Orioles Hire Jared Banner As General Manager

8:30 am: The Orioles have officially announced the hiring. The club said in a release that Banner will be in charge of player development, coaching, and performance. He’ll work with Elias on staffing and acquisitions.

7:54 am: The Orioles are hiring Jared Banner as their general manager, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. Banner was most recently an assistant general manager with the Cubs. He’s also worked for the Mets and Red Sox.

Banner has been with Chicago since 2020. He was bumped up to assistant GM in 2023. He’d previously worked in Boston and New York in a player development role. Banner played a key role in the trade that sent Pete Crow-Armstrong from the Mets to the Cubs. He was familiar with PCA’s development from his time in the Mets’ organization. Banner was also in the mix for the A’s general manager opening, but ultimately landed in Baltimore.

“When I first heard Mike’s vision, I knew it was something I wanted to be a part of,” Banner said in a team press release. “The Orioles are a storied franchise with a passionate fanbase, a historic ballpark, and an organization full of talent. I look forward to building upon the foundation laid by Mike and his team to construct a world-class organization and bring Championships back to Baltimore.”

The 41-year-old Banner has been in baseball for nearly 20 years. He got his start with the Red Sox in a low-level player development position in 2007. Banner spent 11 years in the organization, rising to vice president of player personnel by the end of his tenure. He moved on to the Mets at the end of the 2018 season, where he served as executive director of player development for two years. Banner was hired by the Cubs at the end of the shortened 2020 campaign.

Mike Elias became Baltimore’s general manager in 2018. He was handed the title of president of baseball operations heading into the 2025 season. He’s mentioned building out the front office this offseason, and now has his second-in-command in place.

“Jared has been one of the rising talents in our league for some time, now,” Elias said in a press release. “He has demonstrated success running multiple different departments and has worked alongside some of the best people and front office talent in the league across multiple stops. He is a perfect fit to grow, evolve and improve the Orioles’ baseball operations, and I look forward to working with him very closely as we build for 2027 and beyond.”

The Orioles went 79-82 this past season. They remained in the AL Wild Card race for most of September before fading in the final weeks of the year. The club has now missed the playoffs in back-to-back seasons.

Elias guided the Orioles through a lengthy rebuild when he first took over. The team lost 100+ games in three of his first four years, with the lone reprieve being the shortened 2020 season. Baltimore finished above .500 in 2022 for the first time since 2016. The following year saw the organization’s first 100-win season in more than 30 years. The Orioles made the playoffs in both 2023 and 2024, but didn’t win a series in either year.