Clark’s contract extended

Major League Baseball players have chosen to extend the contract of MLB Players Association 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 union announced the extension Wednesday afternoon after its executive board met in Irving, Texas. 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 topflight players such as Bryce Harper and Manny Machado expected to score lucrative contracts this winter. But the lack of spending frustrated the players, some of whom speculated publicly on the possibility of a work stoppage for the first time since 1994. The rhetoric cooled off as the season approached, but the discontent among the players remained strong. Clark, 46, played 15 seasons in the majors. He took over as head of the union after the death of Michael Weiner in 2013. Clark drew criticism for the collective bargaining agreement negotiated in 2016, which improved on the amenities for players but did little to confront the wrinkles hampering the freeagent market, such as the qualifying offer or the luxury tax. In August, the union hired Bruce Meyer, a veteran labor attorney, to handle collective bargaining moving forward.