Baseball players’ association head Tony Clark speaks during a news conference at the Press Club in Washington in 2022. (AP Photo / Jose Luis Magana)

Federal investigators are probing the finances of Players Way, a for-profit arm of the Major League Baseball Players Association focused on youth baseball, ESPN first reported on Thursday.

Players Way has not held many events since its founding in 2019 but close to $10 million has been spent on the initiative, ESPN reported, citing two anonymous sources. That expenditure is more than twice the $3.9 million the union told the outlet it had spent on Players Way. MLBPA executive director Tony Clark personally approved transfers of funds to Players Way, per the report.

“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. “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.

“The goal — informed by players themselves — isn’t to become just another cog in the youth sports machinery, putting profits over players. It aims higher: to meet players where they are, teach the game the right way, and to foster lifelong lessons creating lifelong fans. Future generations deserve nothing less.”

The Department of Justice was already investigating officials at the MLBPA and at least one other sports union, the National Football League’s. The Eastern District of New York has looked into the operation of OneTeam Partners, a licensing company that the NFLPA and the MLBPA combine to own roughly two-thirds of.

The Eastern District on Thursday declined comment on Players Way.

Clark has been embroiled in various controversies since the spring of 2024, when some player leaders inside the union and a former MLBPA lawyer openly rebelled against union leadership. Late last year, an anonymous complaint about Clark and the MLBPA was submitted to the National Labor Relations Board, and an anonymous email account distributed that complaint to members of the press. The Department of Justice has been looking into at least some of the issues raised.

Some concerns prompted by the anonymous complaint, such as nepotism, might not rise to the level of a federal crime, but could invite internal scrutiny. The anonymous complaint, as well as the anonymous emailer who distributed it, both questioned Players Way’s finances and the organization’s hiring of one of Clark’s children. A daughter of Clark’s worked for Players Way as a consultant.

A 2021 copy of the MLBPA’s employee handbook obtained by The Athletic did not outright forbid the hiring of family members, but says “family members may not be hired if employment would: 1. Create a supervisor/subordinate relationship with a family member; 2. Have the potential for creating an adverse impact on work performance; or 3. Create either an actual conflict of interest or appearance of a conflict of interest.”

The MLBPA did not respond when asked whether the handbook was identical when Clark’s daughter worked as a consultant.

As of Thursday, Players Way had four baseball events listed on its website for November, with one more in December and another in March.

Said Clark in his statement: “From its creation in 2019, the mission of Players Way has been clear: To empower tomorrow’s generation of players by providing access to the knowledge, experience, and talents of the best our game has to offer – our current and former members – and to serve as an oasis for young athletes and families who too often get exploited in today’s billion-dollar ‘youth sports’ machinery.”

Oct 31, 2025

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Evan Drellich is a senior writer for The Athletic, covering baseball. He’s the author of the book Winning Fixes Everything: How Baseball’s Brightest Minds Created Sports’ Biggest Mess. Follow Evan on Twitter @EvanDrellich