Orioles Hire Cubs Executive as General Manager Under Mike Elias

After a second straight losing season, the Baltimore Orioles went outside the organization for help on Monday and named Chicago Cubs assistant general manager Jared Banner as the club's next general manager.

According to the team's announcement on Monday, Banner will run the baseball operations department day to day under president of baseball operations Mike Elias.

He will be in charge of player development, coaching and performance, and he will also work with Elias on strategy, staffing and adding talent.

Banner just finished his 18th year in baseball operations.

He had been the Cubs' assistant general manager since January 2024, after he joined Chicago in December 2020 as vice president of special projects, and before that he spent two years running player development for the New York Mets and 11 years with the Boston Red Sox, where he was part of three World Series titles.

In the team's statement, Banner said Elias' plans for the club are what sold him on Baltimore.

"When I first heard Mike's vision, I knew it was something I wanted to be a part of. The Orioles are a storied franchise with a passionate fanbase, a historic ballpark, and an organization full of talent," Banner said.

Fans will get their first look at him when the club introduces him at a press conference at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on Tuesday, Oct. 27.

Elias was the general manager himself when Baltimore hired him in November 2018, and he moved up to president of baseball operations before the 2025 season.

At his season-ending press conference, he said the baseball operations staff was small, around 29th in the league by some measures, and that he wanted to bring in different voices and ideas.

He had already said the results had to be better right after the season ended, and the front office has changed in other ways since then.

Vice president of player and staff development Matt Blood left in September, and assistant general manager Sig Mejdal had his duties changed so he can focus on researching new technology and new ideas across baseball operations.

Banner also has one big trade tied to his name, since Roch Kubatko noted in his story on the hire that Banner is credited with the Cubs getting outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong from the Mets.

Baltimore finished 79-82 and fourth in the American League East this year, and the Orioles have not been to the World Series since 1983.

I like this hire a lot, because Banner has run player development for both the Mets and the Cubs, and after two losing seasons in a row, this club needs to get more out of its young players than anything else.

He will also be working with manager Craig Albernaz, who is coming off a tough first year in charge, and I would want the two of them talking every day about which young players are ready.

Banner walks into a farm system that still has plenty of top talent, so I will judge this hire on one thing, which is whether those young hitters and pitchers take a real step forward once they get to Baltimore.