Peter Schmuck: New Orioles GM brings an added voice and some breathing room for Mike Elias

During the course of his introductory media conference on Tuesday, new Orioles general manager Jared Banner showed that he already has a grasp of the strengths and weaknesses of the struggling franchise and also has a sense of humor.

Near the end of the Q&A session with the local media, he was asked how he might tap into the expertise of Oriole legends Jim Palmer and Cal Ripken Jr. as he continues to evaluate the major league roster and feel his way around the organization.

“First and foremost I made sure I hit Jim back right away … had to,’’ he said.

It was a joking reference, of course, to the recent dust-up between Palmer and manager Craig Albernaz, and it got a solid laugh, but the late morning meet-and-greet was more about Banner’s background, his reasons for coming to Baltimore and how his relationship with president of baseball operations Mike Elias would work.

He started out by pointing out all the good things about the organization, from the history of the team to the “iconic” ballpark, the “passionate” fan base and the committed ownership, before turning to the job at hand.

“Most important of all, the organization is chock full of talent, top to bottom,’’ he said, “so it really made it a pretty easy decision for me. To the fans, I want you to know, I know you’re frustrated. It’s been a rough couple of 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.”

Elias spelled out the separation of powers between himself and his new GM, but it seemed fairly obvious that – while Banner will take a lot off his plate – they will be working closely over the next few months to create a shared vision for the future of the team.

“By and large we’re going to be partnering on everything,’’ Elias said, “but there are certain aspects of baseball operations that we are going to split up and direct more exclusively between ourselves. So, our setup right now is that Jared will take over everything to do with our internal players, our internal coaches, player 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. That’s sort of the general division of management duties.”

Elias praised Banner’s wide-ranging experience with multiple organizations and said that he is putting his new GM in charge of some areas that “I think he is better than me in.”

When Banner was asked if the Orioles could learn anything from the success of the two medium-market teams that reached the World Series this year, he showed that he could also lighten things up with a little self-deprecation

“I think there are things to take away from all the clubs in the big leagues,’’ Banner said. “That’s one of the things I’m actually really good at is stealing other people’s ideas. So, if we see something that someone else is doing better than we’re doing, we’ll have no shame in taking that idea.”

Though Elias and Banner took questions for about a half-hour, they obviously were not in a position to say what they might do to improve the team in what could be a very short window for offseason business with a labor showdown looming and the sport’s Basic Agreement expiring on December 1st.

Banner said it would be “business as usual” until it’s not. He also would not speculate on the makeup of next year’s coaching staff but hinted that there would not be wholesale changes.

“We’re in the process of working through that,” Banner said. “We’re hoping for some continuity. Things could change. Some of our staff members could get big opportunities someplace else and things like that, so we’ll see how things shake out, but we’re hoping for continuity.”