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The New York Mets have fired general manager Jared Porter on Tuesday morning following an ESPN report on Monday evening that he “sent explicit, unsolicited texts and images to a female reporter in 2016.” New owner Steven Cohen announced the news on Twitter.
We have terminated Jared Porter this morning . In my initial press conference I spoke about the importance of integrity and I meant it.There should be zero tolerance for this type of behavior.
— Steven Cohen (@StevenACohen2) January 19, 2021
ESPN obtained the messages in December 2017. The network reached out to the woman and interviewed her, but did not report at the time after the woman decided her career would be harmed if the story came out. ESPN acknowledged keeping in touch with the woman who decided recently to offer this information anonymously.
Porter acknowledged to ESPN on Monday that he sent texts to the woman, but at first said he had not sent pictures of himself. ESPN pointed out the selfies and other images and Porter claimed, “the more explicit ones are not of me. Those are like, kinda like joke-stock images.” He later declined further comment before ESPN ran the story.
The texting came during Porter’s time as the Chicago Cubs director of professional scouting. Porter entered Major League Baseball with the Boston Red Sox moving up to that director role under Theo Epstein. Porter joined Epstein in the same role in Chicago before becoming assistant general manager with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Porter joined the Mets as general manager on December 13th after Cohen purchased the Mets this past September.