LAKELAND, Fla. >> Tony Clark had a rapt and inquisitive audience Wednesday morning, so much so that his annual visit to the Tigers’ clubhouse went about an hour past its scheduled time.

“Any time guys are wanting to make sure that what they’re seeing and what they’re thinking about is good, bad or indifferent, or right or not, that’s what we want,” said Clark, the former Tiger, and executive director of the MLB Players’ Association. “Oftentimes, unfortunately, there’s a lot of rhetoric out there that have some half-truths, some no-truths mixed in with some truths and it makes it hard to differentiate.”

Tarik Skubal is on the union’s executive committee. Jack Flaherty has served on that committee until last season. Casey Mize is the club’s union rep.

“Having player leadership that is engaged and involved and interested in understanding and learning about how the moving pieces fit, that’s exactly what the goal is for all of our players,” Clark said.

Clark touched on two of the topics players inquired about. One was the players’ concern about the large amount of veterans still sitting at home without contracts or have had to settle for minor league deals. Tigers’ lefty Andrew Chafin is among the latter group, in camp as a non-roster invitee.

“We believe it’s a symptom of teams not valuing players that can help them win ballgames,” Clark said. “At the end of the day these are players that can help you win, and there’s a number of them still at home. I find it fascinating, in a world where pitching is always at a premium and yet there are pitchers that are still on the market that can help teams win ballgames.”

Among those pitchers still out there are Kyle Gibson, Patrick Corbin, Lance Lynn, Alex Wood and former Tiger Spencer Turnbull.

“It’s a concern that teams aren’t valuing every win to help them be the last team standing, in a way that suggests they access talent that can help them win every next game,” Clark said. “A veteran player becomes a veteran player not by accident. You become a veteran player because you know how to navigate 162 (games), 35 (starts) and 500 (at-bats). That’s how you become a veteran player.

“There’s value to that.”

What it comes down to, said Clark, is there are teams who are willing to do whatever it takes to be the last team standing and there are teams that aren’t.

Clark also fielded a lot of questions on the topic of a potential lockout after the 2026 season, especially if owners push for a hard salary cap.

The collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1, 2026.

“Let me be very clear,” he said. “There may have been a miss on this as a topic of conversation.”

There have been reports, as Clark tours all the teams training in Florida, that the union is bracing for a lockout. Clark phrased it as preparing for rigorous negotiations.

“We are interested and are always interested in sitting down at the bargaining table and negotiating in good faith to find a fair and equitable deal before the expiration of the agreement,” Clark said.

“The other side (commissioner Rob Manfred) came out and said a lockout is going to be the new norm and is good for the game.

“We don’t happen to agree with that.”

In a story by Evan Drellich in The Athletic last week, Manfred said:

“In a bizarre way, it’s actually a positive. There is leverage associated with an offseason lockout and the process of collective bargaining under the NLRA (National Labor Relations Act) works based on leverage.

“The great thing about offseason lockouts is the leverage that exists gets applied between the bargaining parties.”

Clark responded by saying, “Unless I am mistaken, the league has come out and said there was going to be a work stoppage.”

Clark wanted to make sure the players understood where everything stood.

“We’re interested in negotiating at the table,” he said.

“The players, as a result of those comments, are asking about a lockout and we’re walking them through that.

“Our goal is the same every time and was even going back in our history with all the challenges we’ve had in regards to work stoppages.”