After a winter of austerity before the 2018 season led to an outcry from baseball’s labor force, the players of Major League Baseball have chosen to extend the contract of MLB Players Assn. Executive Director Tony Clark through 2022 as the union gears up for a potentially calamitous negotiation with MLB officials when the collective bargaining agreement expires in 2021.
The relationship between MLB and its players’ union fractured in the offseason as teams declined to spend extravagantly on free agents. It has not become clear if the trend will continue, with top-flight players like Bryce Harper and Manny Machado expected to score lucrative contracts this winter.