Sources: Frustrated players want MLBPA exec out
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Jeff Passan, ESPN
Player leaders expressed frustration at Major League Baseball Players Association executives during a videoconference call Monday night, the culmination of a week in which players advocated for the ouster of the union’s chief labor negotiator, sources told ESPN.
On a call with dozens of player representatives from the major and minor league units of the union that lasted nearly three hours, a majority of players in an informal vote told MLBPA executive director Tony Clark they wanted to replace deputy executive director Bruce Meyer with Harry Marino, the lawyer who spearheaded the unionization efforts of minor league players, sources said.
Clark, who has the ability to hire and fire staff members, declined to levy a judgment on Meyer’s future during the call, according to sources.
Clark, Meyer and Marino declined comment when reached by ESPN.
Clark did follow up with all players Tuesday, noting in a memo obtained by ESPN that the call was done to “ensure that there is complete transparency” regarding player concerns and noting that in the coming days, the union and player leadership will reconvene to continue to “work through how best to move our organization and Player fraternity forward.”
The move by players came amid an offseason that has seen a billion-dollar decrease in spending by major league teams and the extended free agency of World Series standout Jordan Montgomery and reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, the latter of whom agreed to a two-year, $62 million contract with the San Francisco Giants on Monday.
Over the previous 24 hours, 21 major league player representatives, after consulting with the rank and file, agreed on a text chain, sources said, to back the appointment of Marino, who joined the MLBPA in September 2022 when it formed a minor league unit recognized by MLB. Marino, who was hired as an assistant general counsel at the union, left in July 2023, less than three months after negotiating the first collective bargaining agreement for minor league players, who on the call were overwhelming in their support of him and who hold 34 of the 72 voting positions on the union’s executive board.
Marino, 33, had generated support among players to take over the union’s labor unit — which he pledged to expand with veteran lawyers — in recent weeks. Players, sources said, lined up behind Marino, also calling for an audit of the MLBPA’s spending. Multiple high-powered agents backed Marino’s candidacy, sources said, with the perception that Meyer, 62, was ideologically aligned with agent Scott Boras.
On the call, players told ESPN, Meyer vociferously denied that being the case and advocated for his work since being hired in 2018. The discussion about Meyer’s future, players on the call said, was animated and at times argumentative — and the lack of a resolution frustrated some who had backed Marino. Late in the call, sources said, players requested that Marino be looped in to make his case as deputy executive director. Clark did not accede to the request, sources said.
The potential appointment of Marino was not supported by all the players on the call, sources said. Some questioned his age and installing someone with a relative lack of experience in a high-ranking position to negotiate with a veteran labor team at MLB. The case against Marino had circulated among a small group of player leaders leading up to the call, which Clark called for about two hours before it took place, sources said.
Meyer oversaw the stalled return-to-play negotiations during the height of the pandemic in 2020, prompting commissioner Rob Manfred to implement a 60-game season. Meyer routinely clashed with the league during its 99-day lockout of the players after the expiration of the 2016 CBA. Against the advice of the eight-player executive council that serves as the highest-ranking members of the union, the rank and file voted to agree to a deal in March 2022 that included an increase in luxury tax thresholds and minimum salaries, added a draft lottery and other anti-tanking measures, implemented a $50 million pre-arbitration bonus pool, expanded the playoffs from 10 to 12 teams and gave MLB the right to change on-field rules.
After lavishing a record $3.9 billion on free agents in the winter of 2022-23, MLB teams pulled back this offseason as questions about the future of local television rights roiled the industry. More than one-third of the $2.9 billion in free agent spending this winter went to two players: a record $700 million for Shohei Ohtani — $680 million of which is deferred for a decade — and $325 million for Yoshinobu Yamamoto, both with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Two historical financial behemoths, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, committed less than $50 million to free agents. Eight teams — the Oakland Athletics, Baltimore Orioles, Washington Nationals, Tampa Bay Rays, Minnesota Twins, Miami Marlins, Cleveland Guardians and Colorado Rockies — guaranteed less than $15 million.
Disillusionment among players, sources said, burbled in recent days after the Giants released veteran infielder J.D. Davis, who had beaten the team in an arbitration hearing for a $6.9 million salary. Because salaries won in arbitration cases are not guaranteed — a long-standing rule that was not changed in the most recent labor negotiations — the Giants were required to pay Davis only one-sixth of his salary ($1.15 million). He signed a one-year deal with Oakland for an additional $2.5 million.
The cases of standout left-handed starting pitchers Snell and Montgomery as well as the below-expected salaries of other veteran free agents further irritated players, they said, and prompted disillusionment.
“Guys are just trying to figure out what we’re going to do with the next CBA,” Detroit Tigers pitcher and MLBPA executive board member Jack Flaherty told reporters Tuesday. “How are we going to make improvements?
“Things are just not working out (with free agency) as well as they had the first two years. Guys are trying to figure out how to get ready for the next one.”
The MLBPA had hired Meyer, who had served as a lawyer for the other three major men’s professional sports unions, as its senior director of collective bargaining in September 2018, following a slowly developing free agent market during the 2017-18 offseason. The five-year labor deal struck between the league and the union in November 2016 was widely seen as a win for MLB, pressuring Clark to create the position.
The union promoted Meyer to deputy executive director in July 2022, strengthening his position as second-in-command to Clark, the All-Star first baseman who became the first former major league player to lead the union. Clark, 51, joined the MLBPA in 2010 and in 2013 was voted as the union’s sixth executive director after the death of Michael Weiner. The MLBPA gave Clark a five-year contract extension in November 2022.
Marino, a former minor league player in the Orioles and Arizona Diamondbacks organizations, grew to prominence as the executive director of Advocates for Minor Leagues, the group that leveraged the collective force of minor league players to secure improvements in housing before coalescing into a union. In the minor league collective bargaining agreement — negotiated by a group that included Marino and Meyer — players at all domestic levels received pay increases of at least $15,000 a year and codified an array of other benefits not previously offered by teams.
The deal came in the wake of MLB’s $185 million payout to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by minor league players who alleged the league had committed minimum wage violations.
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Alden Gonzalez
LOS ANGELES — Aside from his ability to pitch and hit and stretch the boundaries of imagination, Shohei Ohtani has displayed another singular trait in his time in the major leagues: an ability to meet the moment. Or, perhaps, for the moment to meet him.
And so on Wednesday night, with his Los Angeles Dodgers looking to stay unbeaten, the score tied in the bottom of the ninth, and more than 50,000 fans standing and clenching the Ohtani bobbleheads they lined up hours in advance for, Ohtani approached the batter’s box — and his teammates expected greatness.
“He’s going to end this right here,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said he thought to himself.
“We knew,” starting pitcher Blake Snell said. “It’s just what he does.”
Validation came instantly. Ohtani stayed back on a first-pitch changeup from Raisel Iglesias near the outside corner and shot it toward straightaway center field, 399 feet away, for a walk-off home run, sending the Dodgers to a 6-5, come-from-behind victory over the reeling Atlanta Braves.
“I don’t think anybody didn’t expect him to hit a walk-off home run there,” Dodgers utility man Tommy Edman said. “It’s just a question of where he’d hit it.”
The Dodgers are now 8-0, topping the 1933 New York Yankees of Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth for the longest winning streak to begin a season for a reigning champion. The Braves, meanwhile, are 0-7, the type of record no team has ever recovered from to make the playoffs. And Ohtani, with three home runs and a 1.126 OPS this season, just keeps meeting moments.
“He’s pretty good, huh?” Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernandez said. “It’s Shohei. He’s going to do that. He’s going to do things better than that.”
On Aug. 23 last year, Ohtani reached the 40/40 club with a walk-off grand slam. Five days later, the Dodgers staged a second giveaway of his bobblehead — one that saw his now-famous dog, Decoy, handle the ceremonial first pitch — and Ohtani led off with a home run. On Sept. 19, Ohtani clinched his first postseason berth and ascended into the unprecedented 50/50 club with one of the greatest single-game performances in baseball history — six hits, three homers, two steals and 10 RBIs. Barely two weeks later, he homered in his first playoff game.
When Ohtani came up on Wednesday, he had what he described as a simple approach.
“I was looking for a really good pitch to hit,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “If I didn’t get a good pitch to hit, I was willing to walk.”
Of course, though, he got a good pitch.
And, of course, he sent it out.
“You just feel that he’s going to do something special,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “And I just like the way he’s not pressing. He’s in the strike zone, and when he does that, there’s just no one better.”
The Dodgers began their much-anticipated season with a couple of breezy wins over the Chicago Cubs from Japan, even though Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman did not play in them. They returned home, brought iconic rapper Ice Cube out to present the World Series trophy on one afternoon, received their rings on another and swept a three-game series against the Detroit Tigers. Then came the Braves, and the Dodgers swept them, too — even though Freeman, nursing an ankle injury caused from slipping in the shower, didn’t participate.
The Dodgers already have two walk-offs and six comeback wins this season.
Wednesday’s effort left Roberts “a little dumbfounded.”
A nightmarish start defensively, highlighted by two errant throws from Muncy, spoiled Snell’s start and put them behind 5-0 after the first inning and a half. But the Dodgers kept inching closer. They trailed by just two in the eighth and put runners on second and third with two out. Muncy came to bat with his batting average at just .083. He had used the ballyhooed “Torpedo” bat for his first three plate appearances, didn’t like how it altered his swing plane, grabbed his usual bat for a showdown against Iglesias and laced a game-tying double into the right-center-field gap.
An inning later, Ohtani ended it.
“Overall, not just tonight, there is a really good vibe within the team,” Ohtani said after recording his fourth career walk-off hit. “I just think that’s allowing us to come back in these games to win.”
The Dodgers’ 8-0 start has allowed them to stay just ahead of the 7-0 San Diego Padres and the 5-1 San Francisco Giants in the National League West. Tack on the Arizona Diamondbacks (4-2) and the Colorado Rockies (1-4), and this marks the first time in the divisional era that an entire division has combined for at least 25 wins and no more than seven losses, according to ESPN Research. The Dodgers’ and Padres’ starts mark just the fifth season in major league history with multiple teams starting 7-0 or better, and the first time since 2003.
The Dodgers famously overcame a 2-1 series deficit to vanquish the Padres in the NL Division Series last year, then rode that fight to their first full-season championship since 1988.
That fight hasn’t let up.
“It feels like this clubhouse is carrying a little bit of the attitude we had last year that we’re never out of a game and we’re resilient, and we’ve been carrying it into this season,” Muncy said. “It’s been fun to watch. The guys don’t give up. Bad things have happened, and no one’s really been down or out on themselves. Everyone’s just, ‘All right, here we go, next inning, let’s get after it.’ The whole team, top to bottom, has been doing that. It’s been making it really, really fun to play.”
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