PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Former D-back & MLBPA Chief Under FEDERAL INVESTIGATION for Corruption Allegations

Episode Date: November 5, 2025

JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4Federal agents are investigating a youth baseball program founded by former D-backs first baseman and current MLBPA executive director Tony Clark. Allegations against Clark include self-dealing, misuse of resources, abuse of power, and nepotism in the management of Players Way and MLBPA assets. How could this investigation influence the upcoming CBA negotiations? Plus, we break down which players have opted into their contracts and what that could mean for the D-backs’ offseason pitching search.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsMERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-lockerALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/APS:  Find instant rebates, discounts and special offers on smart thermostats, energy-efficient appliances and more at https://marketplace.aps.com/default/heating-cooling/smart-thermostatsBranded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order!Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visithttps://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotes Crown Royal: Visit crownroyal.com/PurpleBagProject to learn more!Chicken N’ Pickle: Family friendly fun awaits! Visit chickennpickle.com to plan your visit today!Access Auto Insurance Agency of Arizona, LLC (Access Auto) is a renowned agency offering personal and commercial auto insurance options to Arizona residents. If you’re on the hunt for a new policy, call Access Auto today at 1-480-400-0546 or get a free insurance quote by visiting our website www.access-insurance.com.Visit https://www.macu.com/accounts/checking/mystyle-checking?cid=ea-PHNX-AZ-mystyleAugust2025-checking to learn more about their MyStyle Checking Accounts!bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets!Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/ Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you! Monarch: Use Monarch to get control of your overall finances with 50% off your first year at https://www.monarchmoney.com/phnxWhen you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.#dbacks #diamondbacks #arizonadiamondbacks #mlb #zacgallen #corbincarroll #ketelmarte #mlbtheshow #mlbtraderumors #tradedeadline #traderumors #allstargame Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Is a federal investigation into a youth baseball program going to impact the CBA negotiations? Former Diamondback Tony Clark is involved, so we will see how that impacts this looming potential lockout that we have in baseball. Also, we're going to take a look at who opted in as the free agent pool gets smaller for the debacks this offseason. All of this in 30 seconds, don't you go anywhere. And welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast, LAM! from Studio K. Presented by our friends at Circle K. It is I, your mayor of PHNX,

occasionally known as Derek Montaia. Happy to have you guys here. Happy Wednesday to you all, thrilled to be talking about baseball, but I wish it was on better terms. I wish we weren't talking about the FBI investigating the Players Association. But of course, again, welcome in. Got Shane on the ones and twos today.

He still hasn't recovered from anything baseball-related, so don't talk to him about his team. See, there, he's not. he's not recovered and I understandably so understandably so but great to have you guys here Zayvichs Google and everything's yeah well he's he's the best but uh your

team your team is uh it's going to be interesting what happens to your team this is offseason but uh you guys locked in the guy that we wanted we're going to talk about a lot of those guys being locked in of course to deals and how those contracts could impact the diamondbacks starting pitching search this off season also we are going to talk about this federal investigation that ESPN posted an article

about this week looking into former Arizona Diamondback Tony Clark and in a youth baseball program that he founded, that is funded, and owned by the MLBPA that apparently isn't doing much. But first, we got to talk about the guys that are not moving. And I know

yesterday we talked about some of the big news with the names that are moving. Of course, this show is brought to you by GameTime. Don't forget that. Make sure to download the GameTime app right now. Use our code of P. HNX when you sign up and you'll get yourself $20 off your first purchase. on those last minute ticket deals and, you know, maybe wait for baseball to come around because

it'll be back soon. But let us discuss some of these names that are off the board for the Arizona Diamondbacks because some of them could have been potentially interesting candidates for the Diamondbacks to bring over and fix their starting pitching woes that they have in 2026. But the biggest name, of course, one of the ones I liked the most was Jack Flaherty. He will be staying there with the Detroit Tigers. He has one year left on a two-year deal that was worth $45 million. and Flaherty's salary increased from $10 to $20 million when he started his 15th game of the 25 campaign according to MLB.com, which makes his opt-out decision much harder. He went from a $10 million salary to that $20 million salary. And his free agent experience last off-season didn't go as

expected. So again, it kind of makes sense. But Jack Flaherty is one of the elite starting pitchers that was on the market. So, you know, him opting into that deal for $20 million could be a good indication of where he feels his annual value is at and perhaps, you know, not wanting to test the waters of free agency based on that, not particularly going his way last season. But he did put forth a strong effort in 2025 and again, got better. He went on, again, to post just kind of an inconsistent body of work. So much like Zach Gallen, it might just be about that stability and getting that amount of money for 2026 in a way where he can kind of bounce back and get what he was expecting next offseason. That could be very similar to what

Zach Gallen does with his qualifying offer. There are some experts in Major League Baseball that are leaning towards Gallen potentially accepting his $22 million qualifying offer from the Arizona Diamondbacks. And should that be the case, again, there is one of their big end. you know, biggest holes in their starting rotation filled by someone who we know has been very good throughout his career and had a much better second half. But, you know, his 2025 numbers overall don't indicate that he would get the kind of contract that he was expecting to get once he hit free agency. I mean, this is a huge disappointment for Zach, but it doesn't mean that necessarily he doesn't, he still can't get that longer term deal that he was seeking. It could just mean that taking the qualifying offer from the Diamondbacks here based on his value, looking at someone like Jack Flaherty, that, you know, he could have a rebound season in 2026 and go back out there and potentially get that contract that he's seeking, right?

At this point, I don't think the Diamondbacks will be able to fulfill his needs when it comes to that. But having him come back here for one season on that, you know, on that amount of money is kind of could be beneficial for both sides, much like it. is here for Flaherty, right? Meanwhile, Shane Bieber from the AL champion Toronto Blue Jays, he accepted his $16 million player option. Now, he had Tommy John surgery. He had to rehab from that. He got that free agent deal with the Guardians in December that guaranteed him $26 million over two years, but did give him the ability to opt out after 2026. He was then traded to the Toronto Blue Jays, where he went on to post a 3.57 ERA over seven starts for the Blue Jays. Again, Shane Bieber probably not due to some recency bias, not a guy that, again, a lot of people might feel like is worth a ton of money, but he

still had himself a good season, still a quality starting pitcher. And the $16 million he's going to get paid in, in 2026, again, starts to shape and dictate the market for starting pitching. And that is the big, that is the big aspect here, is that a lot of these players or a lot of these clubs opting in one way or another to these deals starts to shape the market for the Diamondbacks. And right now that's the biggest benefit here. You would think that the more free agent pitchers and players that hit the market, the better for a team looking to add pitching. And we've talked about that with the Diamondbacks. We discussed the opt-outs yesterday and how those opt-outs are going to impact the market overall here for the debacks. But again, more

more pitching hitting the free agent market may not necessarily help the diamondbacks. Again, we discussed that being a benefit for them, but they're working on the debacks right now. Oh yeah, that's that. That's what you're hearing next door. Yeah, they're trying their best to figure out. I mean, changing, changing some things around, changing some pipes around. Matter of fact, those guys need to get over to Chase Field ASAP, Shane, and start working on. We have a budget for Chase Field now. They can leave us alone. They're knocking hats down off the wall. That wasn't them. That was the poltergeist. Oh, that's the ghost that's attached to my keychain that I stole from the hotel I stayed at. That's a whole other thing. Anyway, I might have brought some bad luck to this office, and it might be why those guys are being so loud.

But again, more free agent pitchers on the market means that the market gets dictated at a higher price, right? Essentially, players opting into smaller deals with their teams helps keep that market overall for starting pitching a little bit. bit lower. Essentially, the ones that are opting in based on a player option usually means that in some way, in some form, their agents know what the market is going to be or know what the offers are kind of going to be for that player once they do hit the market, and they decide to take that player option based on the fact that that is where they're going to receive more money. And in the case of some guys, it's a guaranteed amount of money. And some of these guys, like, you know, a Jack Flaherty, they had a down season.

Some teams aren't going to want to necessarily touch them or pay them nearly as much as they're guaranteed from their player option that they currently have. So the Flaherty deal makes sense. Some of these other deals absolutely make sense for the player to opt in. One of the deals that makes all the sense in the world for the team to opt in was Freddie Peralta.

Freddie Peralta had an $8 million club option. That's a no-brainer as far as pitching is concerned. Even if Freddie Peralta had a down year and posted a 5.080, ERA, I'm still bringing him back. And instead, he put together one of his best seasons of his career. He reached over 200 strikeouts this season, and that's for the third straight season. He had a career low 2.70 ERA and pitched 176 and two-thirds innings this season.

He also was very good in the postseason, despite the fact that the brewers up to this point had not won a game that he started in the playoffs. But here he is coming back to the Brewers. And again, that made $8 million club option. that's a no-brainer. As much as, again, for Shane, the Andres Munoz, $6 million club option for the Seattle Mariners.

And again, that is one of, first of three club options the Mariners hold on Andre Munoz, and he is one of the game's most dominant closers. You are never taking him. I just want, I just, do you want, do you want Paul Sewell? I'll give you, C-Lmarté back.

One for one? No, no, not one for one. Not one for one. We'll talk later. He was awesome. I mean, and again, 26 years old. He had a 1.73 ERA this year, 83 strikeouts,

and pitched a whole lot of innings and relief for the Mariners. Big reason why that team was as good as they are. And again, that's something that the Diamondbacks covet. That's what we want. We need. We need somebody at the back end of our bullpen that can close games down in a way like Andre Munoz. Andres Munoz can.

But again, going back to this pool shrinking with these guys opting into their deals or the clubs opting into their side of it. It's just, it does shrink the pool of available stars. And that's not terrible for a mid-market team like the Diamondbacks because, again, then these big clubs like the Dodgers and Yankees and other teams that spend a lot of money and outspend the rest of us get in on the starting pitching market, then again, that increases the value of every pitcher that's out there as a free agent. In this case, perhaps those teams stay at bay. don't come after some of these guys, plus a thinner free agent market push teams towards the trade

route. And as we've discussed, that is absolutely a route that the Diamondbacks need to explore. The debacks have controllable young talent that they can trade and can move around without gutting their system too much. And again, those young players are so important, especially for teams that don't tend to get the high level of prospects that the debacks tend to get. Again, if there's a controllable mid-rotation pitcher out there, that makes it easier for Mike Hazen. And, his front office to find value and to make a trade potentially. But more than anything, like I was saying earlier, these players opting in create stability in the free agent pitching market, right?

Front offices know where the payrolls stand. They know what they can spend. They know what they need. And again, those teams staying with their teams involved that has less teams out there in the free agent market looking to improve. The Diamondbacks are, they're kind of desperate when it comes to how they're going to add starting pitching, right? And again, they don't need to act desperately, nor do they need to go out and spend like they have the two previous off seasons.

But again, the stability and understanding where the market sits is going to help the Diamondbacks quite a bit know where what these guys are going to expect to get. And by lowering that overall market value, it's going to help the debacks be able to afford with the limited budget they have, the pieces that they need. But in the end, you know, again, the more opt-ins we see the more balanced and strategic the market kind of can get. some other opt-ins that, again, weren't too surprising. Chris Sale, he had himself a pretty good year there with the Braves. The club picked up their $18 million club option for Chris Sale. Frankie Montas, he opted into his deal. He had one year left on a two-year $34 million deal with the New York Mets.

He did not have a good first season. So obviously, again, a guy that posted a 6.28 ERA over nine games and had two major injuries is going to come back. It's similar to the way that it's a no-brainer that Lordus Guriel Jr. returned to this team. But he's due $17 million in 2026. He had a UCL injury that ended his year in August. So again, not always the best move when people opt in for your team. But again, that's the reason why players want multi-year contracts. So should an injury like this happen, one of them, they can have that stability. another couple of other relievers.

Brooks Rally, he's an older pitcher, but he had himself a strong season. He opted into his $4.75 million deal. He has a 2.55 ERA in 20, excuse me, 2.55 ERA since the beginning of 2022. So some just incredible numbers he's posted, even for an older guy. Hey, keep doing it for us older guys. So a lot of other guys opted in as well, a lot of other relief pitchers, Wandi Peralta. opted in to his deal there with the Padres. Tim Hill, he opted in as well.

He's 35 years old now, and he had a career low 3.09 ERA over his last 70 appearances for the Yankees. He opts into a $3 million club option. Again, when you look at some of these club options for relievers, they are in the range of $4, $5 million or less, and that's for some of the elite guys. This is how the Diamondbacks could potentially. add somebody that they need, you know, that that can help them more than just like a patch. We've been talking quite a bit about the patches. We've been talking quite a bit about, you know, how the Diamondbacks are going to potentially

add a second starting pitcher that then they need to move to the bullpen and, you know, not having their rotation once Corbyn Burns returns at the midpoint of the year. It's an interesting, it's going to be an interesting balance. there's a good chance that they could find that arm in the minor league system. They could start going to guys options and maybe bringing guys up and, you know, sending guys back down, just kind of doing what they can, similar to what they did with the bullpen last year to essentially tread water until Corbyn's return. But that's a long time, man. From the end of March until July is a very long time for them to, you know, do that.

Maybe one of the young arms we talked about potentially being a future, Trey Yassavis. could step up, or perhaps maybe they even go to a guy that maybe is a long reliever that could essentially make some starts for them. But again, this is just important to the Diamondback search overall because they can kind of look and see where the market is at and what they can offer players reasonably. And it would seem at least like some of these opt-ins that it's going to hopefully keep the annual value on a starting pitching arm that could,

still be very valuable to this team throughout 2026, around that $20 million range or less, around that same amount that they're trying to offer Zach Gallen in a qualifying offer, right? However, it's still, in my opinion, leaning more and more in that direction that we could see Zach Gallen as being the guy that returns to this team. Gallen could very well accept that qualifying offer. And again, that greatly impacts not only the remaining budget that they have. for 2026, but it greatly impacts what exactly their needs are. Should Gallen return, I feel like this team could pivot to, you know,

maybe still making an offer to bring back Merrill Kelly. I still think that that is a great move to make, as well as focusing more on the relief pitching that they need to add to this team to try to make them competitive in 2026. Still think there are some dogs in that pen, though, and I'm not giving up on guys like Philip Abner and Brandon Garcia yet, because those guys are some studs. And then there's Ryan Thompson.

Don't even get me started on tea time. Tea time, tea time, tea time. But, yes. Can I interest you in Jorge Polanco, who just opted out? He opted out. Yeah, an $8 million option. Wow. He was way more than that.

Do you think he'll come back? I don't have confidence in him. The Mariners are going to play game one of 162 next year with 10 people on the roster. I don't think anybody's coming back. Well, I'll tell you, man. That's hard. Can I take a hard pivot really fast? Please.

So about a month ago, no, two weeks ago, Cal Raleigh posted a Instagram post saying like thanks for the season, yada, yada yada, yada. Yeah. And Josh Naylor commented on everything. What did he say? He said like, love you, blah, blah, blah. And then finish the comment off with, I'll always be rooting for you. And so of course Mariners fans took that as a, it's over thing, as did I. Yes.

But then my messed up brain started trying to convince myself that. That's it. It's Josh Naylor. He's a psycho. that's an inside joke. Yeah. What do you think about that? Well, I think that we way overreacted one time to Geraldo Perdomo, like, getting really

emotional on his Instagram stories. We thought it was a rap. I personally was like, he was traded. He was traded and he knows it. And the news is going to break today. And it was just him being a sweet boy and just missing his friends and being like, oh, the good times that we had in the, you know, the playoffs in the World Series. But what Naylor did is black and white.

It's either. Nothing Naylor does is black and white. But no. Yes, it is because either he knows he's not coming back, and that's why he said I'll always be rooting for you. Yeah. Or it's an inside joke. Yeah.

And he wants to come back. Right. There's only two options. Obviously. Obviously. I'm leaning in the he's leaving kind of way, right? The only reason why I say that is because Josh Naylor was embraced by that fan base in a way I've rarely seen a player that's traded their embrace. Don't get me wrong.

I was here when we got JD. I lost my mind. I had posters of JD up in my room and such. So it's like I was, we've had that here before too. But also it feels like Josh Naylor truly is in that phase of his career where he's going to go as a new dad for wherever the most money can be made and not really have that sentimental attachment. That sentimental attachment would be strong with that Mariners team, right? So I feel like that would be something. I also think that his wife not like being with him and staying here in Arizona when she was giving birth.

just, I don't know. It didn't have the same vibe. Trouble with a baby? Yeah, with a week old. Take the baby, go. No, just in general. Like, I don't know.

Like, I get it. You have a house here, right? You probably had a house before he was even traded here. A lot of players do because it's Arizona. So just because of spring training and such, players tend to keep their house there. Plus, if you get traded to a team that their spring training facility is also here, you probably couldn't care less about moving at that point. Whatever, whatever.

We're going to be there throughout the winter and throughout March. So that's all that really matters, right? but I don't know. I just felt like in general, like there was a different vibe with Gino going back to Seattle and the whole Tori being pissed at him for changing his icon in his phone less than five hours after he was traded versus versus what's going on with Josh Naylor and him taking secret trips to Arizona to be with his wife when I don't know. It feels like she could have been in Seattle. So what are you telling me, Derek, he's going to sign with the debacks?

Oh, absolutely not. Every D-Backs fan knows he hated in here apparently. he was very unhappy. I've never seen a person be so unhappy while he was having bubble gum and water poured on him, but that's our job. It's who it is. I don't know.

Again, I think that essentially at the end of the day, that's what all these opt-ins are about is like these guys in a way, they all in their own head think they're worth more money or a certain amount of money. And then you have like these soft conversations. They're not official offers from teams, but like they start getting those, you know, probing questions and things that are,

allowable within the rules that they could have, those discussions, the sidebars, and they start realizing what their actual worth is. And from that point on, that's where you like, wait, hold on. I'm not going to like uproot my life to leave somewhere else for two years when I could stay here for one year and make the same amount of money. You're essentially telling me I'm going to make on the market for those two years, right? Mortimer Moose loved him. I mean, Mortimer Moose loves a lot of people. Yeah, you're right. Mortimer Moose is he sleeps around. It's kind of a ho. I'm just saying, but, Another funny news about options, by the way, how are those mutual options going exactly as you would expect? The list is basically decline, decline, decline, decline, space, maybe questionable?

Declined, decline, decline. There are currently 18 players that have mutual options that are up this particular off season. Already 15 out of the 18 mutual options have been declined by one side or the other, leaving only off. Austin Hayes, Paul Seawald, and Justin Turner as the remaining mutual options to be rejected by one side or the other, basically, is where we're at. Justin Turner, I could see just going back to the Cubs because, I don't know. It's depending on if the Cubs will want him or not. Paul Seawalt, he's going to be a free agent, and it might be a wrap for him.

And Austin Hayes, he's a guy that will probably do fairly decently on the open market. but all these other guys have declined their mutual options. Randall Gritchick declined his mutual option. Harrison Bader with the Phillies declined his mutual option has been declined. Elias Diaz with the Padres. Some really good players, including Reese Hoskins, who, again, is probably not a player. A lot of Diamondbacks fans want to kick the tires on,

but we do need a first baseman. So that's happening. But full list is out there, including Michael Lorenzen and Michael King. Those are two starting pitchers that I really think the Diamondbacks could look into. Michael King being the farther off dream there for me. But again, remember, if a player has a mutual option, it basically means it's going to be declined. And this is the proof that that is the case. But we are going to take a quick break.

On the other side of this break, we're going to dive into this scandal where we have federal agents investigating Tony Clark and a Major League Baseball Players Association for misuse. of funds in regards to a youth baseball program. Don't you go anywhere. You're watching the pH next time in Beck Show. Well, now is a great time for a lot of people to be trying Pure Edibles because things are stressful. But, of course, get down on the wonderful variety of candies,

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If you're just a hat aficionado, check out their website over there at Brandedbills.com. They have partnerships with 40, universities, including ASU and U of A, as well as a partnership with the Phoenix Suns. And their Phoenix Suns hats are fire. That little golf hat giveaway from the Diamondbacks is also the branded bills hat. So head on over to brandedbills.com and use code BBPNX for 15% off your first order. And the construction noises you hear next door are basically MLBPA trying to fix itself after once again being investigated for another weird misappropriation of funds scandal.

and this one kind of angers me in a way because this one affects the children. It affects the youth. And you know I don't like that. But per an article at ESPN from Jeff Passon and Don Van Nata Jr., the MLBPA will be dealing with another federal investigation at, quite frankly, the worst possible time with that 2026 CBA expiration date there. And some negotiations needing to go on for a new CBA that could potentially cause me to look at, lose my job in 2027. Thanks a lot, Tony Clark and the MLBPA. But federal law officers are investigating a youth baseball company called Players Way that is owned by the Major League Baseball Players Association and was founded by former Arizona Diamondback and current head executive over there, Tony Clark, that this complaint, this allegations says that the MLBPA spent at least $3.9 million while holding very few sparsely attended live events for kids, sources familiar with the inquiry told ESPN. Now, when I say sparsely attended events,

I mean that some of these events had less than 10 kids at them. And when I say few events, let's take a look here at the Players Way website, where you will see their schedule of events for the next six months. That's right. six events between now and March of next year. And two of those events are the same event, essentially. The first one you see there is one weekend coming up here in November 8th and 9th.

And then the other one is another weekend. And then outside of those two weekend events, we have two more events scheduled between now and again, December or March, March 30th of next year. So just to give you a little indication about this player's way, that was a youth baseball company founded in 2019. by Tony Clark and the Major League Baseball Players Association. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn is the office currently investigating this youth baseball program, which was created as a youth development initiative. In a statement, Tony Clark said its mission was to, quote, empower tomorrow's generation of players by providing access to knowledge, experience, and talents of the best our game has to offer

and to serve as an oasis for young athletes and families who often get exploited in today's billion dollar sports youth sports machinery. Oh, isn't it ironic? Isn't it ironic that that's your mission statement here? Now, none of this is proven. These are all allegations and it's allegations based on a whistleblower's complaint from November of last year that triggered the probe. And this is a part of a bigger investigation into not, just the Major League Baseball Players Association or MLB, but into NFL and other, you know, essentially companies or other unions that are starting these companies that people are finding that it's a giant waste of money. So, of course, once you start figuring that there's a giant

waste of money, you start doing the paper trail thing, right? You start getting a little bit like our guy Pablo Tori over there and you start, in fact, finding out that there is maybe a scandal here brewing overall. The complaint accuses Tony Clark specifically of misuse of resources, abuse of power, self-dealing, and nepotism. Mostly the nepotism part is due to the fact that his daughter was appointed as a head over this youth baseball program. She stepped down last year, I think, once the federal investigators started examining the financial operations of players way. It could have been before that. But overall, looking into the investigators looking into how much was spent, how much revenue was generated, whether standard account practices were followed, and whether

there was proper oversight. The biggest thing here is the investment into this, and this is a for-profit youth baseball organization, I guess you could say, baseball company. It is designed to put on clinics and hold coaching sessions, hold tournaments, do things for youth baseball, do things for young people that not only get them involved and excited about playing the game of baseball, but to make them the future of Major League Baseball. We have a huge problem in this country when it comes to that. And quite frankly, the way that baseball is structured is a big reason why we have a problem. The minor league systems, the lack of compensating young players when you expect them,

to give an organization they're all, but you want them to still hold second jobs just so that they can make ends meet, the way that so few of players actually make it to Major League Baseball, and quite frankly, the amount of stars that the United States produces compared to the percentage of stars that are produced internationally here from the game of baseball just shows that the lack of interest in the game is dwindling. And the problem is, is that this type of thing where it's taking money from the players association, and putting it towards a youth baseball program that is supposed to help that, but isn't actually doing their job, is a huge problem in so many ways.

Federally, as far as the investigators are concerned, they are very concerned about the amount of money that is being paid and the purpose of those funds, right? As it stands, the way it would appear, there are former players that are involved with this player's way that their job is to be a full-time part of this youth baseball program, and those individuals are getting paid six figures, while simultaneously holding a full-time job elsewhere.

And if you've ever had anything to do with event planning, coordinating, coaching, you know that it's an all-in, all of your life kind of effort. So it's hard to imagine that somebody whose job is to plan and coordinate these events can also still have a full-time job. And whether or not, of course, the funds benefited not only just Tony Clark, but directly impacted and benefited someone like Tony Clark's daughter, as well as friends of Tony Clark, loyalists, people that have been essentially on Tony Clark's side, helped him get to where he's at and kind of seen as like a repayment situation here.

between its founding in 2019 and November 2024, Players Way held six youth clinics, four mental skills webinars, and a few panel discussions. That is what they held. I could do 100 mental skills webinars. I'm probably not the person you want in charge of that, but you want me just to sit in front of a computer

and give online coaching classes to children? Elizabeth says, dang, can they hire me? No, trust me, I would definitely be applying for a job here. Salaries and consulting fees were through the roof, including Chris Ionetta, another former Arizona Diamondback, earning $156,000 in 2024 off of a baseball youth program that has yet to generate six figures in revenue

in its entire existence. Oh, another former major leader, Kevin Reynolds, earned $167,000 in 2024. What an investigation can simply ask is, what did these two individuals, just to start off with, do to earn $300,000 collectively between the two of them in one year, for a baseball program, for a youth program that in its entire existence has held like 15 events in 10?

in six years. Like this is gross and it's wrong. And we are talking about, you know, Major League Baseball Players Association being somebody that, or a union that's supposed to protect players, protect the game. And now you could see how this could be viewed

if these accusations are correct that this is in fact exploiting the game of baseball. You're taking the love of this sport and the fact that young people want to play it. and get better. They want to come to these clinics and these webinars, I guess, I don't know who wants to go to a webinar,

but they want to at least come to these coaching clinics and these youth events and be around guys like Chris Ioneta who could teach them key skills and just help them with his knowledge and his experience, understand what it takes to become a baseball player, especially at a major league level. When you are a kid that's doing travel ball and going to clinics and going to coaching seminars,

that's what you're expecting to get out of it. And in some cases, your parents are paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars to send you to this events, not to mention the travel costs and the hotels and your parents needing to go with you and all of the other factors involved. Right. And again, you're doing this and you're taking money away from the Major League Players Association. And quite frankly, the $3.9 million so far is a conservative estimate. The article alleges that they might be more in the $10 million range.

that they have put into this youth baseball program. And this is the youth, a lot of you guys have Twitter accounts or X, whatever you want to call it. This is what their Twitter account has done in the last five years. Can we take a look at the screenshot? I don't like to bag on people's Twitter accounts. I'm not one of those guys. But they are following almost 8,000 people and they have 1,400 followers.

Again, I'm not trying to ratio them, but I feel like a legitimate organization that is funded by and a part of the Major League Players Association would have far more followers than this and a much better following ratio, quite frankly. Are all 7,000 of those people employees a player's way? They might be. I don't know. With the way they're spending money. But again, there's a lot of crazy things about this, including when you start looking into this. And I'll say this. I look into a lot of people's websites.

You guys probably don't even know this, but I've probably looked into your website. If you have a website on your Twitter handle, I've looked to see what the hell it is you've done. And again, I do this. And a lot of times websites are kind of like these weird abandoned amusement parks where you're like, yeah, they put effort into setting this up.

But has anybody been back to this website to do anything at any point? And quite frankly, I doubt that. I'm looking at the players way. I was surprised that I found those events, quite frankly, set up, right? But again, there's all of this shady stuff going on. Katie May says this is a shady AF. Yes, and that's the problem is that when you start looking into a organization, a union, anything, paying this much money to something that they are not making money off of,

you have to question, why is it still going on? That's the biggest thing, right? If you are in business, the simple idea, the simple concept is that, with time, you should start making money off of that thing. And if you don't, you should probably be business savvy enough to cut it off and say, let's call it a wrap on this one. This was a failure. Right. Let's retool this and maybe come back with something new. In fact, most of you may not believe this, but I used to underwrite commercial loans. And a big part of underwriting loans is knowing when people are self-employed or have a business, that you need to have at least two,

years of tax returns, if not more, to view what their actual income picture is because of how hard it is initially to get a new business off the ground. There's no surprise that a company like this that's trying to hire major league baseball players as consultants and coaches and teachers for these seminars and for these youth activity clinics that would take a loss initially in 2019 and 2020, especially with the COVID season, right? Especially with that period of time. That's a difficult time to start something like this. So you could see how they we're probably far behind the eight ball when it comes to that. But when you start moving into 2021 and 2022 and 23 and you're not making money off of something like that,

then there does, there's red flags. There's red flags. But there is no bigger red flag than the headquarters for players way. And we are going to talk about that on the other side of this break because that part might just, it might be the biggest part that blows this whole thing open. So don't you guys go anywhere. You're watching the PHA next time. the back show. Well, everyone needs a checking account. And of course, you want a checking account

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for their headquarters. And it was in Windermere, Florida. And if you want to talk about things that don't get any shadier, this particular organization, if you will, had a address with a suite number. And that was investigated and looked into as part of this article. And the address for Players Way Home Headquarters was simply a UPS store in a strip mall in Windmere, Florida, conveniently located between a liquor store and I think a Shiazhu massage parlor. But the headquarters for this company was listed as suite 228, I believe. I think we have a shot here, an image, if you will, of suite 228. It's right there on the left. It's that little guy. So again, when you start talking about organizations being set up by something as official as a

Major League Players Association and you start claiming that you have a headquarters and that headquarters isn't a suite, we're not expecting anything nice, but we're not expecting anything nice, but we are expecting it to be an actual suite with like desks and people working there. But apparently that's not the case. And this is the reason why all of this has become such a problem and why federal investigators are looking into Tony Clark and the MLBPA. Public filing show the union gave about $83,000 directly to players' way. However, these whistleblowers and sources tell investigators that the

actual spending since 2019 is at least $3.9 million, but it's closer to approaching $10 million. And again, Tony Clark has identified in this as having created players way, approved significant funding transfers, and made the hiring decisions. And those hiring decisions have come under question based on his relationship with the people he hired. Hiring people you know, nepotism, it's all a factor of life. I've been accused of being a product. of nepotism despite the fact that my dad was merely a clown in the Ringling Brothers Circus. Only was for 30 days. He also helped start a little organization known as the Make a Wish Foundation. However, I wish it had more of an impact on my life, but it really doesn't. Most people don't even

know at all anything about my dad's history or anything, right? But again, it doesn't mean that at times, obviously with his daughter, that's a different story, but at times, relationships and things that you've formed over the years are going to allow for opportunities to come up when it comes to, you know, hiring and such, you know. But in this case, this is just a situation where there's a larger question overall about transparency, about the use of player union dues and resources, because this is being funded by Major League Players Association and people that give part of their wage to it, baseball players, guys like Corbyn Carroll and Geraldo Perdomo,

who are actually out there doing the work that this player's way claims to be doing. I've seen Corbyn Carroll do more for the community, for the youth baseball community in this state just in 2025 than I have read this company doing in their entire existence since 2019. Corbyn Carroll's probably so. spent more money directly on youth baseball himself than this company spent.

And again, this comes down to the scrutiny, not just of this investigation, but if you may know, there is this other investigation going on about one team partners, which is a licensing company, and that whole scandal involves the NFLPA and other unions as well. So again, this investigation just kind of adds to the mounting pile of evidence that there is corruption and fraud. quite frankly going on involving the MLBPA and quite frankly Tony Clark now Clark has not been charged with any crime as of now as of now and he has said in a public statement any suggestion that players way has not been supported by our

player elect our elected player representatives and broader membership is patently false the goal isn't to become just another cog in the youth sports machinery putting profits over players however show me where something else has been done here show me where the thing you're alleging that you're doing is actually been done because based on what Jeff Passon and Don Van Netta Jr. have looked up here, this is not benefiting you sports in the way that you're claiming it to benefit. And if anything, it's just, if anything, it's just stupid. If anything, it's bad business. If anything, it's just losing money. So is it

incompetence here or is it fraud? I think that's the only two avenues you can really explore here when it comes to what's going on with players' way. Because again, you talk about the impact on baseball. There's a huge erosion of public trust here and an erosion of trust in Tony Clark and his leadership over there at MLBPA, not just publicly from fans, but from owners who are about to negotiate with the MLBPA for a new collective bargaining agreement, but the players who are looking up to Tony Clark as the executive director here of the MLBPA, his credibility with the union takes a major hit if this investigation gains traction in any way. And quite frankly, you could argue it already has taken a hit just based on this investigation existing. The long-term impact here is, you know, damning overall,

especially if they come to find out under the full scope of this federal investigation, what other individuals, what other, you know, I guess misdoings could be uncovered. But I think more than anything, what infuriates me is the impact on youth participants. Young players that either have participated in this, wanted to participate in it, or quite frankly are missing out on opportunities, because they are not running this the way they should. Spend $200 as a kid to go to a clinic like this only for it to be some sort of weird, half-assed, you know, situation where they don't really care about putting on these events

and having them run properly. The MLBPA has prided itself on unity and the players being unified. But an FBI probe here could fracture that. And more importantly, if Clark is forced to step down, that's a huge hit to the MLBPA at this particular. particular junction where they are getting ready for a huge labor dispute here in December of 2026. And quite frankly, it's distracting. It's embarrassing and it doesn't, it legitimately takes away from the player's bargaining position. MLB owners could absolutely exploit this.

And they will because this is going to get nasty and it's going to involve a lot of money. people get insane about lots of money and that's going to be what happens here. Any sign of internal instability is going to be exploited. Any way that they can publicly make the union itself and not their players that play for their team look bad, they're going to do that. And quite frankly, a distracted, divided players association could struggle to come together on a solution here, to coordinate on a stance. And again, this is a huge quite, it's small right now because no actual crimes have been alleged.

No, no charges have been filed. But if that happens, it just fuels the Major League Baseball's narrative that reform is needed, that changes are needed, that this entire financial situation within baseball has gotten so goddamn out of control that we need a salary cap, we need a salary floor. and this is a prime example of it. And without proper leadership and without honestly, I guess a ground to stand on really, this, and this is small. I'm not going to make it out like this is going to be the thing

that loses this battle for the PA. But again, it's not a good look and it comes at a terrible time. And depending on the severity of it, depending on the severity of the other investigation that's going on, it just feels like the long-term impact over here is, or the long-term vision, the long-term way that the MLBPA is viewed is impacted here. Again, these are just allegations right now, but I think we all

understand that allegations stick, right? You get accused of something, and in the minds of some, you will never be innocent of that crime. And in this case, it's hard to imagine that Tony Clark comes out of this situation unscate. Even if he is ultimately clear, the mere existence of this FBI probe introduces instability at the worst possible time for the MLBPA. Owners are already emboldened by the massive revenues and team friendly trends that are going on and how these contracts are being deferred and restructured in a way to essentially circumvent the rules that are in place, because that's what it is, right? It's not to say that they're illegal or against the rules, but a defer paying Otani next to nothing

just so that you can pay him the rest of the money long after he's not on the roster is a way of circumventing rules that were put into place. And again, the owners could just exploit that as well and show that what teams are, or agents are requiring to do, what teams are required to do to compete, is just circumventing the rules and making it that much harder for the other 80% of the teams in Major League Baseball to keep up. Right, but I'm not done screaming. I'm going to scream more about the salary floor, I think, on tomorrow's episode, because quite frankly, we talk entirely too much about the salary cap and how that's needed. But the salary floor in baseball is, it might impact those big stars making it to the high dollar teams more than a salary cap will prevent it. So we're going to talk about all of that tomorrow. But as far as this is concerned, I just,

just want to once again hit on the fact that youth interest in baseball is on the decline right now. And that's not going to improve with a lockout in 2027. So the fact that one of the biggest unions that's responsible for baseball could potentially be grifting youth baseball here just to keep some former players employed, while those guys also have full-tebrilts. contract or full-time jobs elsewhere, it should infuriate you as much as it infuriates me.

Right? Like that's something that, you know, people that love this game of baseball need to be worried about, need to be concerned about. We need to protect youth baseball here in this country at all costs. And we need to get, you know, young people as fired up about being, you know, baseball players, major league players as we can. The pool is getting small. And quite frankly, like I said, I think the word is out about how much it sucks to be a minor league baseball player, right?

And how hard it is to navigate that system and make it to the ultimate, you know, pot at the end of the rainbow there of being a major leaguer. So, you know, athletes at a young age, they're making decisions, especially the elite athletes. And as much as some of them may love playing baseball, it might just be so much easier for them to focus. on football or basketball or any other sport because baseball already is such a tough path. But when you start realizing that the ones that are supposed to help you the most and get you there that have the most amount of experience and knowledge or just maybe trying to grift you for 200 bucks, that might end your love for the game and might cause you to go in a different direction. So again, this isn't good for baseball.

And quite frankly, as much as we're reporting on it, I hope that this isn't the case, and I hope that this doesn't look the way that it does, because as far as I'm concerned, again, this is something everybody should be very, very angry about. So shout out to Jeff Passon and down Van Nata over there at ESPN for shedding some light on this whole situation. And again, this is the reason why journalism is important, folks. But also, FBI investigating this is kind of crazy to me because it feels like they started looking into one thing. Now they're just pulling all sorts of threads here across sports and finding all sorts of wrongdoing, including that criminal investigation into the gambling scandal there in the NBA.

So not a great time to be a wrongdoer right now in sports. But it is a great time for you to sign up for the PH&X newsletter. If you want to be as informed as our guy Alex Dagostino, by the way. And I need to make sure that everybody learns to say his name right. You can sign up for free over at our website at go phnx.com slash newsletter. You'll get the biggest news in Arizona sports directly to your inbox every day at 6 a.m. Again, completely free and you can be the smartest sports fan, you know. Shout out to Pat Brown, who held down the duties.

And now Alex has taken over. Alex does a great job. Make sure to check out that newsletter. Also make sure to check out everything Alex has been writing about the Arizona Cardinals because he has been doing a fantastic job over there as well. And, uh, Phillips, or Jason Armstrong says, that's how I say his name. What's the wrong way? Uh, there's a lot of wrong ways, I think, to say Alex's, uh, last name. Uh, but it's, it's a little apostrophe, uh, de, dag, di, di Gostino. I don't know. Do, digastino? I don't know. There's a lot of different ways. You could say it wrong, but, uh, it's fine. Well, well, he'll, he'll be fine with it. Uh, just like Megaran says, if you say, if you say my name of wrong, it's okay. Just try to learn. Just try to learn. It's okay. Just try to learn. Just try to it right way. Speaking of some other minor league kind of younger guy news, spring breakout comes are coming, or spring breakout games are coming back next spring to major league baseball.

MLB released their schedule for their spring breakout games for 2026. This is the third annual spring breakout, which will be played from March 19th through March 22nd. If you're not familiar with it, spring breakout is where the rosters for those games are comprised of the organization's top prospects across baseball, showcasing baseball's future stars as clubs assemble their top prospects to play in an exhibition game against one another. So essentially, it is the future stars of each franchise facing off. The event spans four days and has 15 games, both here in Arizona and in Florida, with some of the best prospects in baseball facing off against each other. In 2025, 68 of Major League Baseball Pipelines top 100 prospects, compared to

prize, those rosters that faced off against each other, and those boys were on full display for baseball fans to celebrate last spring. Those names include the Toronto Blue Jays, Trey I'm Savage, rookie of the year finalists, Roman Anthony, Nick Kurtz, who should win it. I'm telling you, I'm going to ride if Nick Kurtz doesn't win, and Jacob Wilson, as well as Kate Horton there from the Chicago Cubs. These were all guys that were featured last spring, and the Diamondbacks this year will face off against the Colorado Rockies at Salt River Fields on March 21st, 2026. And who can we expect to see? I would expect to see the top prospects out there. So if you're excited about those guys, good chance you'll see outfielders,

Ryan Waldschmidt, Slade Caldwell, you'll probably see a Tommy Troy, probably say a Lou James Groover, and a casing Cason Cunningham as well. But all those pitchers, too. They have some great pictures. It'll be interesting. I don't know if Cole Drake will be. ready by that point, but we should see Mitch Bratt. We should probably see David Hagamon. We should probably see a Daniel Egan as well. So the future of the Diamondbacks and some exciting prospects that could quite frankly impact this roster as soon as 2026 are going to be on display in that game. So that's a great day to get out there. Deborah wants to know what was that date again. March 21st,

2006, three days before my birthday. So go out there and get me a present from the team shop. That would be appreciated greatly. Speaking of presence from the team shop, Damon isn't here today. We got, we got Shane on the ones and twos, and now Noah came over and he just slid in and kind of took over here. But without Damon being here today, I thought I would discuss something with you guys as a group. And that was just an idea that I think we could all pull our money together and get Damon a present. Now, I know I probably owe him, and I probably shouldn't be crowdsourcing this. Bees is here. Bees is here for the perfect opportunity, perfect chance.

So glad you're here, bees, because we are unveiling what we believe should be maybe a Christmas present or a birthday present for Damon that we collectively as a group can purchase him. I think we have an image of this very Damon hat. This is available right now for purchase for $40. It's a new era A-frame Los Angeles Dodgers. I heart show Hey, O'Tani, snapback. hat. And I mean, I know there's probably not 40 of us in here that we can all throw a dollar in,

but I think at least if we all threw two bucks in here, we could make sure that when Damon returns, or, you know, again, next holiday, next whatever, that Damon has this hat in his possession because I can't think of a better fan that this particular hat was designed for. So, yeah, that's just something I want to put on there. That hat does exist, and Damon did text it to me with a bunch of puke emojis and anger. And so again, just wanted to make sure that everybody knows how much he wants that hat. But we thank you guys so much for stopping by. We appreciate you.

We'll be back tomorrow. Got throwback Thursday where we are going to just for no reason at all celebrate the 2001 World Series because why not? That happened yesterday in 2001, 24 years ago. And that was an amazing day. We also have more, like I said there earlier, on what's going on. across baseball. So make sure to join us, of course, for that. In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. I am at Kapp underscore K-man with a K. Noah absolutely does not want you to follow him on any social media.

So if you do unfollow him now, Shane is at Shane Deef, but he abandoned me. So also do not follow him. And if you're following him, unfollow him as well. But our show, as always, is that PHNX underscore D-Backs. And, of course, all roads, as always lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for your time. We appreciate you stopping by. We'll be back tomorrow with more baseball talk at 12 p.m. Until then, I hope you all have a wonderful evening. I hope you behave yourselves, bees, and remember, kids,

baseball is fun, but it is so much more fun when you actually worry about youth baseball and don't try to exploit it.