Orioles announce series of front office promotions (Holt leaves organization, Cameron acquired)

The first day of the offseason includes some Orioles moves within baseball operations, which they announced this afternoon.

* Senior director of pro scouting Mike Snyder is promoted to vice president of pro scouting.

The Orioles explained in a press release that Snyder will continue to oversee their pro scouting and player analysis across the majors, minors and Asian professional leagues, and also assist with contract negotiations, 40-man roster construction, player transactions and departmental hiring. He’s one of the most important behind-the-scenes guys in the organization.

Snyder’s tenure with the Orioles goes back to 2009, when he worked as a baseball operations intern. He moved up to baseball operations assistant and international scout in 2010-11, assistant director of scouting and player development in 2012, assistant director of player personnel in 2013-14, director of pro scouting and director of Pacific Rim operations and baseball development from 2015-19. He jumped to director of pro scouting in 2020.

Snyder graduated with honors from Princeton University (NJ) in 2008 with a degree in economics, and he received his master’s degree in applied and computational mathematics from Johns Hopkins University in 2019.

* Director of baseball strategy Brendan Fournie is promoted to senior director of baseball strategy and operations.

Among Fournie’s tasks are overseeing baseball economic research and advance scouting. He advises the baseball operations team on roster management, transactions and contracts.

Fournie just finished his ninth season in the majors and third with the Orioles. He spent his first six years in various baseball operations roles with the Astros beginning in 2016, giving him ties to Orioles executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias.

Fournie graduated from the University of Missouri and received dual bachelor’s degrees in finance and sport management. He received his master’s degree in sport management from the University of Florida, where he also minored in statistics and entrepreneurship.

* Director of baseball systems Di Zou is promoted to senior director of baseball systems and analytics operations.

Zou has been in the organization for eight seasons, the last three as director of baseball systems. His new title still has him overseeing development of internal baseball operations information systems, and he will contribute to various initiatives related to baseball technology and analytics.

Zou began in 2017 as developer of baseball systems before becoming manager of baseball systems in 2020. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in mathematics.

* Other promotions announced by the club include Ryan Hardin from senior data scientist of pro player 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 in pro scouting; Ben Reed from pro scouting analyst to senior analyst in pro scouting; and Sam Kim from MLB Fellow to pro scouting analyst.

“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 statement. “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.”

* Several promotions also were announced in the strength and performance department.

Trey Wiedman goes from MLB strength coach to head MLB strength coach; Rogelio Realzola goes from performance analyst to major league performance analyst; Will Alli moves up from minor league strength and conditioning coordinator to director of minor league strength and conditioning; Jon Medici moves up from Triple-A strength and conditioning to assistant minor league strength and conditioning coordinator; and Julio Diaz-Berrios goes from complex strength and conditioning coordinator to Latin America strength and conditioning coordinator.

Notes: The Orioles outrighted outfielder Daniel Johnson off the 40-man roster yesterday, according to the MLB transactions page. He's assigned to Triple-A Norfolk.

Johnson had one plate appearance with the Orioles and scored a run. He appeared in 118 games with Norfolk and batted .259/.320/.448 with 20 doubles, a triple, 21 home runs and 76 RBIs. He also stole 17 bases.

* Orioles director of pitching Chris Holt is leaving the organization, according to multiple industry sources.

Holt followed executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias from Houston as minor league pitching coordinator for the 2019 season. He was promoted to director of pitching in 2020 and pitching coach in 2021 while also retaining his other duties.

The dual role ended in 2024 with the Orioles hiring Drew French as pitching coach. Mitch Plassmeyer was promoted to assistant pitching coach.

Holt remained director of pitching, his work done on the minor league side. He’s now free to seek other jobs.

According to a source, Forrest Herrmann will be promoted from minor league lower-level pitching coordinator to Holt’s replacement as director of pitching development. Herrmann was Double-A Bowie’s pitching coach in 2023.

* The Orioles acquired outfielder Daz Cameron from the Athletics for cash considerations.

Cameron was a non-roster invite to spring training with the Orioles in 2023 and spent the entire season at Triple-A. He slashed .200/.258/.329 (34-for-170) with five doubles, one triple, five home runs, 15 RBIs, 13 walks and 22 runs scored this summer in 66 games with the Athletics.

Cameron is the son of former major league outfielder and three-time Gold Glove winner Mike Cameron.

The club also announced that Johnson and pitcher Burch Smith declined their outright assignments and elected free agency. Also becoming free agents today were Corbin Burnes, John Means, Brooks Kriske, James McCann, Anthony Santander and Austin Slater.

The 40-man roster has 33 players.