FORT MYERS, Fla. – Red Sox player representative Garrett Whitlock summed up the baseball world’s reaction to the impending resignation of Major League Baseball Players Association executive director Tony Clark in two words.

“I was like, ‘Wait, what?’” Whitlock said as he stood by his locker at JetBlue Park early Tuesday afternoon.

Clark and the MLBPA were scheduled to begin their annual spring training tour on Tuesday with a visit to Cleveland Guardians camp. At 6 a.m. local time, the union informed the Guardians they needed to postpone.

Echoing fellow player reps around the league, Whitlock said he had no prior knowledge of the bombshell, which dropped Tuesday morning. Whitlock heard the news from a Red Sox media relations employee, and said the union had called for an impromptu meeting that afternoon.

“I don’t know what the reason is, I literally know nothing,” Whitlock said of Clark’s exit. “Hopefully I’ll get some more information (at the meeting), but yeah, literally I don’t know reasons. Hopefully it’s nothing to do with family or anything like that, like I hope everything’s OK with them. … If I said anything more, it would all be speculation. I really have no idea.”

Clark, who played 15 seasons in the majors, including with the 2002 Red Sox, has helmed the union since 2013. Several initial reports speculated that his resignation stemmed from the ongoing federal probe into whether union officials misused licensed funds for personal enrichment. The Athletic, which broke Tuesday’s news, reported last June that Clark and the union had hired separate lawyers.

However late Tuesday afternoon, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported that Clark is resigning because of an internal investigation, which revealed an inappropriate relationship with his sister-in-law, who was hired by the union in 2023. According to The Athletic, “The relationship came to light at a time when members of the MLBPA’s eight-player executive subcommittee have been in contact with both federal officials and players’ own outside counsel regarding (the probe).”

There were factions within and outside of the union that felt Clark and deputy director Bruce Meyer were no longer the right men for their jobs long before Tuesday. During spring training two years ago, major- and minor-league player leadership made an open attempt to oust Meyer. Later that year, the National Labor Relations board received an anonymous complaint from current and former MLBPA staff and members, which alleged multiple forms of corruption by Clark and the union, including nepotism, misuse of resources, and abuse of power.

“I think a change is due,” said one former player, who’s still in the industry and spoke to the Herald on the condition of anonymity, “and maybe the idea of what that role was – he was right at the time he took the job. Time has passed and the game has changed; it’ll continue to change. The ‘who’ matters, but the ‘what’ and ‘why’ matter big time, too.”

Just before 6 p.m. ET, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported the reps’ meeting did not include a vote to install an interim executive director, but that they were expected to hold a vote as soon as Wednesday.

Regardless, the timing and matter of Clark’s exit adds a new layer of chaos to what already promises to be a tumultuous year for players and their union. Their collective bargaining agreement with MLB is set to expire on Dec. 1, and negotiations between the union and owners are expected to be contentious. Rumblings about another lockout began almost immediately after the current CBA was ratified, after the owners locked out the players for 99 days, during the 2021-22 offseason.

Trevor Story was a free agent during the last lockout and ultimately signed his six-year Red Sox contract late in spring training. The veteran shortstop understands the trepidation and uncertainty felt by younger teammates, who were minor leaguers or not yet playing professionally during the last lockout.

“A lot of us just learned the news (about Clark),” Story told the Herald. “But as far as my experience being a free agent during the lockout, it wasn’t fun. It’s not fun and it’s not an ideal situation.

“But that’s just kind of the luck of the timing. And what we had to do to try to get what we earned back. So I think obviously we’ll talk about this more in the next couple days, but right now we’re just learning, honestly. … It’s a challenge, for sure.”

Story said the CBA’s expiration, potential work stoppage, and possibility of a salary cap and other changes didn’t play into his decision to opt in to the remaining two years of his contract rather than test free agency after a comeback season.

“It really didn’t factor in for me,” Story said. “It was more about being comfortable where I’m at, and kind of the trajectory of the organization, the young guys coming up. Obviously all the additions point to a winning direction. So that’s what I want to do, and I feel like that’s what I came here to Boston to do. And I felt like we’re just about to take off, so now’s not the time to leave.”

“Baseball is such an everyday grind that you can’t worry about tomorrow,” Story added, “you’ve got to lock in today.”