Orioles reportedly hire Cubs assistant Jared Banner as new general manager

The Baltimore Orioles are shaking up their front office. Coming off another down year, the team decided to bring in some fresh blood, reportedly hiring Jared Banner as its new general manager, per ESPN.

Banner previously served as an assistant general manager with the Chicago Cubs.

The move comes more than a year after Baltimore's previous general manager, Mike Elias, was promoted to the team's president of baseball operations. At the time, it was reported that the Orioles would hire a new general manager ahead of the 2026 MLB season. That didn't happen, and Elias presumably filled the role in 2026.

Banner has a fairly extensive history around the game. He broke in with the Boston Red Sox, working his way from an assistant in player development to the team's vice president of player personnel in 11 years. He was then hired by the New York Mets as the team's executive director of player development. He spent two seasons with the team in that role.

After that, he joined the Cubs. Banner started out as a vice president of special projects with the team, but worked his way into an assistant general manager role. He held that position for three seasons before being hired by the Orioles on Monday.

Orioles looking for improvement after disappointing 2026

In his new role, Banner will be tasked with turning around an Orioles team that has fallen short of expectations the past two years. After going 91-71 in 2024, the Orioles have won just 75 and 79 games the past two seasons.

During that period, the team has promoted and developed a handful of promising hitting prospects, like Gunnar Henderson and Samuel Basallo. Things have lagged on the pitching side, where the Orioles have given up at least 735 runs in each of the past two seasons.