Bill Madden: Definition of a coach to determine Orioles pension case; hearing coming in December
The thorny issue of whether Orioles’ GM Mike Elias tried to slip his Director of Pitching Chris Holt onto the pension plan under false pretenses — which the Daily News reported exclusively two weeks ago — is going to come down to the definition of a coach.
According to the rules of the pension plan, those eligible to be covered (besides the players of course) are trainers and full-time coaches. The definition of a coach as per the MLB Basic Agreement is someone “who regularly travels with the club and performs duties on the field during the championship season.”
Holt, who was never listed as a coach at any time by the Orioles, did none of those things during the 2020 season whereas Anthony Sanders, the Orioles’ first base coach and the lone Black coach on the staff, was left off the pension plan.
As per his job description when Elias brought him over from the Astros last year, Holt, who was never issued a uniform number, was to travel around the minor leagues and spend occasional time around the major league club evaluating pitchers.
This year he spent almost all of his time at the Orioles’ minor league camp in Bowie, Md.
Last week, he was named by Elias to replace Doug Brocail as the Orioles’ pitching coach. I’m told that Elias is trying to maintain Holt was actually some sort of extra coach this year but that his role changed because of the pandemic and he was forced to spend his entire time at the Bowie camp. That argument is not flying with the Players Association, which correctly maintains Holt met none of the criteria of a full-time coach.
The issue is going to be resolved at a meeting of the pension board in December. Assuming it’s determined Holt was not eligible, Elias would then have to designate someone else from the Oriole coaching staff — presumably Sanders — and the remedy would be that all of the pension time accrued by Holt, along with the licensing money, would be transferred to the new designee.
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