It was over before it began. After getting himself in a sticky situation the recently installed General Manager of New York’s long-suffering Mets, Jared Porter, found himself on Tuesday quickly released.
Only two months ago, Crazy America, along with many seasoned observers, lauded the fresh approach of new Mets owner Steve Cohen.
Among other things, here seemed a man who was uncharacteristically open with the media.
Unfortunately, for Cohen and his Mets revolution, openness with the media – extreme openness in fact – has resulted in the first major body blow for the team under his stewardship.
In fact, it is a body blow caused by an errant body part.
The Mets fired Porter on Tuesday, just one day after it was reported that he sent explicit unsolicited texts and images to a female reporter in 2016 while working for the Chicago Cubs in their front office.
Cohen tweeted that the Mets “have terminated Jared Porter this morning,” less than 24 hours after the unsavory revelations.
“In my initial press conference I spoke about the importance of integrity and I meant it,” Cohen tweeted. “There should be zero tolerance for this type of behavior.”
Porter, 41, was hired as Mets GM on Dec. 13 to work under team president Sandy Alderson and help lead new owner Cohen’s front office. During his introductory news conference, Porter, who signed a four-year contract with the Mets, spoke about “a cultural shift,” specifically, “Adding good people to the organization, improving the organizational culture.”
Porter joined the Mets from Arizona, where he had served as the Diamondbacks’ senior vice president and assistant GM since 2017. Prior to that, he spent 12 years with the Boston Red Sox, rising from intern to pro scouting director, before joining the Cubs organization in September 2015 as director of professional scouting.
It was during his time at the Cubs that Porter began texting the woman, a foreign correspondent who had moved to the United States to cover Major League Baseball.
To rub it in for Mets fans, Porter allegedly met the female journalist in an elevator at Yankee Stadium.
The text relationship started casually before Porter began complimenting her appearance, inviting her to meet him in various cities and asking why she was ignoring him. A copy of the text history obtained by ESPN show she had stopped responding to Porter after he sent a photo of pants featuring a bulge in the groin area.
At one point she ignored more than 60 messages from Porter before he sent a final lewd photo of an erect, naked penis. After receiving the vulgar image, she responded, “This is extremely inappropriate, very offensive, and getting out of line. Could you please stop sending offensive photos or msg.” He later apologized in a series of text messages.