The eight-player executive subcommittee of the Major League Baseball Players Association asked executive director Tony Clark to resign after an internal inquiry revealed Clark had engaged in an inappropriate relationship with an employee, according to people briefed on the decision who were not authorized to speak publicly.

The union spent Tuesday scrambling to determine new leadership while heading into what is expected to be a lengthy labor dispute this winter. The expected resignation of Clark came at a time he was also facing a federal investigation by the Eastern District of New York for his handling of union finances.

In response to the federal investigation, according to sources, the union brought in outside counsel from the firm of Morrison Foerster. The firm’s review unearthed messages between Clark and the union employee, his sister-in-law, who has worked with the MLBPA since 2023. The firm approached Clark with the information on Friday and presented the findings to the players this past weekend. The players then pushed for Clark’s ouster.

Clark, his attorney and the MLBPA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The void atop the union could be filled by deputy executive director Bruce Meyer, who led the bargaining for the players during the 2021-2022 lockout. But the union stopped short of naming Meyer as the interim head after a conference call convened on Tuesday evening by the executive subcommittee and player representatives from the 30 clubs. The players were expected to hold a second call on Wednesday and could vote on new leadership.

“I feel we have made mistakes in the past by making rushed decisions,” said Baltimore Orioles pitcher Chris Bassitt, a member of the subcommittee. “The executive subcommittee and all the reps agreed we want to get this right. We don’t want to get it done just because there’s a void.”

The union’s player leadership did not vote today on whether Bruce Meyer will replace Tony Clark as head of the union. Chris Bassitt: “I feel we have made mistakes in the past by making rushed decisions. The executive subcommittee and all the reps agreed we want to get this right.…

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) February 17, 2026

Clark and the MLBPA were supposed to start their annual tour of spring training camps in Arizona on Tuesday. The first stop, a meeting with the Cleveland Guardians, was canceled, which the team found out from the union at 6 a.m. local time.

Meyer spent time calling agents on Tuesday to firm up his support among players, according to people familiar with the situation.

The Athletic broke the news of Clark’s departure on Tuesday morning just as players were arriving for workouts in Arizona and Florida. New York Mets infielder and executive subcommittee member Marcus Semien told reporters that Clark’s decision stemmed from the federal probe.

“There has been an investigation going on,” Semien said. “We still need to discuss with players why. You definitely don’t want things to be a distraction going into December.”

Subcommittee members like Los Angeles Angels pitcher Brent Suter and San Diego Padres infielder Jake Cronenworth took pains to downplay the upheaval at the union. Cronenworth described the state of the group as “strong.” Suter hit a similar note.

“Let me tell you, the ship is strong,” Suter said. “We just need to make the right decisions today and moving forward, and we’ll be just fine.”

Yet the resignation occurs at a time of heightened rhetoric as the owners are expected to lock out the players at the conclusion of this season when the current collective bargaining agreement expires. The owners executed the same tactic after the 2021 season, shutting down the sport for 99 days. The upcoming negotiation could last longer, as owners have become vocal about the necessity for a salary cap, used by leagues like the NFL, NBA and NHL, in the wake of rampant spending by teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets.

Clark oversaw the negotiations for this current CBA alongside Meyer. Both are strongly opposed to a cap, which the union believes would not help competitive balance in the sport. Earlier this month, Meyer certified the rebuttal in Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal’s landmark arbitration case in which Skubal was awarded a $32 million salary for 2026. Skubal vouched for Meyer on Tuesday.

“I don’t think it has any impact on negotiating,” said Skubal, another member of the subcommittee. “Bruce has been our lead negotiator. He’s done it in the past. Although Tony has been the face of the PA in terms of negotiating, I’m still as confident as ever in Bruce and everyone else that we’ve got behind him.”

Clark joined the union in 2010 at the conclusion of a 15-year playing career. He worked in player relations before becoming the deputy executive director. After the death of MLBPA chief Michael Weiner in December of 2013, Clark took over the head position. In 2018, Clark brought in Meyer, who had advised former MLBPA chief Don Fehr with the NHL Players’ Association, to aid CBA negotiations.

Discord between the owners and the players emerged before the 2017-21 agreement expired when the sport shut down to protect against the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Those contentious talks foreshadowed the extended lockout in the winter before the 2022 season. The two sides struck an agreement on March 10 and managed to avoid cutting games from the schedule. But the specter of a work stoppage has loomed over the sport ever since.

Clark and Meyer faced criticism from within the union even before the federal probe. The tension culminated in a push for new leadership by some players, agents and a former MLBPA attorney.

With a lockout on the horizon and unrest among some of his constituents, Clark became the subject of an expanded focus in October related to Players Way, a for-profit MLBPA arm focused on youth baseball. After its founding in 2019, Players Way spent close to $10 million despite holding few events, ESPN reported last year. That expenditure was more than twice the $3.9 million the union told the outlet it had spent.

“Any suggestion that Players Way has not been supported by our elected player representatives and broader membership is patently false,” Clark said in a statement last year. “Players Way has been front and center at every annual meeting of the MLBPA Executive Board in recent memory, and our dialogue with players regarding youth development continues throughout the calendar.”

Despite the pushback at the time, the investigation proved consequential enough to lead to Clark’s departure.

“There’s people that like Tony, there are people that don’t like Tony, but as a whole, where we are now comparatively to where we were 10 years ago, is a much better spot,” said Miami Marlins reliever and executive subcommittee member Pete Fairbanks. “Dealing with this will be its own separate entity in terms of where it goes and what it does for Tony Clark in people’s estimations, but he’s been a steadfast voice that’s been fighting for players for some time now, and I don’t think we should discount that.”

Additional reporting contributed by Sam Blum, Tim Britton, Dennis Lin, Cody Stavenhagen and Katie Woo