Athletics Name Taylor Smith President of Baseball Operations Ahead of Sacramento Move

The Oakland Athletics hired Taylor Smith as President of Baseball Operations on Tuesday, installing a 38-year-old analytics executive atop the org chart 18 months before the club's scheduled move to a temporary ballpark in Sacramento. Smith joins from the Boston Red Sox, where he spent six years building their quantitative infrastructure and most recently served as Vice President of Baseball Operations.

The Baltimore Orioles simultaneously announced Jared Banner's promotion to General Manager, elevating the 34-year-old assistant GM into the role vacated when Mike Elias assumed sole control as President of Baseball Operations in November. Banner arrived from Houston in 2018 alongside Elias and has overseen Baltimore's amateur scouting apparatus through a rebuild that produced Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, and Jackson Holliday—the club's three highest-rated prospects over the past five years, all selected in the top five of their respective drafts.

The Athletics' hire matters because it clarifies the decision-making structure for a franchise navigating three home markets in four years. Smith reports to general manager David Forst, who remains in place, creating a traditional president-above-GM hierarchy. The Red Sox lineage signals a quantitative tilt: Boston's front office under Chaim Bloom emphasized player development modeling and international amateur spending efficiency, both relevant for a club operating under owner John Fisher's notoriously tight payroll parameters. Oakland ranked 29th in MLB in player payroll in 2024 at $63 million, nearly $200 million below the Mets. Smith's mandate is to extract margin from draft capital and pre-arbitration talent, the only levers Fisher has historically funded.

The timing also matters. Sacramento's Sutter Health Park seats 14,000, roughly half the capacity of the Coliseum, which will compress gate revenue further while the club waits on a Las Vegas stadium scheduled to open in 2028. Smith's track record in Boston included structuring contracts with deferred money and performance incentives—necessary tools when selling a competitive timeline to free agents who will spend two years in a Triple-A park. His first test will be whether Oakland extends Brent Rooker, who posted a .863 OPS in 2024 and enters his final arbitration year. Rooker is precisely the type of controllable asset Smith must either lock down cheaply or flip for younger pieces.

Baltimore's move is cleaner. Banner's promotion formalizes what was already happening: Elias handles strategy and payroll allocation, Banner executes amateur signings and trades. The Orioles have $68 million in committed payroll for 2025, the fourth-lowest in the American League, despite a roster that won 101 games in 2023. The front office now has clear authority to spend into the club's competitive window without Elias needing to approve every waiver claim. Ownership under the Rubenstein group, which bought the team for $1.7 billion in 2024, has publicly committed to raising payroll, and Banner will likely oversee the first significant free-agent expenditure in franchise history since Chris Davis's $161 million extension in 2016.

The Banner hire also removes a name from the GM candidate pool. He interviewed for vacancies in San Francisco and Houston over the past two offseasons and was considered a top target for clubs seeking a young executive with amateur scouting credibility. His decision to stay in Baltimore signals confidence in ownership's spending commitment and the roster's window—Henderson, Rutschman, and Holliday are all under team control through at least 2028.

Watch whether Smith moves quickly on Rooker's extension before spring training or pivots to a trade. Rooker's market value sits near $12 million annually over four years, a number Fisher has rarely approved for a non-pitcher. Also watch whether Baltimore adds a veteran starter before Opening Day; Banner has final say on trades, and the rotation remains thin beyond Corbin Burnes, who is a free agent after 2025. The Orioles' payroll flexibility gives them room to add $30 million in annual commitments without approaching league-average spending.

Smith's hire completes the Athletics' front office before the Sacramento chapter begins. Banner's promotion clears Elias to focus on long-term roster construction while someone else handles the agent calls. Both moves are about aligning authority with the problems each front office will face in 2025: Oakland needs to stay solvent in a minor-league park, Baltimore needs to spend before its stars reach free agency.