If Carlos Beltran were to choose to steal signs last season, Jared Porter would have to go now if the facts of ESPN’s history are true and the new GM of Mets in 2016 sent a shower of non-text messages requested with obscure nuances to a journalist.
Beltran committed a baseball offense and never reached his first Opening Day as a coach. This would be a crime against decency, power dynamics, and common sense on the part of someone who would exercise far more organizational power than Beltran would have.
The bomb that turned the Steve Cohen administration’s momentum into a free fall from Wilpon arrived Monday night. ESPN’s story, which protected the foreign correspondent’s anonymity, detailed a period in which Porter was Cubs’ professional Scouting Director in 2016 when he unleashed a barrage of texts on the reporter, which was so new to the States United as MLB. . The flow of texts that lasted months included attempts to get away from the stadium and images of a man wearing pants with a bulge in the groin area and also an erect, naked penis.
ESPN featured screenshots of some sixty-sixty texts and images that had a relentless tone. Porter did not respond to any requests for comment from The Post. In ESPN’s story, he initially said he never sent photos, but when he was told there were also selfies, he told ESPN, “The most explicit ones are not from me. They are joke-like images.
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 that we learned about tonight for the first time. “Jared has acknowledged my serious misconduct, taken responsibility for his conduct, expressed remorse and apologized for his actions.”
Alderson concluded, “We will follow up as we review the facts regarding this serious issue.”
But there really can’t be much to do here. If Porter told Alderson that those were indeed his texts and images, then he will no longer be able to be the general manager of Mets.
Beltran was fired as manager almost exactly a year ago, just days after he was the only player named in the commissioner’s report on the illegal theft of Astros signs. The Mets decided it was unsustainable to continue with a manager who they assumed would be overwhelmed all year by questions about, among other things, his integrity.
So how can the Mets move forward with Porter if these allegations turn out to be true? Not right now. Not for this organization. Not if you read text messages.
It can be said that this is a new regime, not the one that was commissioned last year during the Beltran debacle.
But this new regime is led by Cohen, who has faced his own “Me too” complaints to his Point72 Asset Management company; accusations that were part of some homeowners ’concern in approving the Mets’ purchase by Cohen, which eventually happened.
Cohen hired Alderson, in part, because of Alderson’s stellar reputation for righteousness. He was going to be the guy who helped clean up Cohen’s image. Except now, Alderson’s first major contract has made him feel like the owner has changed, but the Mets haven’t. They couldn’t find anyone to hold the position of president of baseball operations despite the promise of all of Cohen’s dollars to change the tenor of the franchise. So the Mets opted to hire just one GM, and after a search, Alderson landed 41-year-old Porter on Dec. 13.
We have to assume that the Mets asked Porter if there was anything in his past that could cause trouble or embarrassment. Alderson said in his statement that the Mets learned of these alleged transgressions Monday. So we can assume that Porter had told the Mets that nothing was going well. But Porter knew that his behavior with the woman (who has left journalism) was wrong because the texts show attempts to apologize.
Should the Mets have known this through Porter’s review? This is hard to fix. Porter left the Cubs after his 2016 championship to become Diamondbacks ’deputy general manager and that didn’t get this far. Porter had been interviewed for a myriad of GM positions, finishing as runner-up for the Angels’ place before finally landing with the Mets. He had a good reputation in the sport for being a convivial, hardworking and fanatical when it came to getting information about players.
But the Mets know what’s in front of them now. If Porter told them, yes, these are my texts and, yes, I sent them these images, how does an organization that wants to call it a new day hold it?
Cohen has insisted that integrity will be key to Mets ’business on his property. They can’t just be words designed now to clean up an image. He faces the first crisis of a property that for nearly three months has floated in goodwill over Cohen’s willingness to spend money on players and engage in hilarious jokes via Twitter.
But this number cannot be spent or ruled out with an ingenious tweet. No, if these detailed statements in ESPN’s history are true, then Cohen and Alderson have only one option.