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Jeff PassanApr 1, 2026, 10:54 AM<\/p>\n
Close<\/a>ESPN MLB insider Multiple Authors<\/p>\n The Major League Baseball Players Association has shut down Players Way, the youth-baseball initiative currently being looked into by federal investigators as part of a wide-ranging probe into the union’s finances, sources told ESPN on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Founded by former MLBPA executive director Tony Clark, Players Way sought to provide clinics, camps and showcases to amateur baseball players. Scant attendance and high salaries for a number of employees and contractors, however, placed the organization in the crosshairs of the federal probe currently being conducted by the Eastern District of New York.<\/p>\n The investigation into Players Way, first reported by ESPN in October, came in the wake of a whistleblower complaint that accused Clark of self-dealing, misuse of union resources, abuse of power and nepotism. Clark resigned in February after an internal union investigation revealed an inappropriate relationship with his sister-in-law, who is an employee at the union.<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks 1 Related<\/p>\n While the MLBPA told ESPN it invested around $3.9 million into Players Way, two sources with knowledge of the union’s finances who had spoken with investigators told ESPN the number was closer to $10 million. One former senior union official called Players Way’s finances a “black box.”<\/p>\n The union nevertheless has built up a sizable war chest in preparation of a potential lockout upon the expiration of the current collective-bargaining agreement Dec. 1. Among United States treasuries, investments and cash, the union has more than $400 million in liquid reserves, according to its latest LM-2 report, which unions must file annually with the government.<\/p>\n The LM-2 mentioned Players Way on the second to last of its 209 pages, saying: “Players Way LLC was focused on youth sports initiatives.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeff PassanApr 1, 2026, 10:54 AM CloseESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-577405","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577405","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=577405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Author of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports”<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/r1058461_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&w=130&h=130&scale=crop&location=center.jpeg\")
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