If Carlos Beltran had to go after last season’s sign, then Jared Porter must now go if the facts in ESPN’s story are true and the new Mets GM in 2016 a barrage of unsolicited text messages with a disgusting sent to a female reporter.
Beltran committed a baseball crime and never made it to his first opening day as manager. It would be a violation of decency, power dynamics and common sense by someone who would exercise far more organizational power than Beltran would have.
The bomb that turned the sentiment of the Steve Cohen government into a Wilpon-free fall came late Monday night. The ESPN story, which protected the anonymity of the foreign correspondent, outlined a period when Porter was the Cubs director of professional exploration in 2016, in which he unleashed a barrage of texts on the reporter. . The stream of texts that lasted for months includes attempts to get away from the ball and photos of a man wearing pants with a bump in his groin area and also a naked, erect penis.
ESPN presented screenshots of some of the 60 texts and pictures with a relentless tone. Porter did not respond to a request from The Post for comment. In the ESPN story, he initially said he never sent photos, but when he told me there were selfies too, he told ESPN: ‘The more explicit ones are not mine. It’s like images of jokes. ‘
In a statement, Sandy Alderson, president of the Mets team, said: ‘I spoke directly with Jared Porter about events that took place in 2016 that we were made aware of for the first time tonight. Jared admitted to me his serious misjudgment, accepted responsibility for his behavior, expressed remorse, and previously apologized for his actions. ”
Alderson concluded: “We will follow up as we review the facts on this serious matter.”
But here really can not be much. If Porter had told Alderson that these were indeed his texts and photos, he could no longer be the general manager of Mets.
Beltran was fired as manager almost exactly a year ago, a few days after he was the only player mentioned in the Commissioner’s report on the illegal stealing of the Astros. The Mets decided it was untenable to continue with a driver who they said would be overwhelmed all year by questions about, among other things, his integrity.
How then can the Mets continue with Porter if these allegations are true? Not at this time. Not for this organization. Not if you read the text messages.
You could say it is a new regime, not the government that was in power during the Beltran debacle last year.
But this new regime is run by Cohen, who has faced his own “Me Too” accusations at his Point72 Asset Management company; allegations raised by some owners about approving Cohen’s purchase of the Mets, which eventually went through.
Cohen hired Alderson in part because of Alderson’s excellent reputation for fairness. He would be the man who helped clear Cohen’s image. Except now, the first major lease from Alderson made it feel like the owner had changed, but the Mets did not. They could not find anyone to accept the president of baseball operations, despite the promise of all of Cohen’s dollars to change the concept of the franchise. The Mets therefore insisted on hiring only a GM and after a search, Alderson landed on Porter (41) on December 13th.
We have to assume that the Mets asked Porter if there was anything in his past that would cause problems or embarrassment. Alderson said in his statement that the Mets learned of these alleged violations on Monday. We can therefore assume that Porter told the Mets that nothing was wrong. But Porter knew his behavior with the woman (who had left journalism) was wrong because the texts offered apologies.
Should the Mets have known about this by judging Porter? It’s hard to pin them down. Porter left the Cubs after their 2016 championship to become the Diamondbacks assistant general manager, and it didn’t get there. Porter was interviewed for a myriad of GM positions and was the runner-up of the English post before finally landing with the Mets. He had a good reputation in the sport because he was jovial, a hard worker and a fanatic about obtaining information about players.
But the Mets know what they have in front of them now. If Porter told them, yes, these are my texts and, yes, I sent those photos, how does an organization that wants to shout that it’s a new day retain?
Cohen maintained integrity in his ownership would be central to Mets business. It can not just be words that are now designed to clear an image. He is confronted with the first crisis of ownership that has been going on for almost three months on the benevolence of Cohen’s willingness to spend money on players and have a light-hearted mockery via Twitter.
But this issue can not be taken away or dismissed with a witty tweet. No, if these allegations outlined in the ESPN story are true, Cohen and Alderson have only one choice.