Sources -- Frustrated players ask for removal of MLBPA's Bruce Meyer - ESPN

Player leaders expressed frustration at Major League Baseball Players Association executives during a Zoom call Monday night, the culmination of a week in which players advocated for the ouster of the union's chief labor negotiator, sources told ESPN.

On a call with dozens of player representatives from the major and minor league units of the union that lasted nearly three hours, a majority of players in an informal vote told MLBPA executive director Tony Clark they wanted to replace deputy executive director Bruce Meyer with Harry Marino, the lawyer who spearheaded the unionization efforts of minor league players, sources said.

Clark, who has the ability to hire and fire staff members, declined to levy a judgment on Meyer's future during the call, according to sources.

Clark, Meyer and Marino declined comment when reached by ESPN.

The move by players came amid an offseason that has seen a billion-dollar decrease in spending by major league teams and the extended free agency of World Series standout Jordan Montgomery and reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, the latter of whom agreed to a two-year, $62 million contract with the San Francisco Giants on Monday.

Over the previous 24 hours, 21 major league player representatives, after consulting with the rank and file, agreed on a text chain, sources said, to back the appointment of Marino, who joined the MLBPA in September 2022 when it formed a minor league unit recognized by MLB. Marino, who was hired as an assistant general counsel at the union, left in July 2023, less than three months after negotiating the first collective bargaining agreement for minor league players, who on the call were overwhelming in their support of him and who hold 34 of