In Jared Porter’s first public comments since being fired as New York Mets general manager nearly four years ago, he called his actions inappropriate and said the organization made the best decision.
In January 2021, the Mets fired Porter within nine hours of an ESPN report that revealed he had sent dozens of inappropriate text messages to a female journalist.
“It was an inappropriate relationship for a lot of reasons,” Porter said while appearing on the podcast “Baseball Isn’t Boring.”
“I put myself in that situation,” he continued. “I made the decision to send the text message that I sent. And I certainly shouldn’t have done it.”
Porter sent the texts to a journalist in 2016, when he worked for the Chicago Cubs. According to ESPN’s initial report, after a brief exchange, the texts from Porter included lewd and explicit photos even as they went unanswered for weeks. In total, Porter sent 62 messages between answers over three weeks before the journalist requested him to stop. She ultimately left journalism, in part because of the harassment.
After he was fired, Porter said he went to an inpatient center in a behavioral healthcare facility in Arizona called The Meadows for a week. He then transferred to an outpatient center and went there five days a week for eight weeks. He said he lacked awareness and didn’t have boundaries. Porter said, “It took a major incident like this to kind of wake me up.” Porter said that he still sees a therapist and has attended mental wellness retreat centers with his wife.
Porter’s tenure with the Mets lasted just 37 days. With so much business conducted over video calls due to the COVID-19 pandemic at the time, Porter said he never saw his office at Citi Field or even met Mets owner Steve Cohen in person.
“They had to make the best decision for the New York Mets when the article came out, and I knew they would,” Porter said. “I hold zero ill will toward them whatsoever. I do think they made the best decision for the Mets. It’s unfortunate that I put myself and put them in that situation.”
(Photo: Rob Schumacher / USA Today)