Mets Do the Right Thing and Fire Jared Porter

The Mets acted decisively Tuesday morning when they fired their recently installed general manager Jared Porter, just hours after the story broke that he sent inappropriate texts and photos to a female reporter. Firing him was obviously the right thing to do (even the Wilpons would have done it!), but the fact that the Mets acted so quickly was a refreshing change.

In the past, faced with these types of crises, the Mets would waver, spending a few days deliberating what should have been an easy decision. How long was Carlos Beltran kept twisting in the wind? But no, Steve Cohen was on Twitter announcing his decision while most of us were still having our morning coffee (not me — I’m not a coffee guy. Plus, I like to sleep in when my toddler allows.):

We have terminated Jared Porter this morning . In my initial press conference I spoke about the importance of integrity and I meant it.There should be zero tolerance for this type of behavior.

There has been criticism about the Mets vetting process, now that they have had to fire a crucial new employee each of the past two off-seasons. I don’t think the Mets can get any blame for this one. No one knew about this (save for the woman, a Cubs confidante and a couple of ESPN reporters), so even the most thorough investigation would not likely have turned this up. Porter was almost certainly asked, “Are there any skeletons in your closet) during the interview process, and he simply lied. You can’t blame the Mets for that.

It is still an embarrassment for the team, the latest in a series of such episodes. More incidents might still continue to occur, but we can rest assure the Mets now have an owner who will not tolerate any nonsense.