Detroit Tigers' Jack Flaherty: Slow free agent market leaves MLBPA 'little frustrated'

LAKELAND, Fla. — Detroit Tigers right-hander Jack Flaherty didn't want to talk about the extracurriculars Tuesday after a dominating spring training start.

Not right away, at least.

"Baseball questions first," Flaherty said. "I know it's coming, but let's start with baseball stuff."

Flaherty, who signed a one-year, $14 million contract with the Tigers in the offseason, was one of six new players elected to the MLBPA's eight-member executive subcommittee in November 2022. It's his second season, the finale of a two-year term.

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Monday brought a lot of work off the field: A lengthy videoconference call with player representatives — at both the major-league and minor-league levels of the union — focused on players' issues with MLBPA's non-player leadership before the next collective bargaining agreement is negotiated.

Some players, including Flaherty, are pushing for 33-year-old Harry Marino to replace 62-year-old Bruce Meyer as MLBPA deputy director and, most importantly, the chief negotiator in charge of getting the next CBA.

Meyer works as the second-in-command to executive director (and former Tigers first baseman) Tony Clark; Marino previously worked as an MLBPA lawyer and was key in the unionization push in the minor leagues.

The current collective bargaining agreement — agreed upon March 10, 2022 — between MLB and the MLBPA expires at 11:59 p.m. Dec. 1, 2026. That's another two years, 18 months and 14 days of labor peace. But the past offseason's issues with free agency brings that deadline into stark relief.

Flaherty, a seven-year MLB veteran who is on track for another round of free agency next offseason, talked to five reporters after Tuesday's five scoreless innings against the Philadelphia Phillies. He picked up seven strikeouts in the scoreless tie, and after discussing his on-field performance for four minutes, he spent the rest of his post-start press conference talking about the MLBPA's off-field situation.

(Questions have been edited for clarity.)

What is happening among the players?

"Everybody wants to work towards the next CBA and figure out what the right plan of attack is as we continue to move forward. We've got a little bit of time before it. It's nice to have a lot of player involvement and a lot of guys wanting to speak up and figure out what's the right plan of attack. It's good to have a lot of player involvement."

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How did you become an executive subcommittee member?

"The guys voted me in to be in the position that I'm in, to be able to have this. I think guys are just trying to figure out what the right steps are. We want to have continuous discussions. We want to have player involvement, which sometimes is down in the years leading up to a CBA, and then it all happens at once, so it's good to get everybody together and talk things out and figure out what kind of plan we want to work with and how we prepare for this, where it doesn't all happen right before."

Do you think a change needs to be made at the top of the MLBPA's leadership?

"I think everybody is — it's good to have the players talking and good to have guys going over things."

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Why is there support for Marino to enter a position of power, replacing Meyer?

"It's one of those things that players, the minor leaguers really appreciated the way that he handled their unionization, and so guys have listened and paid attention. As leaders, and as player reps, your job is to listen to the entire league, and now, as being all under one union, listen to the guys who are coming next. That's our job. That's kind of how we've come to the point where we did yesterday. It's good to have guys talking and player involvement to figure out the direction that we want to go in."

How did the MLBPA situation get to this point?

"Just conversations. I feel like I've been on the phone nonstop for the last handful of days. Even so, it just continues. I got guys calling. Guys are just trying to figure out, what are we going to do with this CBA, how are we going to make improvements? We're in a spot where we've got free agents (left-hander Jordan Montgomery, former Tiger J.D. Martinez, infielder Tommy Pham) who are still out there. We've got (Blake) Snell signing for basically a one (year) plus one (player option). Things are not working out as well as they had in the first two years, and guys are trying to figure out how we prep for this next one. Right out of the gate, it worked out pretty well, and right now, it's at the point where guys are a little frustrated. They're like, 'All right, let's get ready for this next one.' "

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So, it's all about what's happened in free agency?

"I wouldn't say it's just from that, but I think that's the big, glaring issue that everyone can see. Everybody can see the spending being down. I don't know what the number is, but if you take away the two signings (Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto) by the (Los Angeles) Dodgers, it's down by even way more than that. Players are smart. We are gathering together to all head in the right direction together."

What is next for the MLBPA?

"It's just players getting together, continuing to talk and moving together in the right direction, which is what I feel that we're doing. It's not one side versus the other. It's everybody working towards the same thing."

Do you have a sense on what players think current union leadership can be doing differently?

"I'm going to keep that in-house. We've had conversations and whatnot. That's what we're talking about and trying to figure out. It's all guys coming together and working toward the same thing."

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: MLBPA already frustrated by CBA, says Detroit Tigers' Jack Flaherty