marketing and other stuff. Players inc doesn’t have to publicly show their finances, so they can move around union money with little oversight.
I guess Tony Clark will have to forego his Weekly Kielbasa Delivery during this financial crisis!!
Tony Clark looks like he dipped his chin in bubble bath.
Fbi has been busy crackin down on sports!
Cant watch sports anymore
Cant trust anyone anymore
Sad
Ohtani Clark.
Follow The Money via a comprehensive audit by an independent auditor.
If Nepotism in Hiring were a crime, then every single ownership group could be arrested.
Hi, this is MLB, we’d like to anonymously report a potential issue with the MLBPA and their chief negotiator…
Of course. It’s on Clark for letting an opportunity exist. Experienced man v less experienced man. Players are even questioning why their money is being “wasted”.
Yup.
To be fair, they might be doing the MLBPA a favor by allowing them time to find a more competent union leader.
Unions leaders always find a way to screw their own members.
It’s more a symptom of unions than the leader’s themselves..
MLBPA will never be equal to MLB in negotiations with Clark as its leader. Should have been replaced years ago. I am not a fan of Manfred, who is? Clark simply has been over-matched as MLBPA leader.
MLBPeeA confirmed.
TIME TO CLOSE COMMENTS!
Reading through the posts here, plenty people, if not all who chime in about potential crimes, peg him guilty.
He hasn’t been charged with anything and considering that the Trump DOJ is on revenge tour/Trump vendetta, and career prosecutors are quiting or fired when asked to prosecute cases that lack sufficient evidence, it would behoove everyone here to wait for an accurate accounting of the facts including from Clark MLBPA and outside legal experts whether or not he gets indicted.
Sooner or later expect Trump to go after MLB on anti-trust grounds and maybe even foreign players. Expect a trashing really soon, perhaps as soon as tonight should the Dodgers lose and Canada’s Blue Jays win.