New York Mets team president Sandy Alderson and newly-hired general manager Jared Porter met with the team’s press corps via Zoom on Monday afternoon, giving a peek into the process that went into hiring and what’s to be expected.
Alderson opened with glowing remarks regarding the addition of Porter.
“Jared came extremely well-recommended from a variety of different sources. Through our interviews, those recommendations were borne out,” Alderson said. “Jared has, in my mind, a vision that is very closely aligned to mine and to that of [Mets owner and CEO] Steve Cohen, in a variety of different ways.”
Earlier this offseason, Cohen and Alderson chose to abort their search for a president of baseball operations, instead choosing to focus on hiring a general manager who they could groom into a future head of baseball operations-type executive.
With a well-defined, championship-pedigree background, as well as an affinity for appreciating all aspects of player evaluation, Porter seems to fit that bill to a tee.
“Jared has a very deep familiarity with the game across departments, from player development to scouting to analytics,” Alderson said. “[He] really has a wide-ranging level of experience.”
Porter expressed graciousness and thanks in his opening remarks, thanking Cohen and Alderson, as well as his former colleagues in Arizona, “for allowing me to pursue this opportunity and for giving me the chance to put myself in the position to be considered for this opportunity”.
Porter went on to lay out his vision for the Mets and share some of his motivations heading into a new position in “the greatest city in the world”.
“There’s a strong core of players, a good blend of youth and experience, of course, anchored by one of the best starting pitchers in the league in Jacob deGrom,” Porter said. “Overall, I’m excited to get to work with Sandy, with [manager Luis Rojas] and his staff, the rest of the baseball operations staff as we look to build a collaborative and sustainable baseball operation and culture. Ultimately, that will be reflected by a strong performance on the field.”
Porter has his work cut out for him this offseason, taking frying-pan-into-the-fire to an entirely new level, and Alderson appeared more than confident passing along the bulk of day-to-day responsibilities to his new hire.
“Personality-wise, Jared is very well-respected across baseball. Not just respected but well-liked, as well. Being well-liked goes a long way toward being successful in this business.”
“He really has the vision we want to execute on and how we execute on it is a function of those personal qualities — communication, collaboration, inclusiveness — so I think that from a personality standpoint, as well as a competency standpoint, Jared has tremendous room to grow and I’m very confident that he has the potential to lead this organization over a period of years.”
We’ll keep you posted as new information breaks throughout the winter.
