Good morning Birdland,
The Orioles year-long hunt for a new General Manager to sit underneath Mike Elias in the front office came to an end last week, when they announced the hiring of Jared Banner. The 41-year-old Banner was officially introduced to the media and fan base in a press conference on Tuesday.
Banner comes to the Orioles with 18 years of baseball operations experience. He has spent the last six seasons with the Cubs organization, including the last two being spent as their assistant general
manager.
Elias will continue to be the boss. However, he made it clear in the press conference that Banner’s role is going to be significant:
“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.”
“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 big job ahead of Banner. The responsibilities being handed to him are in many of the areas in which the Orioles have struggled under Elias. And he is taking it on with just about a month before the current CBA expires. Without a new deal, clubs and players on the 40-man roster cannot communicate. So, any sort of offseason training will need to be mapped out ahead of time. No matter how experienced the new GM may be, that is a lot to sort out in just a few weeks.
It is possible that additional shakeups will be coming in the organization’s player development structure, though nothing was revealed on that front. Obviously, Matt Blood, the team’s former vice president of player and staff development, left the organization last month. Banner seems to be coming in, absorbing Blood’s old responsibilities, and likely taking on a few more.
Elias said a few weeks ago that he expected to expand the front office this offseason. Adding Banner while losing Blood would not seem to represent an expansion itself, so something more could be coming. Whether that means allowing Banner to fill out a bigger developmental staff, or if Elias himself gets more deputies on the player acquisition side. It remains to be seen.
No conclusions can be made about Banner or the decision to hire him. Many in the fan base think the clube needs someone other than Elias to lead them. Clearly, ownership disagrees. At the very least, it is good that the Orioles identified weaknesses. They believe that Banner can help solve them. Whether that is true or not won’t be evident until the team starts playing baseball again. Right now, we don’t know when that will be.
Links
Banner excited to be new O’s GM: ‘We’re going to build a winner’ | Orioles.com
The American League is ripe for a team to rise above the mediocrity. If the Orioles are as talented as they seem to think they are, there is no reason it can’t be them.
Jared Banner is here to kickstart Orioles’ player development, plus other takeaways | The Banner
More on how Elias’ and Banner’s roles will differ. It is a little reminiscent of The Office arch where Michael and Jim become co-managers. Michael handles the “big picture” plans while Jim handles the “day-to-day” items. It won’t be as funny if it doesn’t work out for the Orioles.
Orioles Notes: Front Office, Rotation | MLB Trade Rumors
Elias says, once again, that the rotation is a priority going into the offseason. It is true that every team wants more starting pitching. But it is a tad annoying that the Orioles are trying to find an ace or ace-adjacent arm every single winter. If you have to say you’re looking for that kind of player every year then you failed to find them the previous year.
Some leftovers on Banner’s hiring as Orioles general manager | Roch Kubatko
Banner is saying all of the right things as he steps into this new role. He has a positive outlook. He seems excited to be hear. And his resumé speaks for itself.
Orioles birthdays
Is it your birthday? Happy birthday!
- Corban Joseph turns 38 today. The utility man played for five teams across parts of three big league seasons. That included a 14-game stay with the Orioles in 2018.
- Nate McLouth is 45 years old. Signed in the middle of the 2012 season, McLouth stepped right into the Orioles left field role and help the organization back to the playoffs for the first time since 1997. He stuck around for 2013, where he was worth 1.9 bWAR.
- Juan Guzmán is 60 today. The Orioles acquired him from the Blue Jays at the 1998 trade deadline. Over the next year he made 32 starts and was then traded to the Reds at the 1999 trade deadline. That swap with the Reds would land reliever B.J. Ryan in Baltimore, where he would develop into one of baseball’s better closers.
- Bob Melvin is 65 years old. The former catcher had a three-seasons stint in Baltimore from 1989-91. He may be better known by modern fans as a manager, a role he held for several clubs between 2003 and 2025.
- The late Sammy Stewart (b. 1954, d. 2018) was born on this day. He was an important member of the Orioles pitching staff from 1978 through ‘85. In that eight-year span he threw 866 innings, a mix between the rotation and the bullpen, and even led the league in ERA (2.32) in 1981.
This day in O’s history
Nothing of note has happened in Orioles history, according to Baseball Reference. So, here are a few things that have occurred outside of Birdland:
1886 – The Statue of Liberty is dedicated by President Grover Cleveland.
1919 – U.S. Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto. This paves the way for Prohibition to begin the following January.
1942 – The Alaska Highway first connects Alaska to the North American railway network at Dawson Creek in Canada.
