Tarik Skubal calms baseball fans' fears amid Tony Clark's resignation from MLBPA

On Tuesday morning, Evan Drellich of The Athletic reported that the MLB Players Association's executive director Tony Clark was expected to resign. It was bombshell reporting, made worse by the later-reported impetus for Clark's departure and, of course, the looming labor battle widely expected to abbreviate the 2027 season.

Tarik Skubal is a member of the MLBPA's executive subcommittee. He said after the news of Clark's resignation (but before the cause was reported), "I have a ton of respect for Tony — what he's been able to do for our PA for the last 13 years. [...] Moving on is a tough decision, and resigning is a tough thing all the way around, but [...] I don't know what I'm allowed to share, so I'll just leave it at that."

As for what it might mean for negotiations toward a new Collective Bargaining Agreement in December of this year?

"I don't think it has any impact on negotiating. Bruce [Meyer] has been our lead negotiator, and 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 got behind him."

Tarik Skubal weighs in on Tony Clark's MLBPA resignation, future of CBA negotiations

Skubal's fellow subcommittee member Brent Suter said that the union would be looking for an interim leader, and insisted that "The ship is strong. Let me tell you, the ship is strong."

Is it, though?

The MLBPA now not only has instability at the very top, but a federal investigation looking into money said to be invested in a youth baseball program owned by the MLBPA (very bad look). The players may be unified in their opinion and their message, but they won't have a lot of leverage when trying to come to the table with owners if the organization that represents them and that they belong to is showing cracks in their armor.

Skubal, along with the rest of the players, will be toeing the party line until negotiations are over. That's just how it's done, and it's both his responsibility as a player representative and his perogative as a player who is invested in keep baseball salary cap-less.

But baseball fans can remain skeptical that all is as right with the world as players are insisting. We already knew there was going to be an interesting winter ahead of us, and this just turned up the heat.