Jared Porter, the new general manager of the New York Mets, sent lewd and explicit text messages to a female in 2016, including a picture of an erect penis, according to a report by ESPN’s Jeff Passan and Mina Kimes.
At the time, Porter was working as the director of professional scouting for the Chicago Cubs when he entered a texting relationship with a foreign correspondent who had recently moved to the United States to cover Major League Baseball.
The woman reportedly ignored more than 60 messages from Porter before he sent the final lewd photo. Porter constantly badgered the reporter, asking her to meet up with him in different cities and why she was ignoring him.
On Aug. 11, 2016, Porter sent 17 photos to the woman after asking her to meet up with him in Los Angeles. The first 15 were of his hotel and his surroundings, the 16th was of a bulge in his pants, and the 17th was of a penis.
When asked by ESPN about the exchanges, Porter acknowledged that it happened but denied sending any lewd photos.
“The more explicit ones are not of me,” he said. “Those are like, kinda like joke-stock images.”
ESPN had originally obtained the text-message conversation in 2017, but the woman did not want the story to be run for the fear that her career would be impacted. She agreed to let the story run on Monday night as long as she remained anonymous; this after she left her career in journalism.
“My number one motivation is I want to prevent this from happening to someone else,” she told ESPN through an interpreter. “Obviously he’s in a much greater position of power. I want to prevent that from happening again. The other thing is I never really got the notion that he was truly sorry.
“I know in the U.S. there is a women’s empowerment movement. But in [my home country], it’s still far behind. Women get dragged through the mud if your name is associated with any type of sexual scandal. Women are the ones who get fingers pointed at them. I don’t want to go through the victimization process again. I don’t want other people to blame me.”
Porter was hired on Dec. 13 to work under new owner Steve Cohen and team president Sandy Alderson is married to the daughter of Brian Burke, the president of hockey operations for the NHL’s Calgary Flames.
Upon the news, Alderson released the following statement:
“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. “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.”
