Jared Porter is the new GM of the Mets and you can say that Mets fans are excited. Even those around the baseball world are excited, too. We here at MMO share in this feeling, and naturally needed to exclaim it to you all, too!
Excitement is contagious (just like winning is, cough cough).
I’m a big fan of the Porter hire. Given how limited the options were starting to look at the beginning of the month, the Mets are definitely emerging victorious having hired somebody who has worked in not only two successful front offices, but also a third, analytically driven one in Arizona. He’ll certainly bring expertise having worked alongside someone as bright as Mike Hazen, but I’d also look forward to seeing who Porter decides to bring aboard as part of his own front office staff. Things are moving in a very smart direction here, for sure.
It would be a lie to say that I knew much about Jared Porter other than his job title with the Diamondbacks before he was announced as the Mets new general manager. But after learning more about his baseball background, the more I am excited for Porter to be Sandy’s number two. He has a diverse resume stemming from scouting and development up to more recent roles in the front office for the Red Sox (where he won three World Series working under Theo Epstein) and Dbacks. Success is never guaranteed, but it seems as though the Mets are finally getting a championship-level infrastructure in place.
Porter is a terrific hire. I’m a little shaken still from the Brodie Van Wagenen hire but Porter is the exact opposite. He’s been apart of some of the best front offices in baseball and has widely been seen as one of the best development mind in baseball. Porter is also very well versed in analytics judging by his interviews with MLBTR and his interview with The Athletic. He’s going to be a phenomenal GM and I will admit that I was skeptical about the Mets chances to find a Porter-type guy for the FO but this is an outstanding hire.
Sandy Alderson should find someone like Zack Scott to build the Analytics Department to work with Porter’s scouting expertise. Not for nothing, but Porter seemed ticketed for Chicago. He had worked with Hoyer before and with the Cubs as well. Instead, Cohen and Sandy managed to get him to commit to New York. Does this happen if the Wilpons are still in charge? Probably not. It’s a good sign that times are changing.
I love the choice. Let’s face it. Hiring anyone who possessed a scintilla of background preparatory to becoming a big-league general manager would’ve been progress for this organization over what they had before. Admittedly, like most of us, I didn’t know much, if anything, on Jared Porter.
But from everything I’ve read and heard recently regarding his background — which includes many years working closely with Theo Epstein — as well as the universal praise and respect he’s garnered throughout baseball — especially from those within the Arizona Diamondbacks organization — I’m completely sold. We got ourselves a good one.
It’s nice — actually, it’s really nice — to have someone as a GM who was working as an Assistant GM for the past four years. Porter worked his way up through the system. He’s seen everything, dealt with good and bad, and knows what works. His experience (which includes scouting) alone brings a lot to the table, and is the kind of background you want in a GM.
