Tony Clark‘s tenure as the head of the MLBPA didn’t just end with a resignation; it imploded amid accusations of nepotism and a family scandal that has the baseball world buzzing. An ongoing investigation into the MLBPA’s finances revealed alleged evidence of an inappropriate relationship between Clark and his sister-in-law.

Tony Clark stepped down from his position on February 17, 2026, after leading the association since 2017. The nature of his exit has put his entire leadership record under the microscope. Now, Clark is facing another round of backlash as Jeff Passan and Michael Kay dissected his leadership qualities, calling him a “lightweight” at the Michael Kay Show.

When Kay asked Passan whether he thinks the Tony Clark situation ahead of the CBA negotiations sets the MLBPA back, he spoke frankly about how, under Clark, nepotism made its way inside the union. However, Passan believes this will not have any lasting impact on the CBA talks scheduled on December 1, 2026.

“I would rather not have my executive director have an inappropriate relationship with his sister-in-law, whom he hired, flouting nepotism, standards, and other things. In the grand scheme of things, is this going to have any demonstrable effect in the collective bargaining talks? No, I don’t [think so].”

Stephen A Smith called Tony Clark’s alleged affair with his sister-in-law as taking “Sibling Rivalry” to the next level.

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Clark had reportedly given her a job at the MLBPA in 2023, bringing family inside the union in an official staffed role.

Michael Kay also pointed out major leadership flaws during Clark’s tenure, to which Passan agreed. The first CBA Tony Clark negotiated in 2017 was “bad” and a “win for the owners.” Reportedly, there was also disagreement around leadership inside the MLBPA.

Clark’s years as the executive director of the MLBPA, when put under scrutiny does not look stellar.

Passan bluntly put it as, “he wasn’t Marvin Miller, he wasn’t Donald Pier, he wasn’t Michael Weiner.”

Passan revealed that the MLBPA started a company to redeem youth baseball and spent millions of dollars on events no one went to.

“We (Passan and Don Vanada) wrote a story in October about a company called Players’ Way that the MLBPA started, and it was a youth baseball initiative.”

But now, the association is under federal investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).

Passan even made it very clear that Clark’s business strategy was not ideal either.

“So, you know if you’re a player, you can argue ‘hey, where’s our money going, why’s our money going towards these places?’ So, as a businessman, I don’t know how effective he was.”

With that, Passan highlighted how it was actually Bruce Meyer, the deputy director, who had been leading all the negotiation talks.

Now, after Clark’s resignation, the MLBPA had to immediately fill the executive director position. And none other than the fierce litigator Bruce Meyer was unanimously chosen as the interim executive director of MLBPA.

Bruce Meyer’s bigger MLBPA role

Bruce Meyer was already running the show.

According to MLB.com, Meyer got promoted as the interim executive director and Matt Nussbaum to interim deputy executive on Wednesday. Since his joining in 2018, the 64 YO veteren labor lawyer has not been in the MLB’s good books.

The MLB is in favor of a salary cap, but the players are vehemently against it. And reportedly, Meyer has been pushing back against the proposition and arguing in favor of the players.

Meyer led negotiations during the 2022 lockout that lasted 99 days and reached a five-year agreement in March. That collective bargaining agreement avoided what could have been the first loss of regular-season games since 1995.

Talking about the current situation, Meyers noted, “A lockout is all but guaranteed at the end of the agreement. The league has pretty much said that. Their strategy in bargaining has always been to put as much pressure on players as they can to try and create divisions and cracks among our membership. It never worked. I don’t think it will ever work.”

As for the Clark situation, Meyer admitted that, though the timing is not great, it is better to get issues out of the way sooner rather than later.