Tony Clark salary almost doubled in 2023: MLBPA

Tony Clark, the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) , received almost $4.25 million in 2023, according to a union financial report that was made public on Monday.  

Clark's salary, which was $2.25 million in 2022, was made public following a union revolt in which lawyer Harry Marino tried to get players to back him in his bid to succeed Bruce Meyer as deputy executive director.  

Although Marino was unable to secure the support required to remove Meyer, sources told ESPN that he made great progress in getting player leadership to support his request for an internal audit of union finances.  

Clark's pay is comparable to that of his peers who have led significant sports unions. DeMaurice Smith, a former NFLPA executive director, earned $4.5 million in 2021 and $2.72 million in 2022. 

Former NBPA executive director Tamika Tremaglio received $3.1 million in her final year on the job. And NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh has a reported salary of $3 million after his predecessor, Donald Fehr, reportedly made $3.5 million a year. 

In his first full year as executive director of the union in 2014, Clark received a salary of $1,993,525, according to the MLBPA's LM-2, an annual filing that details union spending. The salary was nearly double that of his predecessor, Michael Weiner, who died of cancer in November 2013. 

From the 1990s onward, Weiner and the former executive director of the union, Fehr, set a $1 million salary cap.  

Revenues for the union have increased dramatically since Clark was appointed. The LM-2 states that the MLBPA received $64.7 million in total earnings in 2014. The amount was $191.8 million in the previous year. The four companies that made the most payments in 2023 were Topps ($49.6 million), Fanatics ($44 million), OneTeam Partners ($28.6 million), and Panini ($10.2 million), a manufacturer of trading cards. 

The LM-2 indicates that MLBPA spending on employee pay has gone up recently. Employee pay increased to $11.9 million in 2022, $15.4 million in 2022, and $16.6 million in the most recent year.  

Marino, who helped organize minor league players and eventually integrate them into the MLBPA, worked for the union for less than a year before leaving amid clashes with top union officials. In a one-page letter he distributed to players advocating for the need of new leadership at the MLBPA, Marino said he would "trim the waste and excess" of the union's spending, writing, "Our job is to make you rich, not the other way around." 

On a call two weeks ago that included members of the MLBPA's 68-player executive board, players went back and forth on a number of subjects, including Meyer's fitness for the job and the lack of communication from union officials. During discussions about the current leadership's fitness for the job, sources said, multiple player leaders said they were unaware that the union had given Clark a five-year contract extension in November 2022. 

Clark's deal followed a 99-day lockout by MLB of the players that bridged most of the 2021-22 offseason. A bountiful winter, in which players received $3.9 billion in guaranteed money, followed the first year of the new deal, but free agent spending lagged in some areas this offseason, prompting player leaders to question Clark and Meyer's stewardship. 

The contretemps died down about a week after Marino went to Clark and said he had significant player support to be installed as the new deputy executive director. While the full body of minor leaguers continued to back him, major league player support waned, and the MLBPA's executive subcommittee made up of eight elected players eventually disavowed the efforts after members of the group initially backed Marino. 

Still, multiple player representatives told ESPN they intend to call for an audit of the union's finances, with the hope for it to start in the near future.