Washington DC – Major League Baseball Players Association
Mission: The MLBPA represents players on the 40-man Major League rosters, as well as approximately 5,500 Minor League players employed by the 30 Major League baseball teams. The MLBPA also oversees MLB Players Inc., which exclusively represents the group commercial and licensing activities involving active players.
Current Leadership of Union: The MLBPA Executive Board of Player Representatives is the governing body of the union. The Major League Executive Board is composed of 38 total representatives—one player representative from each of the 30 clubs, and an eight-member executive subcommittee elected by the 30 player representatives. Each of the 38 board members has equal voting authority.
Marcus Semien, Chris Bassitt, Jake Cronenworth, Paul Skenes, Brent Suter, Pete Fairbanks, Cedric Mullins and Tarik Skubal currently make up the eight-member executive subcommittee.
The Minor League Board is composed of 34 total representatives and a four-member executive subcommittee. Adam Stone, Ryan Long, Eli Trop and Florencio Serrano currently make up the four-member executive subcommittee.
Tony Clark is the first former player to serve as the union’s executive director, overseeing all aspects of the union’s operations, including contract administration, grievance arbitration, and pension and health care matters.
Current Number of Members: 6,700
Members Work As: Professional baseball players
Industries Represented: Professional baseball
History: In opposition to baseball’s reserve clause, which bound players to their respective clubs, and a growing movement to cap players’ salaries, John Montgomery Ward and eight other players in 1885 formed the first players union in baseball—the Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players. Other attempts to organize players included the creation of the Players’ Protective Association in 1900, the Fraternity of Professional Baseball Players of America in 1912 and the American Baseball Guild in 1946. None of those efforts proved sufficient in bringing an end to the reserve clause.
Players regrouped in 1965 and sought outside expertise to help their cause. Their search led them to Marvin Miller, a highly respected economist for the United Steelworkers (USW) who immediately began to mold the players into a bona fide labor union. His first steps were to shore up the union’s finances by beginning a group licensing program and educating the players about the fundamentals of organizing and solidarity.
In 1968, Miller helped players negotiate the first collective bargaining agreement in professional sports. The agreement raised the minimum salary in baseball from $6,000—the level at which it had been stuck for two decades—to $10,000. In 1970, Miller helped players negotiate the right to arbitration to resolve grievances, which paved the way for future gains.
The successful founding of the MLBPA changed the landscape of professional sports forever, serving notice that highly skilled athletes would seek the same basic employment rights that people in other professions had long taken for granted. Miller served as the MLBPA’s executive director from 1966 through 1983, and during his tenure, base salaries, pension funds, licensing rights and revenues were brought to new levels.
In December 1975, the players won the right to free agency, when arbitrator Peter Seitz ruled the reserve clause granted a team only one additional year of service from a player, putting an end to perpetual renewal rights the clubs had claimed for so long.
In 1977, Miller hired Don Fehr to join the association as general counsel. Fehr served in this capacity until 1986, when the players named him executive director. Fehr continued Miller’s legacy of keeping players united by keeping them informed, listening and developing a strong consensus on issues important to them as a group. Fehr led the players during a period of unprecedented growth, in which industry revenues climbed to $6.5 billion, while players’ salaries went from an average of $413,000 in 1986 to nearly $3 million when he retired from the position in 2009.
After work stoppages in each of the eight rounds of bargaining between 1972 through 1995, the next round of bargaining, in 2002, brought a contract without a strike or lockout, as did the agreement reached in 2006. That was Fehr’s final contract negotiation as executive director, and it ensured 16 years of labor peace in baseball.
Fehr also played an important part in spreading the popularity of baseball beyond North America, including efforts to help create and develop the World Baseball Classic, the sport’s first World Cup-style international tournament featuring active Major Leaguers.
Fehr retired in December 2009, and the players named Michael Weiner, a longtime counsel with the MLBPA, as their new executive director. Weiner negotiated his first agreement as executive director in 2011, steering an unprecedented level of player involvement to reach perhaps the most comprehensive agreement in the union’s history. He helped negotiate a deal that addressed, among many issues, league realignment, expansion of post-season play, numerous health and safety issues, and benefit plan increases for current and former players, among others. Weiner died in November 2013 after a 15-month battle with brain cancer. He was only 51, but he left on the baseball community a lasting impression of his warmth, compassion, sense of fairness and fierce intellect.
In December 2013, the Executive Board voted unanimously to appoint Tony Clark as the union’s next executive director. Clark had worked alongside Weiner, who indicated his wish for Clark to succeed him. Following a 15-year playing career, Clark joined the MLBPA as director of player relations in March 2010, leading the union’s efforts to expand and improve the areas of membership communications and education.
After attending his first Executive Board meeting in 1999, Clark became active in union affairs. He became a player rep and during his final seven seasons served as an association representative, the union’s most senior leadership position. As a player, Clark was actively involved in collective bargaining in 2002 and 2006, as well as in negotiations over the joint drug agreement.
Clark retired from his playing career in 2009, after spending 15 seasons with the Detroit Tigers, Arizona Diamondbacks, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and San Diego Padres as a switch-hitting first baseman and designated hitter. He was named deputy executive director in July 2013, and became executive director in December 2013.
In the early years of his tenure as executive director, Clark sought to broaden the Players Association’s services to future and former players, and modernize its business operations. He unified players in their efforts to return to the field following the pandemic in 2020, and guided Major League players through a 99-day lockout to achieve a fair contract in March 2022. Later that year, he led a drive to unionize approximately 5,500 Minor League players and led the MLBPA to affiliate with the AFL-CIO, amplifying the voice and influence of baseball players within the broader labor movement. He was appointed president of the World Players Association in June 2023.
