Report: Orioles GM Mike Elias, director of pitching Chris Holt involved in potential case of pension fraud

Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias and director of pitching Chris Holt are involved in a potential case of pension fraud, according to a report from the New York Daily News.

Holt was one of four coaches that Elias designated for a pension plan that is part of the joint agreement between Major League Baseball owners and the Major League Baseball Players Association, according to the Daily News. The issue stems from Holt not officially being part of the Orioles' major league coaching staff.

The Orioles did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

As director of pitching, Holt was intended to serve in a hybrid role working with the Orioles' pitchers in the majors and throughout the minors, but the coronavirus pandemic hampered his ability to do so, leaving Holt to do the majority of his work at the team’s alternate training site in Bowie.

Shortly after becoming the Orioles' GM in November 2018 after a long tenure in the Houston Astros' front office, Elias hired Holt away from Houston to be Baltimore’s minor league pitching coordinator. In Holt’s first and only year in that role, many of the Orioles' minor league affiliates led their respective leagues in strikeouts while numerous individual pitchers took leaps forward.

The other three Orioles coaches included on the pension plan, according to the Daily News, were major league field coordinator Tim Cossins, hitting coach Don Long and third base coach José Flores. Last month, Flores and pitching coach Doug Brocail were informed they won’t return for the 2021 season. Holt is a potential candidate to replace Brocail as pitching coach.

In addition to medical benefits and life insurance, inclusion on the pension plan includes a players' licensing check from the sale of paraphernalia and merchandise and baseball cards, generally ranging from $40,000-$60,000, according to the Daily News.

A six-person MLB pension board will determine whether Elias intentionally skirted the rules in including Holt on the pension plan. This past offseason, their former organization, the Astros, was found to have cheated during its run to the 2017 World Series title by using a video relay system to steal opposing teams' signs. Elias, Holt and Orioles assistant general manager Sig Mejdal, also a former Houston employee, were not implicated in the scandal.

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