Jared Banner knows his baseball history and has a true appreciation of iconic ballparks and ballplayers. Working for the Red Sox introduced him to Fenway Park and for the Cubs to Wrigley Field. He spoke with Cal Ripken Jr. before the Orioles offered him the job of general manager and is having lunch with the Iron Man on Wednesday, and he’s been on the phone with Jim Palmer.

“First and foremost, I made sure I hit Jim back right away,” Banner said. “Had to.”

High marks also are given for his sense of humor and awareness.

“I’m not going to just go work anywhere, but you look outside here, this is Camden Yards,” he said this morning. “This is a special place. Baltimore is a special city. Once I sat down with the people here, it became very clear that this is a great place to be and a place that we can do some special things.”

President of baseball operations Mike Elias explained the working relationship with Banner during today’s 27-minute press conference at Camden Yards.

“By and large we’re going to be partnering on everything, but there are certain aspects of baseball operations that we are going to split up and direct more exclusively between ourselves,” Elias said. “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. 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.”

Banner was hired last week after completing his 18th year in baseball operations, most recently serving as Cubs assistant general manager, a position he held since January 2024.

“We have done a lot to grow and improve and strengthen this franchise over the last several years, starting from a place where we didn’t have a lot going for us several years ago,” Elias said. “We were missing key departments and we had a very small operation, small front office. Kind of lacked the talent that we needed in the system to compete in the American League East. And as we’ve done work over the last several years to grow our franchise and improve its capabilities in baseball operations, hiring in the front office has been a big part of that.

“We have done a lot in that regard, but this is still an area where we have room for improvement, where we need to grow.”

Enter Jared Banner, who was chosen as general manager after the position became available following Elias’ promotion in 2025. The process started more than a year ago.

Elias said the Orioles spoke to “many, many really impressive, qualified people from around the league.”

“We are so pleased now that we’ve landed on Jared for this opportunity and this position,” Elias said. “Jared has had a great career and I think he’s really in the prime of his career and we’re getting him at a time when he’s really well-prepared for this and ready to grow and make a huge impact on our franchise in this tremendously important position for us. He’s been on successful teams, he’s handled all kinds of different roles, he’s led multiple departments. He’s got a great reputation and we have a lot of mutual connections that we’ve worked tougher that recommend him very highly for this.

“Once we talked to Jared, it was very clear to me this was the best fit for us for this tremendously important general manager position, and I’m really, really looking forward to working with him and all the impact that he’s going to bring to our team and the perspective that he’s going to bring to our team that we were perhaps lacking not having any really large outside front office hires the last couple of years.”

Banner said he was impressed with Elias going back to their scouting days in the Northeast in 2010.

“In baseball circles, which his a long way from Twitter, we know Mike’s one of the most talented executives in the game, hands down,” Banner said. “So honored to be up here next to him.”

Banner emphasized that he wasn’t looking to leave the Cubs. He didn’t have a foot out the door. But he couldn’t pass up a promotion to an organization that he respected this much.

“When Mike came to me about potentially partnering to build a perennial contender here in Baltimore,” Banner said, “it really got me excited.”

The next steps were meeting with ownership and president of baseball operations Catie Griggs, who sat in the front row at the press conference.

“That’s when I started to realize that, ‘Whoa, hold on, this is a special place. Baltimore is it. This is the place where me and my family need to be,’” Banner said.

“Storied franchise, iconic ballpark, passionate fan base, owners who care and want to win. And most important of all the organization’s chock full of talent top to bottom. So it really made it a pretty easy decision for me. So to the fans, I want you to know, I know you’re frustrated. It’s been a rough couple years. We’re frustrated, too. But you have our commitment. We’re going to build a winner here in Baltimore. We’re going to build a team that Baltimore can be proud of.”

Here are some other key points from earlier today:

*Banner isn’t here to be agreeable with every idea floated at him. He addressed this point when asked about his areas of strength.

“I think if you walk to people around the game, they’ll tell you that I’m always willing to challenge others and I’m always willing to get uncomfortable,” he said. “Me and Mike are gonna have to have some uncomfortable conversations at times and there’s gonna be some tension, and that’s what you need to do. You need to challenge all your processes in order to get better. So that’s something I take a lot of pride in.

“It’s a gift and a curse, though. Trust me.”

*If the Orioles are buyers at next year’s trade deadline, Elias and Banner won’t be the only executives offering input and making calls. This isn’t a two-headed front office beast.

“We get as many people on the phone as possible around the trade deadline,” Elias said.

“It’s pretty hectic. So to answer your question directly, both of us, plus six or seven other people. There is no shortage of labor to go around at the high end of a baseball operation. For better or worse, these things have been growing like crazy across the league. It’s really kind of an overwhelming amount of work and communication, and the more strong leadership the better. So I want Jared to do as much as possible for us.”

*There’s nothing new to report on the coaching staff. Banner handled that question.

“We’re in the process of working through that,” he said. “We are hoping for some continuity. Things could change. Some of our staff members could get new big opportunities in other places, things like that, so we’ll see how that all shakes out. But we’re hoping for some continuity.”

*As you’d expect, the Orioles want more starting pitching. And Elias is aiming high – beyond the middle or back end of the rotation.

“We’re talking about that right now,” he said.

“We have, I think, a really promising internal group of arms, both at the major league level and the minor league level, but as we’re talking about it upstairs today, looking for upgrades in the rotation is absolutely on the menu.”

*Banner noted multiple times he’s held the job for only a week, but he’s getting familiar with the roster and believes in the potential of the core and it’s ability to get better.

“It’s a ton of talent,” he said. “That’s the thing that attracts me to it. And I’m excited to get going and see what we can do with this group because they’re so talented. So the sky’s the limit. We’re gonna create a high standard and we’re gonna protect that standard. We’re gonna get after it. I’m excited.”

Player development is a point of emphasis and Banner shared some ideas.

“Like I said, we’re gonna challenge all of our processes and we might have to get comfortable being uncomfortable,” he said. “One of my main player development philosophies is we have to make practice more like the game, so the game gets easier once you get in there. So that’s something we’re going to focus on.”

*Elias isn’t done with the front office, and Banner is assisting in the search to fill other positions.

Banner is the first significant hire. Elias confirmed that he’s having conversations and “working on growing our operation.”

“It’s been really small,” Elias said. “That’s not necessarily the worst thing in the world. There’s positives to that, but we feel like we’re at a point where continuing to grow baseball ops is on the agenda. So Jared’s going to be spearheading some searches here in the next couple of weeks and he’s already hit the ground running.”

“One thing I want to be clear about,” Banner said. “I’ve only been here a week but it’s very clear that there are a ton of smart people already working here. I’ve been extremely impressed. I look forward to learning from them and hopefully they can learn a little bit from my new perspective, as well.”

*Being the first Black general manager of the Orioles, and the eighth in baseball history, is important to Banner because of how he can inspire others.

“I think representation matters,” he said, “and if there’s some little kid in Baltimore who sees me up here and thinks that they’re capable of something they might not have thought otherwise, that’s a big responsibility and something that I take a lot of pride in.”