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One agent described Meyer as a \u201cstabilizing choice\u201d to lead the union. MLBPA’s Bruce Meyer at MLB All-Star Game batting practice <\/p>\nBruce Meyer always knew he wanted to be a trial attorney.<\/p>\n
\u201cI liked the idea of being an advocate, and thought I might be good at it,\u201d Meyer said.<\/p>\n
But no matter the complexities of any court case, convincing a judge and jury figures to be easier than holding together a diverse membership of 1,200-plus Major League Baseball players that features highly paid superstars, those making the league minimum, rookies and everything in between, heading into what is expected to be a contentious labor fight with the league.<\/p>\n
With a likely lockout and salary-cap battle ahead, the Major League Baseball Players Association believes Meyer, its new interim executive director, is the best choice to emphasize solidarity and preserve the sport\u2019s free-market system at a time when the owners want to overhaul it. The collective bargaining agreement is set to expire in December.<\/p>\n
\u201cBruce is going to continue to do exactly what he was hired to do, which is to be a zealous advocate for the guys at the bargaining table,\u201d said Matt Nussbaum, the union\u2019s interim deputy executive director.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s absolutely the right guy for that job.\u201d<\/p>\n
After serving largely as outside counsel for the NBPA, NFLPA and NHLPA, along with his eight years as chief labor negotiator with the MLBPA, the 64-year-old Meyer now has the final word with arguably the most powerful union in North American professional sports.<\/p>\n
That unique experience of having worked with the economic conditions in the three other major sports also puts him in position to better understand baseball\u2019s place as the only one without a salary cap.<\/p>\n
A combination of tenaciousness and institutional knowledge of pressing labor issues made him the unanimous choice to succeed Tony Clark, who resigned in February.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think our guys like him and feel that he\u2019s going to hold the line,\u201d one agent told Sports Business Journal. \u201cHe was the most stabilizing choice, and I think he talks the talk on the salary cap.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c[Former MLBPA head] Marvin Miller famously said to the players when he was hired, \u2018If you hear the other side likes me, you should fire me.\u2019 This is ultimately an adversarial relationship in the labor process. Having said that, we\u2019re always looking to make a deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 \u00a0Bruce Meyer, MLBPA interim executive director<\/p>\n
Along the way, Meyer has earned a reputation as a relentless and tough-minded litigator. His blunt personality and hardline tactics have rankled not only the opposition, which is to be expected, but also some agents and players, who tried to have him removed in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m an advocate for players and a fierce believer in their rights, the value that they bring and the fact they should be rewarded for that,\u201d Meyer said. \u201c[Former MLBPA head] Marvin Miller famously said to the players when he was hired, \u2018If you hear the other side likes me, you should fire me.\u2019 This is ultimately an adversarial relationship in the labor process. Having said that, we\u2019re always looking to make a deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Learning from the best<\/p>\n
Despite growing up as a New York Mets fan on Long Island and being enamored with Tom Seaver and the 1969 Amazin\u2019 Mets, Meyer never aspired to a career working on labor issues or a sports law practice.<\/p>\n
After majoring in English at the University of Pennsylvania, he obtained his law degree from the Boston University School of Law and went on to work at Weil, Gotshal & Manges in 1986, handling myriad cases from intellectual property to corporate disputes and bankruptcy.<\/p>\n
One agent described Meyer as a \u201cstabilizing choice\u201d to lead the union. MLBPA’s Bruce Meyer at MLB All-Star Game batting practice <\/p>\n
Almost from the start, Meyer fell into consistently working on antitrust cases on behalf of sports unions for mentor Jim Quinn, and a passion developed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was obvious right away that he was very bright and had a good sense of humor,\u201d Quinn said. \u201cI know sometimes people can look at Bruce now and he can appear somewhat dour from time to time, but he can be one of the funniest people in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n
Quinn believes Meyer\u2019s personality will serve him well, given all that rests on his shoulders. Meyer, an avid guitar player, has three daughters with his wife, Jacqueline.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, there\u2019s a lot of pressure on Bruce, let\u2019s face it,\u201d Quinn said. \u201cBecause the last time, really, that the baseball owners tried to shove a cap down the baseball players was back in 1994-95, and that didn\u2019t work. And I don\u2019t think it\u2019ll work again.\u201d<\/p>\n
For 30 years, Meyer worked at Weil, aiding Quinn and fellow mentor Jeffrey Kessler with landmark cases that changed the structure of free agency in the NFL (McNeil v. NFL in 1992) and NBA (Bridgeman v. NBA in 1987) before rising to partner and earning his place at the bargaining table through strikes, lockouts and lawsuits. <\/p>\n
\u201cThose two guys [Quinn and Kessler] really taught me everything I know and nurtured me,\u201d said Meyer, who also noted that former NBPA head Larry Fleisher, late NFLPA head Gene Upshaw and fellow MLBPA head Donald Fehr all had a significant impact on his career.<\/p>\n
Meyer left Weil to work for the NHLPA under Fehr for two years before shifting to baseball\u2019s union in 2018, his nearly eight-year tenure highlighted in 2022 by minor leaguers unionizing for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a very smart, very well-experienced guy,\u201d said Fehr, who worked with Meyer in 2017-18 but declined to go into any specifics about their work together. \u201cAnd my guess is that in the end those qualities, plus the fact that they know him, caused players to move in this direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
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In July 2023, Meyer joined striking members of the Writers Guild of America picketing in front of CBS Broadcast Center. MLBPA’s Bruce Meyer Overcoming challenges<\/p>\n
After the 2016 negotiations, players were left unsatisfied and in need of more pushback, prompting the hiring of Meyer to the newly created position of senior director of collective bargaining and legal. He was named deputy executive director in 2022.<\/p>\n
During the 2020 COVID-19 negotiations, former San Diego Padres executive chairman Ron Fowler said of his frustration with a negotiating standstill with Meyer: \u201cWe often thought we were negotiating with ourselves, and that\u2019s not a good thing to do.\u201d It was the kind of comment that a fierce adversary like Meyer could wear as a badge of honor.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, two years after the 2022 negotiations, a group of frustrated players, led by Jack Flaherty, Lucas Giolito and Ian Happ, attempted to replace Meyer with former MLBPA lawyer Harry Marino amid grumblings that agent Scott Boras exerted too much influence on union matters. Meyer has denied claims that he was a mouthpiece for Boras. Flaherty, Giolito and Happ were ultimately voted off the executive subcommittee after the failed coup. <\/p>\n
While Boras represented five players on the eight-member executive subcommittee during those talks, he represents two now in Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal and New York Mets second baseman Marcus Semien. While influential, the group is only part of the process, as the union\u2019s executive board is made up of the executive committee, 30 team player reps and 34 minor leaguers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile Tony was an important member, dealing with operations and communicating with players, the bargaining work was being done by labor lawyers that are in place through the union. That process has been prepared for and will continue as they go through this,\u201d Boras said. \u201cI think the players knew clearly that the best step forward for them was to continue with the most experienced bargaining counsel, and they elected Bruce.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet even after securing gains in the last round of bargaining in 2022, including a pre-arbitration bonus pool, increases in minimum salaries and luxury tax thresholds, provisions to address service time manipulation and a draft lottery to help reduce tanking, Meyer wasn\u2019t satisfied with how things ended. The executive subcommittee voted 8-0 against MLB\u2019s final take-it-or-leave-it offer, but was outvoted 26-4 by the rank and file to end a 99-day lockout and avoid missing games for the first time since 1995.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome players emerged from bargaining disappointed that we did not accomplish more and in particular that we did not miss games to see if more [gains] could be made,\u201d Meyer wrote in a letter to players defending his record. \u201cTo be clear, I sympathized and still do with these players and this position.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s why some around the league privately wonder whether Meyer will desire to make a deal this time around. For all his flaws, Clark had the respect of the players and could command a room of big personalities as a former MLB first baseman.<\/p>\n
It remains to be seen whether Meyer can follow suit, though he will have plenty of help in the form of ex-big leaguers Andrew Miller (special assistant) and Kevin Slowey (managing director of player services).<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t stand in front of guys and say I know what it\u2019s like to be in your shoes or wear your cleats, but we have people on staff who do have that experience,\u201d Meyer said. \u201cAnd I think ultimately my primary job is to focus on collective bargaining, and I\u2019m well-suited to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since his election, Meyer has led the MLBPA\u2019s annual spring tour, meeting with players at their team facilities in Arizona and Florida, answering questions and offering reassurance. He\u2019s also served as the union\u2019s public face, giving more on-the-record interviews than he previously has. \u201cI\u2019m happy to do it if our communications professionals think it\u2019s in the best interest of players,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Meyer\u2019s top deputies also represent consistency from the previous regime. Nussbaum will move up into the No. 2 role on an interim basis and handle more of the day-to-day operations, with Jeff Perconte being promoted to replace Nussbaum as general counsel.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe players really placed a premium on continuity in making sure that our bargaining team and all the work that they\u2019ve done remains in place and ready to go at the start of bargaining on schedule, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do,\u201d Nussbaum said.<\/p>\n
During the offseason, Meyer also helped Skubal secure a $32 million arbitration award. While Meyer didn\u2019t want to overemphasize his involvement, and Boras noted that former union COO Gene Orza had appeared at hearings in the past, Meyer\u2019s minor role in certifying Boras\u2019 arguments from the union\u2019s perspective made a particularly strong impression.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor him to come in and speak personally, that experience, he\u2019s earned my respect for life with what he said and how he conveyed it,\u201d Skubal told reporters at spring training. \u201cI know he\u2019s going to be great for us in the union.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the implications of Skubal defeating the Tigers, which had countered at $19 million, are far-reaching given the tenuous stakes to come, Meyer showing up to present the rebuttal engendered loyalty and is another vote for the importance of continuity.<\/p>\n
Take it or leave it?<\/p>\n
A handful of industry sources polled by SBJ believe little will change on the bargaining front in Clark\u2019s absence. As former Miami Marlins president David Samson pointed out, Meyer has been at the bargaining table with Clark in the background, just as MLB chief labor negotiator Dan Halem has MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred in the background. However, it was Clark and Manfred in the end.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow it\u2019s Bruce at the table and Bruce at the end. So that\u2019s a subtle difference from before,\u201d said Samson, who was with the Marlins from 2002-17. \u201cBut in terms of how the negotiation plays out, I really don\u2019t think it changes with Bruce as the interim versus him as the deputy.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The players union under Meyer believes economic reform can be achieved without a salary cap. MLBPA’s Bruce Meyer on field with Team Mexico <\/p>\n
The next round of bargaining will determine not only how much players earn, but also how the sport\u2019s economic system, from revenue sharing to payroll limits, evolves. As revenue disparities grow amid the decline of regional sports networks, owners are expected to seek a hard salary cap and floor system, which they contend would bring a combination of cost certainty and competitive balance, while increasing franchise values.<\/p>\n
Meyer\u2019s union insists economic reform can be achieved without a cap, though he declined to get into specifics. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been willing to work with the league in at least one respect recently, when we agreed to allow them some flexibility over the luxury tax proceeds,\u201d Meyer said. \u201cAnd I think in bargaining, we\u2019re going to make some proposals that involve revenue sharing; some of those proposals are going to help some of the teams that are being challenged. They already get tremendous financial support from traditional revenue sharing and luxury tax proceeds and other sources, but we\u2019re going to have proposals that sort of address all those areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next round of bargaining will determine not only how much players earn, but also how the sport\u2019s economic system, from revenue sharing to payroll limits, evolves.<\/p>\n
Manfred takes pride in the fact that MLB has never missed a game during his tenure, and he says he doesn\u2019t intend for that to change this time around. However, at least one agent wondered whether breaking the union and achieving the cap would be better for his legacy.<\/p>\n
Time will tell if the league delivers yet another take-it-or-leave-it offer, this time including a cap, and whether the players would be willing to miss paychecks and hold out.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not trying to bring about a solution where we miss games,\u201d Meyer said. \u201cBut the reality is everything that players have now comes because some prior generation of players was willing to miss games if necessary, if that\u2019s what it takes.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bruce Meyer always knew he wanted to be a trial attorney. \u201cI liked the idea of being an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-559975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}