New York Mets owner Steven Cohen announced the team has fired general manager Jared Porter after it was reported he sent graphic, uninvited text messages and images to a female reporter in 2016.
ESPN reported Monday that Porter sent dozens of unanswered texts to the woman while working for the Chicago Cubs in 2016, including a picture of “an erect, naked penis,” according to the report. ESPN said it obtained a copy of the text history.
New York hired the 41-year-old Porter last month. He agreed to a four-year contract after spending the past four seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks as senior vice-president and assistant general manager.
The woman was not identified in the report. ESPN said she recently chose to come forward only on condition of anonymity because she is afraid of backlash in her home country.
ESPN said the woman was a foreign correspondent who had moved to the United States to cover Major League Baseball. She met Porter in a Yankee Stadium elevator in June 2016, and she said they spoke briefly about international baseball and exchanged business cards. She told ESPN that was the only time they ever spoke.
After he sent her a lewd picture, the woman ignored more than 60 messages from Porter before he sent the last vulgar photo, according to ESPN. The woman told ESPN she intentionally tried to avoid him at a couple of big league ballparks and the texts from Porter ultimately contributed to her decision to leave the journalism industry and return to her home country.
Porter texted apologies to the woman in 2016 after she saw the naked picture and wrote to him that his messages were “extremely inappropriate, very offensive, and getting out of line,” ESPN reported.
files from AP MLB: AP Sports