Mets General Manager Jared Porter sent over 60 unsolicited text messages, including one of a naked penis, to a female baseball reporter in 2016, ESPN reported Monday night.
The Mets, in a statement by Sandy Alderson, the team’s president, announced they would review the matter. The Chicago Cubs, who were Porter’s employers at the time of the incident, said they will investigate the issue as well.
Porter and the woman met just once, when he was the director of professional scouting for the Cubs, and the two exchanged business cards. The woman, who was not named in the report, told ESPN that she believed she was beginning a standard reporter-source relationship with Porter, but that Porter’s tone quickly became unprofessional. Her attempts to ignore the messages did not discourage Porter, and multiple messages included images that were sexual in nature.
The messages, which ESPN obtained in 2017 but did not report at the time because the woman feared reprisal from Porter, only stopped when the woman, who is not from the United States and does not speak English fluently, showed them to an interpreter and a player from her country, according to ESPN. They helped her write a response to Porter: “This is extremely inappropriate, very offensive, and getting out of line. Could you please stop sending offensive photos or msg.”
After a few messages of apology, Porter stopped texting the woman.
“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,” Alderson said in a statement. “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.”
A Mets spokesman did not respond to additional questions about whether Porter wished to comment. He spoke briefly to ESPN Monday night, telling the outlet the explicit photographs were not of him, but were “kinda like joke-stock images.” He declined further comment.
Porter was hired by the Mets just last month, charged with rebuilding a team that has made the playoffs just twice in the past decade, but has a new big-spending owner in Steven Cohen. Porter was hired away from the Arizona Diamondbacks, where he was the assistant general manager. He had previous stints with the Cubs and the Boston Red Sox.