Sources: MLBPA fires COO, human resources head with cause

The Major League Baseball Players Association fired two top executives with cause Wednesday following an internal investigation players commissioned in the wake of a federal investigation into alleged financial improprieties at the union, sources told ESPN.

The firings of Xavier James, the union’s chief operating officer, and Michael O’Neill, the head of human resources, follow the resignation of executive director Tony Clark in February. The Eastern District of New York last year launched an investigation into the union, focusing its inquiry on a number of the MLBPA’s sprawling business interests, according to sources.

While the reasons for the firings were unclear, sources said Adam Braverman, the attorney conducting the internal investigation, delivered a report to the MLBPA on Wednesday covering recent findings. The union plans to share information with federal investigators, according to sources. Braverman was unavailable for comment. James did not return messages seeking comment, and O’Neill was unable to be reached for comment.

Longtime major leaguer Chris Capuano, who has worked at the union since 2019, will take over as the MLBPA’s new COO. Ian Penny, a former general counsel at the union now serving as an adviser to executive director Bruce Meyer, was named interim chief HR officer.

The upheaval at the union comes during a seminal time. The current collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1, and Major League Baseball owners plan in bargaining to pursue a salary cap, a system the union vehemently opposes. If a deal is not struck by the expiration — a prospect sources said is doubtful — MLB likely will lock out the players, as they did in 2021 before an 11th-hour deal in March 2022 salvaged the season.

Clark’s resignation followed the internal investigation’s revelation of an inappropriate relationship with his sister-in-law, who worked at the union, sources said. An anonymous whistleblower complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board in November 2024 alleged that Clark had engaged in misuse of resources, self-dealing, nepotism and abuse of power. The MLBPA, in a statement, called them “baseless allegations … entirely without merit.”

The EDNY, which has pursued indictments against alleged illegal sports betting by NBA and MLB players, began its inquiry into the MLBPA last year, as ESPN first reported. Potential areas of interest, sources said, include the union’s involvement with OneTeam Partners, a group-licensing consortium created by Clark and former NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith, and Players Way, a youth baseball initiative shuttered months after sources told federal investigators the MLBPA had spent upward of $10 million on the business with limited returns.

Capuano, a Duke graduate who received an MBA from MIT, spent 13 seasons in the major leagues with a half-dozen teams and previously served as a senior director of operations for business at strategy at the MLBPA. Along with James and the MLBPA’s director of baseball and youth development, DJ Wabick, Capuano served as a manager at Players Way, according to a filing earlier this month in Florida.

James, who was hired by Clark as the union’s deputy COO in 2018 before being elevated to COO a year later, previously served as COO and general counsel for former All-Star Gary Sheffield’s management company. O’Neill, also a lawyer, is an adjunct professor at Penn State and Villanova, according to his LinkedIn profile.