It was rather interesting recently to see disgraced former Astros GM Jeff Luhnow emerge from MLB exile to once again proclaim his innocence in the Houston sign-stealing cheating scandal and this time, cast blame on his former underlings.
When Luhnow said, "the people who were involved, that didn't leave naturally to go to other teams ...," he could only have been referring to his former top assistant Mike Elias, now the GM in Baltimore.
Elias may have escaped the Astros scandal, but he's facing his own investigation for potential pension fraud. It could result in equally severe consequences.
Though they were never publicly named in the MLB investigation of the Astros' 2017-2018 cheating schemes — as Commissioner Rob Manfred took pains not to prosecute anyone under Luhnow or manager A.J. Hinch in the Houston organization — it's been widely speculated throughout baseball that Elias and Sig Mejdal, then Director of Decision Sciences (i.e. analytics) with the Astros, were two of the architects of the "Codebreaker" operation. The two have denied any involvement.
Elias was able to jump ship ahead of the scandal breaking to take the Orioles GM job in 2018. He brought Mejdal along to be his assistant GM, and Chris Holt, a minor league pitching instructor, to serve as an organization pitching coordinator for the O's.
The Orioles pension scandal centers on Elias' decision to give Holt benefits for which he was likely ineligible. Under the joint agreement between the MLB owners and the Players Association, only four coaches can be designated by the clubs for the pension plan, as well as the licensing money. Earlier this year, it was learned that Elias had designated Holt as one of the Orioles coaches to be placed on the plan, even though Holt is not listed as a coach for the Orioles, wasn't with the team all year and was not even given a uniform number. He reportedly spent much of his time working in their minor league complex in Bowie, Md.
When contacted by the Daily News, Steve Rodgers, a special assistant in the Players Association actively involved in all pension matters, confirmed the complaint about Holt and said the matter is presently in the hands of the pension committee lawyers. "All I can tell you," Rogers said, "is that to my knowledge we've never had a case like this."
In addition to earning a year on the MLB pension plan, which includes lucrative medical benefits and life insurance, Holt would also be entitled to a players' licensing check from the sale of paraphernalia and merchandise (mostly online this year) and baseball cards. Those checks average annually between $40,000-$60,000, and are normally distributed to the players and coaches in spring training every year.
The Orioles had eight listed coaches this year and according to sources, the other three "legitimate" Orioles coaches who were designated on the plan were field coordinator Tim Cossins, hitting coach Don Long and third base coach Jose Flores.
If Elias knew the pension qualification rules — that you have to be a fulltime, uniformed coach, which Holt never was — and if he then went ahead anyway and deliberately tried to slip him through over other qualified Orioles coaches, according to a long time baseball lawyer with experience in the MLB pension plan, that could very well constitute pension fraud. "Assuming this is found to be fact," the lawyer said, "we're talking about people being engaged in pension fraud here, something that affects not just the coaches who potentially got screwed but all the baseball retirees. There is certainly going to have to be retribution and, I would think, significant discipline."
Among those who got "screwed" was first base coach Anthony Sanders, the only Black coach on the Orioles' staff.
It's going to be up to the six-member MLB pension board to determine Elias' culpability.
The Orioles did not immediately return the News' request for comment.
In any case, as Luhnow continues to blame everyone else for the Houston sign-stealing scandal, what's become clear is that the Astros' duplicitous ways have now been extended to Baltimore.
