This had been brewing for some time, but it looks like the Phillies finally made that significant round of staff reductions.

Jim Salisbury at NBC Sports Philadelphia says the team eliminated more than 80 jobs this week, writing the following:

“Employees were informed of the reduction in staff in an email update from upper management this week.

According to the email, a copy of which was acquired by NBC Sports Philadelphia, “the vast majority” of departing employees took a buyout package offered by the club. Others were laid off, had their positions eliminated, or in some cases simply did not have their contracts renewed.

The Phillies, like all other Major League Baseball teams, were hit hard by revenue losses due to COVID-19 and the shortened 2020 season. Most every team has reduced its workforce, some months ago. Phillies ownership is on record as saying it lost “significantly more than $100 million” in 2020.”

This does not come as a surprise.

Back in June, just a few months into the pandemic, the Phillies implemented pay cuts for employees as a first step, but promised that there would be no jobs eliminated through October.

In September, Matt Gelb then reported that the Phils started by presenting buyouts to employees, which offered one week’s worth of salary for each employment year, plus a $10,000 lump sum payment and subsidized health benefits.

Salisbury says the Phillies had more than 460 full-time employees, which means the loss of 80 positions equates to about 17 percent of the staff.

This is a bummer, but again, not a surprise. We knew this was coming. Rough time for the team, which was hit hard in the revenue department due to the pandemic. The results on the field were not good, the general manager was re-assigned, and has yet to be replaced.

John Middleton, time’s yours.