Staffing Cuts Come to the Washington Nationals

(Tuesday, December 8, 2020)

As first reported by The Athletic, it looks like the Washington Nationals will be laying off 18 full-time employees, which is approximately 7.5% of their full-time business operations staff, due to the impact of COVID-19. The Athletic reported that this included the Washington D.C. based sales team, including employees from Corporate Partnerships and ballpark operations.

In a statement issued today by the Washington Nationals, the team recognized that COVID-19 had impacted the team and the business of baseball. In addition to laying off already employed staff, the Nationals also said that they would be eliminating "the majority of open positions that we have planned to fill in the coming months..."

However, the Nationals did say that the employees who are going to be impacted by the layoffs will "receive a severance package, including six months of health insurance coverage and other employee assistance."

Lastly, in the statement issued by the team in the late afternoon, "Recognizing that the staff remaining will have to take on additional responsibilities and work harder to keep the relationship with our fans going strong as we head into another uncertain year, we will end the partial furlough and restore business side employees to their full salaries for 2021.

Last week on The Nats Report, we published that all the Major League Baseball teams have sued in California Superior Court insurance companies such as AIG, Factory Mutal, and Interstate Fire and Casualty Company as they have refused to pay MLB claims despite the league's "all-risk" policy purchases.

According to the University of Pennsylvania Law School COVID litigation tracker, more than 1,400 cases have been filed against insurers regarding business interruption claims during the pandemic.