The New York Mets have fired GM Jared Porter after an ESPN article surfaced detailing explicit photos sent to a female reporter in 2016. Porter was hired this past December to be new the GM of the Mets. Porter has been involved with Major League Baseball since 2004 where he started as an intern with the Boston Red Sox.
We have terminated Jared Porter this morning . In my initial press conference I spoke about the importance of integrity and I meant it.There should be zero tolerance for this type of behavior.
— Steven Cohen (@StevenACohen2) January 19, 2021
Mets President Sandy Alderson stated that Porter acknowledged sending the text messages in a conversation the two had late Monday night. Alderson stated that he would review the facts and follow up. Cohen announced the firing of Porter Tuesday morning. Cohen stated, “In my initial press conference I spoke about the importance of integrity and I meant it. There should be zero tolerance for this type of behavior.”
STATEMENT FROM METS PRESIDENT SANDY ALDERSON
“The New York Mets have terminated General Manager Jared Porter, effective immediately. Jared’s actions, as reflected by events disclosed last night, failed to meet the Mets’ standards for professionalism and personal conduct.”— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) January 19, 2021
Jared Porter Incident
The incident occurred on August 11th, 2016 when Porter was working for the Chicago Cubs. Per the ESPN article, Porter had a conversation with a foreign female reporter which led to Porter texting her 62 times. In all, Porter sent the woman 17 pictures with two of them being sexually explicit. Porter continued to text the woman despite her not responding.
In December 2017 a baseball source informed ESPN about these texts. After interviewing the woman both parties decided not to publish the story. The female reporter did not want this story to be published out of fear that her career as a journalist would be harmed. ESPN has kept in contact with the female reporter despite her no longer being a journalist. She decided to speak up only on the condition of anonymity because of Porter’s new position of power. Additionally, she does not want a backlash from her home country.
“My number one motivation is I want to prevent this from happening to someone else,” she told ESPN through an interpreter. “Obviously, he’s in a much greater position of power. I want to prevent that from happening again. The other thing is, I never really got the notion that he was truly sorry.”
Jared Porter served as the assistant GM of Arizona Diamondbacks from 2017 until the Mets hired him in December of 2020. Just like the Mets have, the Diamondbacks have also denounced Porter’s actions.
The D-backs’ statement on Porter:
“We do not condone this behavior and are extremely troubled by the details that have been reported. We were obviously not aware of these allegations from 2016 and had we been, we would have investigated and addressed the situation immediately.”
— Zach Buchanan (@ZHBuchanan) January 19, 2021
New York Mets
New owner Steve Cohen stated in his initial press conference that there would be zero tolerance for unethical behavior. Less than 12 hours after this incident was reported Jared Porter was fired. Perhaps the timing of the incident preventing this action from happening much quicker. This incident is a stain on the Mets who were having a great offseason. It is debatable to say that the Mets should have done more research on Porter’s background. This incident did occur in 2016 and ESPN was aware of it in 2017. Two other organizations also employed Porter after this incident occurred. So far only the Diamondbacks have commented publicly on this.
The New York Mets now are in search of another GM. The newly hired Senior Vice President and Assistant General Manager Zack Scott could possibly be promoted to GM. Sandy Alderson is another individual who could step into the position while the Mets search for a replacement for Porter. The Mets have made several moves good to great moves this offseason. This includes the blockbuster trade for Francisco Lindor which Porter was instrumental in. Just a few hours earlier on Monday, the Mets had acquired Joey Lucchesi for their 14th ranked prospect. Porter got big applause for that trade as six months ago the previous GM, Brodie Van Wagenen traded the then 14th ranked prospect for Billy Hamilton.
The Mets are still linked to several big free agents such as George Springer and Brad Hand. Surely Porter was deep in discussions with the agents for those players. Could his dismissal prevent the Mets from signing these players? Only time will tell if this will serve as a distraction.
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