DALLAS — Major- and minor-league baseball players were presented a third-party review of their union’s finances during annual board meetings last week in Arizona, people briefed on the meeting who were not authorized to speak publicly told The Athletic.
An accounting of Major League Baseball Players Association spending was a top request in March from a group of players who challenged union leadership during a failed mutiny attempt. But it was previously unknown whether players would receive one. In a news conference in July, the guarded head of the union, Tony Clark, was mum about concrete steps the union would take in the wake of player complaints.
The accounting firm Withum, headquartered in New Jersey, prepared the financial review, a person briefed on the presentation said. In accounting, a financial review is a similar but distinct process from a more comprehensive undertaking, an audit. The MLBPA declined comment and has not publicly disclosed the review’s findings.
Fallout from the spring uprising, when players tried pressuring Clark to fire deputy director Bruce Meyer, likely influenced other key decisions at the union in the nine months since, including three notable hires.
The union on Wednesday announced the creation of a new position, chief communications officer, and hired labor veteran Oriana Korin for the role. Korin was most recently with the American Federation of Teachers.
The MLBPA has more quietly added two prominent sports lawyers to its collective bargaining team as outside counsel, according to people briefed on the decision who were not authorized to speak publicly.
Jeffrey Kessler of Winston and Strawn, one of the best-known sports lawyers, will assist with major-league negotiations in 2026. Garrett Broshuis of Korein Tillery, a key figure in the unionization of minor leaguers who also led a lawsuit against MLB that produced a $185 million settlement, will aid minor-league bargaining the following year.
Meyer remains lead negotiator. It is unclear whether Kessler or Broshuis will directly attend and participate in collective bargaining meetings or stay behind the scenes. Both spoke to players at last week’s board meetings.
Kessler has been outside counsel to the MLBPA going back at least four years but was not working on bargaining matters during the last negotiation in 2021-22. Meyer and Kessler also have a long history together prior to Meyer’s time at the union, including in their shared days at the firm Weil, Gotshal and Manges.
In 2020, Kessler advised the MLBPA during highly contentious talks with the league over how to handle the restart of the sport during the onset of COVID-19. Kessler this year also litigated a court case with a player agency that was protesting punishment the union handed out for improperly recruiting players.
Kessler has represented players in a slew of high-profile proceedings across sports, including the landmark NCAA vs. Alston antitrust case, in which the Supreme Court ruled against the NCAA in 2021. He also worked on Tom Brady’s behalf during “Deflategate.” As lead negotiator for NBA players during the 2011 lockout, Kessler apologized publicly for saying that the league treated players like “plantation workers.”
Broshuis co-founded Advocates for Minor Leaguers, the non-profit that paved the way for minor leaguers to organize into a union. His formal relationship with the MLBPA began only this year, but the union interacted with him during the decade-long lawsuit he led on behalf of minor leaguers that settled in 2022.
Three players — Jack Flaherty, Lucas Giolito and Ian Happ — who were central to the mutiny attempt in March served on an eight-player executive subcommittee within the union. After an election at the board meetings last week, none are returning.
(Photo of Tony Clark, executive director of the players’ union: Daniel Shirey / MLB Photos via Getty Images)
