The Orioles have made a significant change to their front office.

Finding a general manager moved off the back burner.

Jared Banner has been hired as GM, with the team making the announcement a few minutes ago.

Banner, 40, was the Cubs’ assistant general manager since 2023. He was hired as vice president of special projects in 2020 and promoted to vice president of player development a year later.

The first 11 years of Banner’s professional baseball career were spent with the Red Sox in a variety of roles, including coordinator of amateur scouting, and assistant director, director and vice president of player personnel – the last job running from November 2016 to December 2018. He worked as Mets executive director of player development for two years before joining the Cubs.

Banner, who reportedly was also in the mix to be the Athletics head of baseball operations, is a native of Brooklyn, N.Y. who played four years of varsity baseball as an outfielder for Amherst College and was the team’s captain in 2007.

The Orioles said in a statement that Banner will “lead the organization’s player development, coaching and performance efforts, while also partnering with (Mike) Elias on strategy, staffing, and talent acquisition, among other duties.”

“When I first heard Mike’s vision, I knew it was something I wanted to be a part of,” Banner said in a statement. “The Orioles are a storied franchise with a passionate fan base, 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. I am extremely grateful to Mike, David (Rubenstein), and Mike (Arougheti) for the opportunity, and I am excited to get to work.”

Elias held the title of executive vice president/general manager when the Orioles hired him in November 2018. He was promoted, with no announcement, to president of baseball operations before the 2025 season.

The Orioles weren’t in a rush to name a GM but made it a priority after this season, which concluded again on the wrong side of .500 after back-to-back playoff appearances in 2023-24. Elias spoke about the desire to add other voices.

“I plan on going out and trying to talk to the talented executives from other teams,” Elias said in September. “We have titles available that we can use to try to gain permission to talk to people. That’s one of them. And I expect to do that.

“I think that we’re in a position where we have a lot of things going for us, but we’re on the smaller side and we would like to explore outside help and outside talent. The owners and I have been discussing that. They’re very supportive, and they will be very supportive of anyone new that we bring in this organization, as well. They’re looking to build. So we want to enhance the department, get bigger, get better. And we’re going to be leaning into that quite a bit this fall.”

Asked again about a GM during the season-ending press conference, Elias said he was seeking “good people, and it’s case-by-case and it’s individually based, like every hiring is.”

“We have a small operation,” he added. “It has been. I’ve seen in some metrics it’s like 29th in the league in terms of size in baseball operations. … Baseball operations has been growing very, very rapidly over the last few years just with the way the game’s evolving. And I think with our ownership group now, we have a good opportunity to sort of participate in that growth a little bit more than we’ve been doing. And there’s parts of our baseball operation that I think I could use some different voices and ideas in more than others.

“I don’t know that I want to get into it here on the stage, but you’ll probably be able to see as these hires come in where we’re looking for some impact.”

Banner is credited with the Cubs acquiring outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong from the Mets, bringing aboard the likely National League Most Valuable Player.

“Jared has been one of the rising talents in our league for some time now,” Elias said in the statement. “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.

“We welcome him and his family to Baltimore, and we are very pleased that they chose our team and our community for the next phase of their baseball journey.”

Other changes could be coming to the Orioles’ front office. Director of player and staff development Matt Blood left the organization in September, and assistant general manager Sig Mejdal – Elias’ first hire after leaving the Astros – had his duties adjusted to oversee the research of emerging technologies and innovative practices across baseball operations.

The Orioles will introduce Banner during a press conference at Camden Yards on Oct. 27.