The Orioles’ search for a general manager is over, and the job goes to Jared Banner.
Baltimore officially introduced the 41-year-old on Tuesday, a week after announcing the hire. Banner arrives with 18 years of baseball operations experience, including the last six seasons in the Cubs organization and the last two as assistant general manager.
Mike Elias is still running the show, but the division of labor is now much clearer. Elias laid out exactly how the front office will be split, with Banner taking the lead on the organization’s internal side and Elias focusing more on player acquisition.
“Our setup right now is that Jared will take over everything to do with our internal players, our internal coaches, player development, performance, healthcare, all of that is going to fall under his umbrella,” Elias said. “I will then work more directly on the scouting and acquisition side of the equation -- pro, international, amateur, contracts, things like that.
But we will be running the whole team together and working in concert with one another. But that’s sort of the general division of management duties.”
He added: “I think that Jared is very tremendously experienced in those areas, very successful in those areas. I think he’s better than I am in those areas. And this will also allow, hopefully, the club to leverage me a little bit better and allow me to spend more of my time on the acquisition side of things.”
That’s a hefty assignment for Banner, especially with the offseason clock already ticking toward the current CBA expiring in about a month. If there isn’t a new deal, teams and players on the 40-man roster won’t be allowed to communicate, which would complicate any offseason training plans that need to be mapped out in advance.
There could also be more movement coming in Baltimore’s player development setup, though nothing specific was revealed. Matt Blood, the team’s former vice president of player and staff development, left the organization last month, and Banner appears positioned to absorb those responsibilities while possibly taking on more.
Elias said a few weeks ago that he expected to expand the front office this offseason, so this hire may not be the final piece. Bringing in Banner while losing Blood does not really look like an expansion by itself, which leaves open the possibility of additional additions, either on the development side or among Elias’ deputies on the acquisition side.
For now, the Orioles have answered one question, even if the bigger ones remain. The fan base has long wondered whether the club needed someone other than Elias in a leadership role, but ownership clearly sees it differently.
What is certain is that the team identified problem areas and believes Banner can help clean them up. Whether that pays off won’t be obvious until the Orioles are back on the field, and right now nobody knows exactly when that will be.
Banner said all the right things as he steps into the role, and his résumé is strong enough to back it up. He’s also walking into an American League that looks open for a team to rise above the middle. If Baltimore is as talented as it believes, it sees itself as a club that can do exactly that.
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Mike Elias Just Raised A Bigger Orioles Power Question
The Orioles used Mondays introduction of Jared Banner as their new general manager to clarify how the front office will be divided going forward. Mike Elias said Banner will handle the clubs internal side of the operation, including players, coaches, player development, performance and healthcare, while Elias shifts more of his attention toward scouting and acquisitions.
That setup says plenty about where Baltimore thinks its next gains can come from. Elias also acknowledged that Banner is stronger than he is in the areas tied to internal growth and development, a notable admission for a club trying to keep its young core moving in the right direction while still chasing bigger roster upgrades. [Read more 🡒]
New Orioles GM Just Changed The Mike Elias Conversation
Jared Banner used his introductory media conference as Baltimores new general manager to sketch out how he plans to fit into an Orioles front office that already has a clear hierarchy. He talked through his background, the clubs strengths and weaknesses, and the working relationship he expects to maintain with president of baseball operations Mike Elias, while also signaling that continuity could matter on the coaching side as the organization keeps trying to build a winner.
The more revealing part was how the two leaders are separating the work. Elias is still the one driving the broader talent pipeline and acquisition side of the operation, while Banners role centers on the day-to-day baseball side inside the organization, from players to coaches to performance. That division gives the Orioles a little more definition heading into the next phase, even if the real test will be how smoothly the arrangement works once roster and staff decisions start piling up. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Burnes Trade Is Suddenly Tied To A World Series Collapse
Corbin Burnes has long been the centerpiece of the Orioles deal with Milwaukee, a trade that brought one of the games premier starters to Baltimore in exchange for Joey Ortiz, DL Hall and a draft pick. For the Orioles, it remains one of the defining roster moves of this era, the kind of swap that gets revisited every time Burnes takes the ball or the other side starts making noise in October.
What makes the conversation even sharper now is the way Ortizs postseason has unfolded for the Brewers, with his defense still carrying value even as his bat has been quiet. Hall, meanwhile, has emerged as a useful relief arm in the playoffs, giving Baltimore another reason to keep tabs on the deal, but the broader fallout from that exchange suddenly feels bigger after Milwaukees latest World Series disappointment. [Read more 🡒]