Major League Baseball has officially recognized Phillies owner John Middleton as the franchise’s “control person”
Emerging from a back room as a virtual unknown, John Middleton was a name very few Phillies fans had ever heard of. He was seen almost like a name with no face or traces of origin, almost ghost-like to the fanbase.
Today, Major League Baseball and the ownership officially recognized Middleton as the “control person” for the Phillies franchise. This move places Middleton in the role previously held by Bill Giles and David Montgomery.
According to reports, Middleton owns 48% of the Philadelphia Phillies, with the remaining assets being owned by other members of the ownership group. Giles, Montgomery, Claire S. Betz, and the Buck family that bought the team from the Carpenter family in 1981.
Major League owners have formally approved the designation of John S. Middleton as the control person of the Phillies. #PhilliesTalk pic.twitter.com/etsO5cc94Z
— Marshall Harris (@mharrisonair) November 17, 2016
The senior Middleton paid $18 million a 15% stake in the team around 1994.
Montgomery and former Phillies General Manager Pat Gillick are believed to still own a small majority of the team, which was valued to be $1.24 billion by Forbes.
With Montgomery’s cancer diagnosis in 2014, Middleton took a broader step into the spotlight as the face of the ownership. Last year with the hiring of team president Andy MacPhail and general manager Matt Klentak, Middleton became a clear leader within the organization.
Reportedly worth $2.9 billion, John Middleton sold his family’s lucrative tobacco business in 2007 to a parent of Phillip Morris USA.
The move is more a formality for Major League Baseball to officially recognize John Middleton as the team’s representative in ownership meetings. Middleton was already seen as a major figurehead within the organization and fan base, pushing more a more analytical approach in the Phillies rebuild.
Middleton will now have the opportunity to vote on the Phillies behalf on things such as a new collective bargaining agreement, rule changes, and other corporate and competitive endeavors pursued by Major League Baseball.
Let’s just hope he does not go fishing during a big meeting.
The ownership meeting will be followed by the General Manager Winter Meetings next month, where much of the “wheeling and dealing” will begin.
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