If Carlos Beltran had to go after plaque theft last season, then Jared Porter has to go now if the facts of ESPN history are true and the new Mets GM in 2016 sent a barrage of unsolicited text messages with overtones obscene for a reporter.
Beltran committed a baseball crime and never made it to his first opening day as a coach. That would be an offense to decency, the dynamics of power and common sense for someone who would have far more organizational power than Beltran.
The bomb that transformed the Steve Cohen administration’s good times into a Wilpon-style freefall came Monday night. The ESPN story, which protected the foreign correspondent’s anonymity, detailed a period when Porter was the professional scouting director of Cubs in 2016, when he unleashed a flood of texts about the reporter, who was new to the United States and covered the MLB. The flow of texts that lasted for months included attempts to meet outside the stadium and pictures of a man wearing trousers with a bulge in the groin area and also a naked, erect penis.
ESPN presented screenshots of some of the more than 60 texts and photos that had an unforgiving tone. Porter did not respond to a request for comment from The Post. In ESPN history, he initially said he never sent photos, but when he was told that there were selfies, he told ESPN: “The most explicit ones are not mine. They are like pictures of jokes. “
In part of his statement, Mets team president Sandy Alderson said: “I spoke directly with Jared Porter about the events that took place in 2016, of which we were informed this evening for the first time. Jared acknowledged to me his serious error of judgment, took responsibility for his conduct, expressed remorse and has already apologized for his actions. ”
Alderson concluded: “We will follow up as we review the facts related to this serious problem.”
But there is really not much to do here. If Porter told Alderson that these were in fact his texts and photos, he can no longer be the general manager of Mets.
Beltran was dismissed from his coaching role almost exactly a year ago, just days after being the only player named in the commissioner’s report on the illegal plate theft by Astros. The Mets decided that it was unsustainable to continue with a manager who assumed that he would be overwhelmed all year with questions about, among other things, his integrity.
So, how can Mets proceed with Porter if these claims are true? Not this time. Not for this organization. Not if you read the text messages.
It can be said that this is a new regime, not the one that led last year during the Beltran disaster.
But this new regime is run by Cohen, who faced his own “Me too” accusations at his company Point72 Asset Management; allegations that were part of the concern of some owners to approve the purchase of Mets by Cohen, which ended up being approved.
Cohen hired Alderson, in part, because of Alderson’s excellent reputation for righteousness. He would be the guy who would help clean up Cohen’s image. Except that now Alderson’s first major hiring made it look like the owner had changed, but Mets didn’t. They were unable to find anyone to take over as president of baseball operations, despite the promise of all Cohen’s dollars to change the franchise. So the Mets decided to hire just one GM and, after a search, Alderson landed at Porter, 41, on December 13.
We have to assume that Mets asked Porter if there was anything in his past that could cause problems or embarrassment. Alderson said in his statement that Mets learned of these alleged violations on Monday. So we can assume that Porter told Mets that nothing was wrong. But Porter knew that his behavior towards the woman (who left journalism) was wrong because the texts show attempts to apologize.
Should the Mets know this by examining Porter? This is difficult to attribute to them. Porter left the Cubs after the 2016 championship to become the Diamondbacks deputy general manager and it didn’t happen there. Porter had been interviewed for a myriad of positions at GM, ending up as runner-up to Angels’ position before finally landing at Mets. He had a good reputation in the sport for being sociable, hardworking and fanatical when it came to accumulating information about players.
But the Mets know what lies ahead now. If Porter told them, yes, these are my texts and, yes, I sent these photos, then how does an organization that wants to shout that it is a new day retain it?
Cohen insisted that integrity will be central to the Mets’ business on his property. These cannot be just words now designed to clean up an image. He faces the first property crisis that for almost three months has fluctuated in Cohen’s willingness to spend money on players and participate in carefree pranks via Twitter.
But this problem cannot be dismissed or dismissed with a smart tweet. No, if these claims detailed in ESPN history are true, then Cohen and Alderson have only one choice.