New York Mets GM Jared Porter admitted to sending sexual text messages to a female reporter during his time with the Chicago Cubs.
Late Monday night ESPN published a joint report from Jeff Passan and Mina Kimes that New York Mets general manager Jared Porter has admitted to sexual harassment.
The report states that ESPN obtained an exchange of text messages from Porter, then with the Chicago Cubs, to a female reporter. The text messages were unsolicited and explicit in nature. The reporter claims to have received and ignored more than 60 messages from Porter during that time.
Porter reportedly did acknowledge messaging the reporter when asked by ESPN, though he tried to deny sending any explicit pictures of himself. When ESPN pressed him on the images, he responded, “the more explicit ones are not of me. Those are like, kinda like joke-stock images.”
ESPN also reports they’ve had this knowledge since December of 2017, but did not report on it, as the reporter involved believed that a story would only harm her career. According to ESPN, the woman has since stepped away from journalism and finally feels comfortable telling her story.
The Mets hired Porter as their new general manager on Dec. 13.
Late Monday, Mets President Sandy Alderson released the following statement:
“I have spoken directly with Jared Porter regarding events that took place in 2016 of which we were made aware tonight for the first time. Jared has acknowledged to me his serious error in judgment, has taken responsibility for his conduct, has expressed remorse and has previously apologized for his actions. The Mets take these matters seriously, expect professional and ethical behavior from all of our employees, and certainly do not condone the conduct described in your story. We will follow up as we review the facts regarding this serious issue.”
These allegations are incredibly serious, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Mets make a move to dismiss Jared Porter. Any conduct of this nature can not and should not be tolerated by any workplace.
Just last year the Mets hired Carlos Beltrán as their new manager only to see him implicated in the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal. Beltrán was hired officially on Nov. 1, 2019 and fired almost exactly one year ago – Jan. 16, 2020.
If the Mets do decide to move on from Porter, expect Assistant GM Zack Scott to take over as general manager. He was the runner up to Porter in the initial general manager search.
