Jared Porter acknowledged he sent an inappropriate text message to a reporter while he was a Chicago Cubs executive in 2016, which led to the New York Mets firing him as general manager in 2021 after just 38 days.
Porter made his first public comments on his firing during an episode of the “Baseball Isn’t Boring” podcast released Friday.
Porter was hired by the Mets from the Arizona Diamondbacks on Dec. 13, 2020, and fired on Jan. 19, 2021, about nine hours after an ESPN report detailing that he sent sexually explicit, uninvited text messages and images to a female reporter.
"It was an inappropriate relationship for a lot of reasons, you know, both for me personally and also, of course, with the reporter,” Porter said. “So I want to be very accountable about that as I talk through it. But, yeah, when the article first came out, you know, it’s crazy, just a tremendous amount of fear, you know, shame. You know, there's some people I reached out to.
"Obviously, I talked with my wife, my family, you know, and my co-workers at the time at the Mets about the situation but, yeah, it was obviously a really tough moment but, you know, I — like I said, like being accountable, like I put myself in that situation. You know, I made the decision to send the text message that I sent and I certainly shouldn’t have done it.”
Porter said because his hiring occurred during the coronavirus pandemic, he never met with Mets owner Steve Cohen and never visited his office at Citi Field.
Porter understood why Cohen and team president Sandy Alderson fired him.
“Look, I was really enjoying my time at the Mets, working with Sandy and Steve and the group they'd put together. You know, they gave me the opportunity to be a general manager, which was an incredible opportunity," he said.
“And look, they had to make the best decision for the New York Mets when the article came out, and I knew they would. You know, 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.”
Porter said he received a text message from Diamondbacks managing general partner Ken Kendrick that led him to the head of the team's employee assistance program. That person directed Porter to The Meadows, a center in Arizona for treatment of addiction and emotional trauma. Porter spent about a week there.
“I literally went from, you know, trading for Francisco Lindor a few weeks earlier to being at an inpatient mental health institute where I wasn't allowed to have shoelaces in my shoes until I was deemed not to be a suicide threat,” Porter said. “So it was — it was was real. It was hitting me hard.”
Porter then did outpatient treatment at The Meadows facility in Scottsdale for five days a week over eight or nine weeks.
“I had huge emotional walls. You know, I think I lacked some boundaries,” he said.
Porter, who turned 45 on Tuesday, was suspended by Major League Baseball through the 2022 season. Porter said he helped start a company named Blend that works with youth, college and professional athletes on mental health skills.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB
The Associated Press
