It feels strange to say that the Orioles need to make strides in their player development. 

The club currently has six top-100 prospects, according to MLB Pipeline. In August, Baseball America ranked the O’s system as fifth-best in the sport. And this is, of course, following years of the farm being seen as the best in baseball with top prospects like Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson and Jackson Holliday. 

Acquiring and developing minor league talent is an essential part of team building, a pillar of success that the Orioles have constructed better than just about anyone. The Rays and Brewers, set to square off in the World Series, have consistently been in that conversation, too. 

But it doesn’t stop there. 

Reaching the big leagues is the checkered finish line at the end of the minor league race. But the ribbon at the end of the development marathon is continuously moved down the road, for prospects and big leaguers alike. 

That’s where Jared Banner could come in, as we discussed on this week’s edition of “The Bird’s Nest.” 

Banner, announced as the Orioles’ new general manager on Monday, has spent 18 seasons in baseball operations with focuses in player development and scouting. Beginning his career in Boston, Banner served in a variety of roles for the Red Sox, including coordinator of amateur scouting, assistant director of player personnel and vice president of player personnel. 

From there, he went to Queens to serve as the Mets executive director of player development. In 2018, his first year in the role, New York had an intriguing first base prospect: Pete Alonso. The next season, Alonso produced one of the best rookie seasons in major league history, pumping 53 home runs with a .941 OPS. 

Most recently, Banner served as the assistant general manager for the Cubs, and has been credited as a pivotal piece of Chicago’s acquisition of Pete Crow-Armstrong, the likely National League MVP that Banner grew familiar with in New York. 

Crow-Armstrong was a first-round pick by the Mets, but didn’t vault into MLB Pipeline’s top 100 until 2023. At the time of the trade that sent him to Chicago’s system, the speedy outfielder had played just six minor league games and there were questions about how much power he’d produce in the future, according to Pipeline. 

He was tied for the major league lead with 45 home runs this season. 

In Baltimore, 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,” according to the Orioles. 

The expectation won’t be that he oversees the development of talents the caliber of Crow-Armstrong and Alonso. In fact, his tallest task may not be in the minor leagues at all.

In 2026, the Orioles brought in plenty of talent. Alonso over-delivered on his massive offseason deal. Shane Baz posted 13 quality starts and 179.0 innings, Blaze Alexander hit over .300 in 93 games, and Taylor Ward reached base at a .383 clip before being flipped at the deadline. There were plenty of under-the-radar additions, too, such as Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Cam Sanders. 

But a big area in which the club fell short, as Elias acknowledged in his end-of-season press conference, was in the lack of production from the team’s young core. “A lot of guys that came on like gangbusters or were excellent in the minor leagues have had their production go backwards a little bit in a way that wasn’t expected,” he said. 

This is, arguably, the most important task at hand for Banner. How can the club get the most out of the likes of Henderson, Holliday, Samuel Basallo and more? Henderson is just two years removed from a top-five American League MVP finish and 8.8 bWAR season. Holliday was ranked as the best prospect in the game in 2024, ahead of the likes of Jackson Chourio and Paul Skenes. The talent is undeniable. The production in 2026 wasn’t up to expectations. 

Baltimore can sign talented free agents and make quality trades this offseason. But the team’s success in 2027 likely hinges on the players already in-house. 

It would appear that the new GM, with a lengthy background in talent identification and development, is well-suited for the task. Elias called Banner “one of the rising talents in our league for some time,” a claim supported by reports of Banner being a finalist for the Athletics’ president of baseball operations role from The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and ESPN’s Jeff Passan, among others. 

“The Orioles are a storied franchise with a passionate fanbase, a historic ballpark, and an organization full of talent,” Banner said in the O’s press release about the hire. Now, it’ll be up to him to get the most out of that talent. 

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