An original member of the Mike Elias-era Orioles is no longer with the organization.
Chris Holt, the Orioles’ director of pitching and former major league pitching coach, is no longer with the organization, a source with direct knowledge confirmed to The Baltimore Sun on Thursday afternoon.
Forrest Herrmann will be promoted from minor league pitching coordinator to replace Holt as director of pitching, the source said. MASNSports.com was first to report Holt’s departure and Herrmann’s promotion.
The moves follow an overhaul of the Orioles’ hitting coaches. The club and co-hitting coaches Matt Borgschulte and Ryan Fuller parted ways this offseason after the offense’s disappointing second half and another early playoff exit in which the bats generated only one run in two games. Bench coach Fredi González and major league coach José Hernández also won’t be returning in 2025.
Elias hired Holt away from the Houston Astros when the former was hired as Orioles general manager in November 2018. Holt rose from minor league pitching coordinator to director of pitching to major league pitching coach during his tenure in Baltimore.
From 2021 to 2023, Holt was both Baltimore’s pitching director — a role that oversees the entire organization’s pitching philosophy — and the Orioles’ major league pitching coach. He and Darren Holmes, the club’s assistant pitching coach, oversaw a staff that went from one of MLB’s worst in 2021 to one good enough to win 101 games and the American League East in 2023.
Holmes did not return in 2024, while Holt’s role was reduced to director of pitching. Drew French was plucked from the Atlanta Braves to be the Orioles’ pitching coach and Mitch Plassmeyer was promoted as his assistant.
The way Baltimore’s pitching staff held up in 2024 despite crippling injuries helped keep the team afloat in the second half as the offense slumped. A rotation that lost Kyle Bradish, Tyler Wells and John Means to season-ending injuries — as well as the final two months of Grayson Rodriguez’s sophomore campaign — finished the year ranked fifth in MLB with a 3.77 ERA. The bullpen worsened in the second half, but that unit overcame several injuries and Craig Kimbrel’s decline to remain above water.
“Absolutely fantastic,” Hyde said at the end-of-season news conference when asked about his pitching coaches. “With the rash of pitching injuries we had, with the bullpen kind of in flux, with Craig and the first half he had and then us going in a different direction and having to piece things together on a nightly basis without set roles, losing a lot of our rotation — I thought they did a great, great job. It was fun working with them this year.”
Mike Snyder promoted to VP
The Orioles announced several promotions in their baseball operations department Thursday. The most noteworthy was Mike Snyder, who was promoted to vice president of pro scouting after previously serving as senior director.
“I am proud to announce these promotions, which reflect the growth of our front office and the ascent of the organization as a whole,” Elias said in a news release. “The pro scouting department has made a tremendous positive impact in shaping our roster and farm system. The baseball analytics group has provided the high-quality information and cutting-edge tools that shape everything we do in our offices in the warehouse and across our scouting and player development operations.
“The work of these staff members has been indispensable in our winning more games than any team in the American League the last two seasons. I’d like to thank David Rubenstein and the entire ownership group for their commitment and investment toward continual improvement in baseball operations.”
Snyder, who started with the Orioles as a baseball operations intern in 2009, will continue overseeing the club’s professional scouting and player analysis across the majors, minors and professional leagues in Asia. Snyder will continue to assist in contract negotiations, 40-man roster construction and other transactions.
Elias said during spring training that Snyder was instrumental in signing Albert Suárez out of Korea. Suárez finished second on the Orioles in innings as he stepped up throughout the season to fill holes left open because of injuries.
Here is the full list of Orioles promotions:
• Brendan Fournie from director of baseball strategy to senior director of baseball strategy and operations
• Di Zou from director of baseball systems to senior director of baseball systems and analytics operations
• Ryan Hardin from senior data scientist of draft evaluation to director of pro player analytics
• Michael Weis from senior data scientist of draft evaluation to director of draft analytics
• Jim Daniels from senior software engineer to assistant director of baseball systems
• Peter Ash from senior software engineer to principal software engineer
• Ben MacLean from pro scouting analyst to senior analyst of pro scouting
• Ben Reed from pro scouting analyst to senior analyst of pro scouting
• Sam Kim from MLB fellow to pro scouting analyst
• Trey Wiedman from MLB strength coach to head MLB strength coach
• Rogelio Realzola from performance analyst to major league performance analyst
• Will Alli from minor league strength & conditioning coordinator to director of minor league strength & conditioning
• Jon Medici from Triple-A strength and conditioning coach to assistant minor league strength & conditioning coordinator
• Julio Diaz-Berrios from complex strength & conditioning coordinator to Latin America strength & conditioning coordinator
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