The Orioles put on quite the fancy dog and pony show today announcing the addition of former Cubs executive Jared Banner to the organization to replace former player-development fall-guy Matt Blood.
If it seems like a lot, well, it’s because it was a lot for an organization whose brand is gaslighting its fans and being deceptive and playing word games and trying to deflect and obfuscate at every turn. You see, baseball failure Mike Elias is still fully in charge of baseball operations. None of that changed one bit by them giving Banner – more like a fourth assistant general manger under Elias than anything else – a “general manager” title, despite him not having final say over anything and despite the fact that Elias handpicked him and despite Elias already decided to keep the feckless and overmatched puppet skipper back in the dugout for 2027 after stewarding a miserable 2026 campaign.
But let’s be real – Banner wasn’t leaving for a lateral move and the “GM” titles is great for the resume and paycheck. And most of all Elias wants shared blame now. He wants to have someone very prominent and forward-facing and thrust in front of the media (in ways Blood and the assistant GMs never would be) who can be a shield for Elias and deal with the media so he doesn’t have to and who can become a second face of an endless rebuild going into Year Nine.
If so you sell this hire hard.
You need to push it and play the optics game. You can’t just put out a press release like they did on January 16 of this year when they announced another round of fancy promotions including one for Blood, whose duties Banner inherits. And Elias thought so little of the need for a true GM, that he never even told anyone when he got his fancy promotion from being the GM years ago and he never bothered to fill it while finishing 19.5 games out of first place in 2025 and he didn’t think it mattered as he again fell below .500 and finished 18.5 games off the pace in 2026.
Now is a great time for this grand ruse to pretend like something has changed around here or something is going to be different. Elias is already going to great lengths to pretend that Banner has real power … so when 2027 is horrible – and it will be bad because Elias and Craig Albernaz sticking around guarantees that much and these owners don't really care about winning. But now Elias isn’t the only person wearing it.
Anything for job preservation to stay embedded of these private equity billionaires. So, with that disclaimer out of the way, are there three areas where Banner could maybe nudge things in a positive direction? Keeping my fingers crossed and expecting the worst:
Emphasis On A Real CF
Cubs executives are coming out staunchly and crediting Banner for building a case on them acquiring future superstar Pete Crow-Armstrong from the Mets when he was a top prospect but still in the low minors with New York. Banner had been with the Mets and believed PCA had MVP potential, or something like that, and he has become a top-five player in the game.
And he is a complete player and the superior defense is a major part of his skillset. I am praying that Banner will convince Elias he needs a massive upgrade in CF at the plate and in the field, and that perhaps his player development background and fancy title will give him a little juice to influencing the back-end of the roster and at least having dudes with plus gloves and real versatility and who fit the mode of a pinch-runner and defensive replacement on the bench.
Ties To Cubs Free Agents
So it just so happens this is a bad free-agent class and Elias is a total joke at building an outfield despite loading up on them at the top of the draft and supposedly ones who were close to MLB ready than not. But they need two starting outfielders at a minimum – OF, and two Cubs would fit the bill for a potential corner upgrade.
Seiya Suzuki is very interesting, our buddy Dan Szymborski from Fangraphs.com, a lifelong O’s fan a data guru behind their ZIPS projections, made the case for this slugger on “The Daily Flock” recently. Suzuki would be a massive upgrade in right field and I wonder if he could handle left.
Ian Happ, wouldn’t you know it, another Cub, would also be a nice fit in left field. Banner was assistant GM with the Cubs, knows both players inside out, and perhaps could be a conduit if the O’s want to go in that direction. They’d better be very aggressive in checking off all these needs.
Far East Outreach
The Orioles have had a checkered past with players from Japan and Korea and the last two bigger moves in those markets – Tomo Sugano and Hyun Soo Kim from Korea – went very poorly. Banner started to make a name for himself in the Red Sox organization for his role in scouting and outreach to players in the Far East and Mexico in particular and while that wasn’t as central to his role later in his career, he certainly couldn’t hurt.
This looks like a very interesting year with who will be posted from Japan and Korea to potentially come over to MLB, and that’s a market the Orioles should utilize for potential bargains – like Suzuki and Shota Imanaga quickly became for the Cubs – and, as Szymborski pointed out, to try improve the Orioles reputation in those markets and improve Baltimore as a potential landing spot for them.
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