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A youth baseball company run by the Major League Baseball Players’ Association (MLBPA) is under investigation by the feds for spending nearly $4 million on only “a few events.” Players Way, a Florida-based business owned by the MLBPA, has barely cleared six figures in total revenue since its 2019 inception. Despite that, the MLBPA has officially invested $3.9 million in the business, while sources told ESPN the actual figure is around $10 million. The investigation into Players Way is being run out of the same U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn that is investigating Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, and former NBA player Damon Jones for their alleged roles in a poker fraud and sports-fixing scheme linked to organized crime. The mission of Players Way, as stated on its website, is to serve as the “official youth development initiative” of MLBPA. A quote on the website from MLBPA President Tony Clark says that Players Way will work “to provide you with access to current and former professional players who want to share their knowledge and experience.” However, according to anonymous officials familiar with the budget outlays to the company, it’s all just a “total waste of money.” In a statement to ESPN, Clark said: 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. Any suggestion that Players Way has not been supported by our elected Player representatives and broader membership is patently false. 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. Still, an anonymous complaint filed last November charges Clark with “self-dealing, misuse of resources and abuse of power at the union,” in addition to nepotism in how Players Way is staffed, ESPN reports. While Clark and the MLBPA maintain that the accusations are “baseless” and “without merit,” much of the focus of the allegations centers on how his own daughter. According to the complaint, former union executives claim Clark got a job for his daughter at Players Way. Also, he allegedly used his influence to arrange another position for her at the NFL Players’ Association in 2022. As for the millions of dollars spent on Players Way, the former executives allege the money went toward cushy six-figure salaries for executives and consultants. The MLBPA told ESPN that Players Way had held roughly 12 events between 2019 and November 2024. The report indicates that the number of events increased as the investigation into the company intensified. “We had no events, we had no activities, we are not publicizing, we are not partnering with other youth groups,” a former official told ESPN. “There was no clear goal.” While MLBPA executives remained tight-lipped when ESPN asked them how the money was spent, the former executives who filed the complaint were not. Former union executives told ESPN that Players Way did not follow “standard” accounting directives, and even the organization’s chief finance officers were unaware of the program’s budget. An MLBPA official told ESPN that Players Way did not have its own operating budget, and the money directed to the program came from the “overall organizational budget.” As for the bulk of the $3.9 million spent on Players Way, according to public filings, nearly all of it came from an entity known as Players Inc. MLB Players Inc. is a for-profit organization that serves as the corporate subsidiary of the MLBPA. Fanatics Inc. also contributed to Players Way. The giant apparel company gave the business $1.2 million towards youth baseball causes, which was spent between 2022 and 2024. The money came in installments of $400,000 per year as part of Fanatics’ exclusive licensing deal regarding baseball cards. “We were and continue to be excited to invest with MLBPA in Players Way as part of our multi-billion-dollar long-term partnership,” a Fanatics spokesman told ESPN. “Youth baseball development is critical to the success of the sport, and we have complete confidence that the MLBPA will invest the funds in a way that creates long-term value for all parties involved.” The federal probe is also looking into allegations of the union paying for luxurious foreign trips for Clark and other top executives.
