Top negotiator Rick Shapiro leaves baseball players’ union

NEW YORK (AP) — Rick Shapiro left his job as a top negotiator for the Major League Baseball Players Association on Friday after 9½ years.

He worked as a consultant on salary arbitration starting in the 1980s and joined the staff full time in 2010, a month after Michael Weiner succeeded Donald Fehr as union head.

Shapiro’s title was senior adviser to the executive director and he was a primary figure in preparing salary arbitration cases. He was heavily involved in collective bargaining with Major League Baseball in 2011 under Weiner and in 2016 under Tony Clark. Clark became executive director in 2013 following Weiner’s death.

Bruce Meyer, then with the NHL Players Association, was hired by the baseball union last August as senior director of collective bargaining and legal. Baseball’s labor contract expires in December 2021 but the sides agreed in March to an early start to negotiations. A preliminary session was held and the first full bargaining meeting is upcoming.

Shapiro, who turns 64 on Aug. 1, declined comment on his departure. Clark did not respond to a request for comment.