In his first public comments since he was fired by the Mets, Jared Porter acknowledged sending the inappropriate messages that cost him his job, said he holds no ill-will toward the team and tried to paint a picture of a changed man.
Porter was hired as general manager in December 2020 and lasted 37 days in the role.
In January 2021, ESPN reported he had sent lewd text messages — as well as a string of 62 unanswered texts — to a female journalist in 2016.
Steve Cohen and Sandy Alderson fired Porter, who had not spoken publicly since.
“I put myself in that situation,” Porter said on the “Baseball Isn’t Boring” podcast. “I made the decision to send the text messages that I sent, and I certainly shouldn’t have done it.”
Porter called his relationship with the reporter “not appropriate” for “a lot of reasons.”
The messages, which included an erect penis, were sent while Porter was with the Cubs.
He rose through the industry, becoming an assistant general manager with the Diamondbacks before getting poached by the Mets, while the woman — a foreign correspondent who had moved to the United States to cover Major League Baseball — left journalism amid the harassment and returned to her home country.
Porter, who has apologized to the woman, understood the Mets’ quick decision to fire him.
“They had to make the best reason for the New York Mets when that article came out,” Porter said. “I hold zero ill-will towards 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.”
After he was fired, Porter said he sought help at a mental-health facility in Arizona for “about a week.”
He cited a lack of boundaries and “huge emotional walls” that required professional attention.
“I literally went from trading for Francisco Lindor a few weeks earlier to being at an in-patient, mental health institute where I wasn’t allowed to have sholaces in my shoes until I was deemed not to be a suicide threat,” Porter said.
He transferred to an outpatient center for five days a week for eight weeks. He said he still sees a therapist, and he his wife have attended mental-healthness retreats.
Porter, who was hired during the throes of COVID-19, said he still has not met Cohen in person and never saw his office at Citi Field.
“I’m really grateful for all of it,” Porter said of the scandal. “It led me down a path of growth. … I do think it took a major incident like this to wake me up.”
