diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant/remote_timeline_client.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant/remote_timeline_client.rs
index 91e1179e53..547679c435 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant/remote_timeline_client.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant/remote_timeline_client.rs
@@ -823,6 +823,10 @@ impl RemoteTimelineClient {
         }
 
         // schedule the actual deletions
+        if with_metadata.is_empty() {
+            // avoid scheduling the op & bumping the metric
+            return;
+        }
         let op = UploadOp::Delete(Delete {
             layers: with_metadata,
         });